Personally, those clubs need to realise that opportunities to make money don't just exist on 13 weekends in the summer. The game has bigger opportunities to exploit.

The World Cup showed me just how much I enjoyed elite international rugby. The England v NZ semi final, infront of £60k at Wembley was an amazing event. I want to pay good money for more of that.

Unfortunately, I'm not allowed. Because some clubs insist on making people watch more of Wakefield v London or Salford v Castleford instead, arguably at the expense of a proper, quality rep calendar.

It's completely backwards.

Although I understand what you are saying, we only have 3 international teams that significant numbers of supporters would pay to go and see.
What sort of international programme do you want ?

They could of course extend the WCC to incorporate the top 2,3 or 4 clubs from England and Aus and people would pay to see this, but, we would need the Aussies on board and this would widen the gap still further between the top 4 and the rest.

Unless the top 10 in SL want to play each other 3 times a season (plus cup games & play offs) we can only tinker with the format.

Just going back to "The Big Hit", the first game was utterly superb but, equally, the second game was awful and was played in front of an empty stadium.

The only solution long term is to help the French develop into a competitive RL nation.

So if SL alone shortens its regular season, the international game will be saved? Cool, lets all sign up.

Agreed. I think a regular international calendar would be hugely beneficial to the game. A 12 team SL gives us an opportunity to work towards that. The window of opportunity to benefit from the WC isn't infinite, and we should make changes now to benefit hte international game. It also means that Sky money is divided amonst fewer teams at the top, so this could cover the loss of income from playing less games.

Doesn't the England V Exiles concept satisfy your craving for elite 'international' rugby league?

It's one part of a big picture, but it's a big part.

At the moment we have a busy schedule, elite players playing a lot of games and clubs reluctant to release players (or expecting them to "back up" on international weeks).

By reducing the number domestic fixtures there is room to introduce more representative fixtures that actually capture the imagination.

A lot of the RLWC fixtures weren't that great, but many were gripping. Quite like SL really.

Maybe you're bored of the domestic game cos you support the Rhinos. A Rovers season is always a rollercoaster ride of results and emotions.

Considering this thread seems to have been completely derailed, is there any actual news from the meeting yet, and which site will carry the official announcement first?

That fact would not be enough to stop the frenzied brain farthing that takes place on this site...

I'll argue with anyone that, when it is played at it's best, this game is the best in the world. As well as the England v NZ semi, the Leeds v Wigan match at the Magic Weekend (amongst others, obviously) really showcased the sport at its best.

What I, and I suspect a lot of people are bored of, is the worryingly high number of blowouts that come from teams not being able to compete at a sufficiently high level, either due to bad management, player fatigue or a talent pool that is spread too thinly.

Anyway, back to the meeting....

Cant help but feel that a long break mid season would stop a lot of the fatigue and would keep the playing standards high. shorten the off season and allow a month break mid season. Cant help but feel this will increase the product and decrease players picking up injuries.

dont cut the number of games, cut the number the players play. If the season goes to 29 + play-offs, plus WCC, plus Challenge cup. Just limit the players to playing a maximum of say 25 games per year each.

then it would become all about strategy and I'm not sure how the players would receive a rest if they miss one game a month for 4 months.

have a 4 nations or tri-nations 1 year and no challenge cup that season and switch alternate years with a break in the middle of the season. Players would be able to rest niggling injuries clubs with small squads would benefit massively and playing standards shouldn't deteriorate as they do because they get adequate rest every year. Also we wouldn't get bored of the same system challenge cup would become more popular as you could only win it every 2 years.

But that would be part of it wouldn’t it, Some may choose to rest a player one game a month for 4 months, some might choose to rest all their big names for a week or two or a month in succession, some alternate. It would become another facet of the game. Another tactic of the season. If you were a lesser squad that season do you rest your players against the bigger sides and go all out against the other lower sides, or would you play your best squad against the bigger sides who may rest theirs against you.

....or they preferred PG Tips to Ty-Phoo?

LOL

Great Britain Vs Australia does.