An interesting article from Scotland this morning about the possibility of a RL 6 Nations. Although lacking in details, this is something the sport really needs www.heraldscotland.com/sport/152 ... ish_Lions/

An interesting article from Scotland this morning about the possibility of a RL 6 Nations. Although lacking in details, this is something the sport really needs www.heraldscotland.com/sport/152 ... ish_Lions/

Plus an England second team ? thats Scotland right? also Dave Valentine, a Hawick lad Played for Huddersfield,
This Guy doesn,t know a right lot about RL me thinks

A non traditional paper dares print an article about RL and there's already one moron bleating about the content not being quite right. Classic.

A fair if short piece, I would be interested to know where he got his story from? Done on an economical scale it could work. I am a believer that GB should be the major international side although it would in essence be mostly English at this time. But if you make selection criteria for GB conditional on playing in the six nations then it would add more value to the non England sides. It would also be nice if the minor nations in the southern hemisphere had a similar competition. He is also right about Dave Valentine although before my time (& I am a pensioner) you could add George Fairburn & Alan Tate to the list of Scots League players. Apologies to those I have missed.

I think it means a return to what we had before.

We had GB as the main international side and then we had England, which players like Mark Calderwood played for. So GB would include the top players from all the nations, England would be something like England Knights.

Just a thought that if we did go back to GB we could start attracting top union players like the days of Davies, Devroux, Moriarty , Quinnell etc.
Would these guys have switched codes if there only option was a second string Welsh team to play for.
Every player wants to play on the biggest stages but until international rugby league gets recognised on the world sports circuit it will fail to attract new faces to the sport.
Also with reference to another thread on here regards the next international been streamed on the Internet with a cost of £3.50. Yes the die hards will pay for it but I can't see one neutral seeing the game.
If our leaders were in charge of plc company's they would have been sacked years ago because all they are is plodders and not even very good plodders at that.

Couldn't think of a worse thing to bring back than what us effectively (for most teams involved) a second string 6N dressed up as a first team competition and regularly won (by a large margin) by a complete second team.

Awful awful idea. The home nations should not be playing at the same time as Great Britain unless it is clearly labelled a second team, in which case it would be a very low-key comp anyway.
England Knights shouldn't be playing first teams either. Damages that nation's credibility and that of international rugby league.

I can see what you mean but we have got to try something when the union lot first tried it it must have taken a wile to get going so lets try something

Wellsy is correct. It is insulting to the serious rugby league nations -- France and Wales -- to have a second string England team. Play the first England team or don't play England at all.

It is no argument to say "let's try something" when that something is so flawed that the media and most rugby league fans will not take it seriously.

Dear Dave,
As an ardent RL fan, l search the Media, fot anything and everything RL, in none heatland media, often you get a jurno wanting to fill some inches in his rag, maybe he,s having a quiet day or his boss has given him something to practice on. Often the nationals like to pretend they promote RL while simply having a snidy go at us.
6 Nations, he,s having a laugh, England 2nd team? at the moment the best 25 English players play for England, yeh! the rest search the records to see if their Granny by chance had an Irish wolfhound, a Welsh terrier or a Scotty, so they can pull on the appropriate jersey. S with 2 English teams, that will narrow the player pool down somewhat yeh!
England played 5 won 5
England 2 played 5 won 4
The rest, yeh right!.

This jurno then found something re Dave Valentine, a Scot, who captained GB, he knew where he came from, but either didn,t know or couldn,t be bothered to find out who he played for. as a child i watched Dave play at Fartown, top player, and proud to have seen him.

Dear Dave,
Part Two, l am nearly 70, so much too old to know everything, but l do know slack d journelism when l see it,
Just two more things Dave, Why do you think l am a moron?, and why do you feel the need to tell the whole world?.
Over to you Dave.

When did the union lot set up a 6 Nations at the same time as a Lions Tour involving second string sides?

People wonder why international rugby league isn't growing? Look at the structure being put forward for the reasons why!

Where is anyone saying a second string competition? GB should play Australia, NZ, France. Playing in the six nations apart from the French & Italian players would be the criteria for selection to GB, only GB should tour down under. The whole idea though should be run as the union clubs are, in that they have to release players when asked & International duty takes precedence over super league. That is were the trouble starts getting todays fans to buy into, attend & pay decent ticket prices for International series.

The players that you mention all came to RL for the money, not to play International RL
The cash offered by RL, at the time, was significantly more than they could make in Union. Plus, the challenge of "proving" themselves in the other code.

Totally agree with your comments on the streaming of the game though.
IF we want to get our sport in front of the masses, it has to be on "free" TV.

Even SL, which may get a few hundred thousand viewers on Sky, is dwarfed by audiences on the BBC (when games are shown).

Did you not read the original post?



That would be great, but not practical.

You forget that in order to fill 6 international teams, you need at least 108 players. Unlike union, Europe only has one professional league to choose players from. They have three. Clubs are not going to release 8-10 players each to fill these teams. You'd need free weekends, and there just isn't enough of them currently.

Until we build our player pool and the number of professional clubs we have, it will not be possible to have a big international scene.