they are'nt gonna be called the "all stars" by the way....


they will be 'the Other nationalities'...playing in green jerseys....

Really?

I havent even read that this fixture is anything more than an idea yet.

Any links?

What about the Barbarians?

Seems to be a concept that works well in RU.

I think it could work really well. Hopefully it will be marketed properly by the RFL, and will hopefully serve as a competitive game for England.








PS: First Post, hi everybody

Get out while you still can Young Warrior. The masses on this forum will turn upon you and cast you into the pit for all eternity for talking such sense.

Meh, let them try.

Aaahh, so you think the people in charge of our game have been lulled in to a false sense of security by our beating a france 2nd string in mid-season tests----repeatedly

But never learned from their mistake when we went on to be defeated by NZ and Australia------repeatedly

But when we play a contrived out of the many overseas players (mostly average) we have in this country players who could be bothered playing 13, and dont win easily, they will suddenly be shocked out of this complacency and improve. Unless of course we do win easily in which case the same complacency will be there.

I'm in favour of the idea, hope its set up correctly though.

I'm not quite sure what you are saying - do you think an overseas select would be a tougher game for England than France? That's all it boils down to - getting as intense a game as we can for England mid-season.

i dont think it matters, I dont think Australia were the best team in the world for years and years because they played an NZ 2nd string in the ANZAC test. I dont think they are the best because of Origin. I think it is a very naive way of looking at it.

I dont think the Kiwis are better than us because their 2nd string play an ANZAC test.

The Aussie and Kiwis are better because of the fantastic youth and development structures they have, the intense competition, match preparation, training, nutrition etc, as well as their improved ability to attract the best young athletes into the game.

It is a sticking plaster on bleeding jugular. It addresses none of the deep structural problems our game has in this country and will have 0 effect on our ability to beat the Aussies.

The main problem is yet again, it is the RFL trying to be all things to all men, and ending up doing nothing for no-one. It doesnt address the problems we have, it has cost the game of rugby league a real, actual, international and isnt a pure RL 'event' which we would use to build visibility and get people involved.

Are they a better team? yes. Will it be more intense? probably not. Is there any point? it doesnt look like it.

All that may be true - so are you advocating that in the short term we don't even bother trying to better our England side's preparation and just throw the towel in and kneel before the unbeatables?

Surely given your assessment we should be grasping every possible opportunity to better prepare our national team, as they are already at such a disadvantage?