au.sports.yahoo.com/nrl/news/art ... eye-origin

au.sports.yahoo.com/nrl/news/art ... eye-origin

What has a story about Crabtree wanting to play for England got to do with Origin ?

Good question lol.All I know is that that was the heading of the article.Go to this. au.sports.yahoo.com/nrl/

Good question lol.All I know is that that was the heading of the article.Go to this. au.sports.yahoo.com/nrl/

no....england don't want origin...what they want is a series against someone to get them used to the intensity for when they come to play australia & NZ at the end of the season...

Send either Queensland or NSW over.Now that should help there cause.Or how about the mighty sea eagles?

England v 'other nationalities'* will happen next season...ideally a 2 game series with the winner decide by aggregate score..

* they have to be called 'the other nationalities' cos a) 'the barbarians' is a union concept...b) calling them 'ALLSTARS' implies all the 'stars' in SL are from down under...

the other nationalities is a RL concept...devised back in 1904 to play England...and lasted till 1975....time to revive it! cos whooping france or wales is doing bugger all.....other thanget us thinking we are better than we are..

how do we make room for a 2 game series against the other nationalities??

well we could use the date we normally play the french (maybe a double header with England 'A' play france before ENG V ON..)

then if we moved the super league clubs from entering the challenge cup @ round 4 to round 5 (the last 16 made up of 2 lower league clubs & 14 SL clubs) that would free up a date for the 2nd game in a ENGLAND V Other nationalities series...with the winner of the series decided on aggregate score ...

2 more games for the top players? Somethings gotta give.

technically its only 1 more game....instead of playing france we play ON....the 1 extra game is the return fixture

It's still one too many, we should be looking to reduce the number.

get rid of the extra super league game then

Scrap Magic Weekend and the France mid season international. England vs Other Nationalities two game series to replace them. One game in Lancashire and one in Yorkshire.
Playoffs to be reduced to the top six teams.

see.......he gets it!

How to create a RL equivalent of the barbarians.

Get a bunch of well-known ex-players to form a "club" which meets once a year for a -up/sportsmans dinner type affair. Choose a name connected with our sport's rich history. They get to invite others to join as they see fit.

That club exists to play one game a year against England (and maybe Wales, Scotland or Ireland). And to sell jerseys etc. They can choose from anyone not selected for England (or whoever they're up against).

Important thing is to keep doing it for decades.

I've always said that this concept could really fly if marketed correctly. The key is not to give up on it after 2/3 years. You have got to stick with these things! Origin had numerous critics when that concept was first thought up.

The Aussies and Kiwis would love the chance of some representative rugby as lets face it, not many of them have or ever will play for their international team.

The only thing getting in the way of this imo is that the RFL fear major embarrassment when the England team are comprehensively beaten time and again.

Trying to re-create origin just sets us up for a fall.
What we should look at it creating a Lancashire and Yorkshire team to play against touring sides like Tonga/Fiji/PNG/Samoa/NZ Maoris in order to win selection for a final England game.

week 1 - France v South Sea Touring team
week 2 - Yorkshire v South Sea Touring Team, Lancashire vs France
week 3 - Lancashire v South Sea Touring Team, Yorkshire vs France
week 4 - England (selection based on performances in buildup games) vs South Sea Touring Team

I'd definately go and watch Lancashire play at the HJ and it gives us a way to have a look at players out of their club enviroments.
I know we want to compete with the Aussies, but I'm sure we could take one year in four off those fixtures (let Austrailia and NZ have a three test series that year) to play on a more modest international scene.