It must certainly be the case though that an Indigenous v SL-Select game would be banned in this country on grounds of racism etc.

No doubt some are liable to jump in with the argument that there is no such thing as "indigenous" in the UK - well, there is no such thing [ianywhere[/i - not even Africa, since while we are all seemingly descended from one particular small population there, that population itself has roots which are unknown but very likely widespread.

But ironically, the argument that the "English" are all a mix of Angles, Saxons, Vikings etc etc is in this context totally bogus, since Australia, when "discovered", was itself a land where 500-600 different 'nations' co-existed and as far as I can see this "Indigenous" banner means only that they can trace ancestors back to one of those groups. And given the mammoth size of Australia, the geographical spread of the "Indigenous" ancestors is huge compared with the relatively tiny area of the UK, Scandinavia etc. from which your Vikimngs, Jutes etc emanated.

To dispel any suggestion to the contrary, I think if the indigenous of Aus want to do it, then it's bloody great, as it would be a decent game. What gets up my nose is that suggesting doing exactly the same thing over here would be shot down in flames, mainly by people telling those who feel themselves 'indigenous' that they are no such thing, and those who would claim anyone who wanted to represent "indigenous British" was a racist or a BNP supporter.

"If it's NRL all stars does that mean Ellis & Burgess could turn out for them?"

Ellis could play but probably Burgess couldn't because he hasn't played in the NRL yet. Only one player is allowed from each NRL team so Benjie Marshall will probably get the Tigers' spot anyway - unless Marshall gets an automatic pick as NZ captain. If you want to see Ellis in you can probably vote for him.

There is one isn't there, the Dreamtime team? They play the NZ Maoris.

This sounds a great idea. The South Africans pioneered this in RU a few decades ago, had indigenous teams and one for the settlers.

Yep. But not one that'll be allowed to play against Australia whic was the idea. Artie Beetson was going to be coach.

Nice to see 2 former bears players in that shot. Buddy Gordon and Ben Ellis.

Just to clarify, my whinge in the opening post was not that we can't have an 'Indigenous vs the Rest' game - that's clearly a legit game in Aus but utterly impossible to even attempt to stage here, and not desirable either. Rather that the Aussie game seems prepared to innovate and try new and imaginative stuff and they benefit greatly as a result. The shooting don in flames in object to is sniping at the likes of MM, and even the GF. cf this bit I posted after

I was at that game and it was awesome, far better than the Aus NZ test that followed.