i would have thought that to have a full stadium they'd be better off playing them all on one day like a one day magic weekend.

A tournament would be better, how much interest are the players and fans gonna have if they can't win the overall titlte?

Am I interested in paying to go if my team aren't playing for the overall prize? no

selection should be a no brainer, both grand finalists and the team highest placed in the league that didn't make it to old trafford, none of this challenge cup winners business.

I suppose if it's a good money spinner though it make the "hubcap" more of a target.

The 3rd is not a silly variation on your proposal, your proposal was totally idiotic as the way you put it the 3rd place league team could well end up playing 2 games over 3 days or even more demanding a game on consecutive days.

With regards the other 2/3rds se you in court

The 3v3 and 2v2 games are basically glorified pre-season friendlies against NRL teams. I'd imagine there would still be a bit of interest over here, as fans would still like to see their team play an NRL side, whether it's for a trophy or not. I think the CC winners should get one of the places, it adds an extra incentive to it, same with the LLS.

I've said many times on here I'd love to see a full extended, 8 team tournament, and this may well be testing the waters for something like that in the future.

The problem there is that I think only 3 or 4 teams in SL could compete with NRL teams in a one off game. Get more teams upto the standard, then we can think about extending the competition.

This isn't a general criticism of the game over here or the RFL as I think we're going in the right direction with more English players playing in the NRL and our comp than we've had in the past....but I think it's the wrong time to do this, SL is actually further behind the NRL than it was a few years back, they have more money and more stars and we have far less stars, particularly the top Aussie players. They'll kill us in the halves and three-quarters and I don't see the likes of Wigan / Leeds / Saints getting near the top 3 NRL teams in the near future.

I wouldn't mind just 3 games played in one ground in one day or weekend. Best of 3 (like state of origin) Grand finalists and the other highest placed team of the regular league.

I remember the 'tournament' where teams from both hemispheres were thrown together. Seem to remember it was played partly in the UK and partly in OZ. I was only young at the time and can't remember the ins and outs but do remember that some of the UK teams got a right pasting.

Can anybody remember it from a different perspective?

Would it be worth having a look at something like this again?

The answer to your 2 questions are NO.

Quote: BlackCape "I remember the 'tournament' where teams from both hemispheres were thrown together. Seem to remember it was played partly in the UK and partly in OZ. I was only young at the time and can't remember the ins and outs but do remember that some of the UK teams got a right pasting. Can anybody remember it from a different perspective? Would it be worth having a look at something like this again?'" www.rugbyleagueproject.org/compe ... mmary.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Worl ... ampionship We should definitely do it again.

Quote: BlackCape "I remember the 'tournament' where teams from both hemispheres were thrown together. Seem to remember it was played partly in the UK and partly in OZ. I was only young at the time and can't remember the ins and outs but do remember that some of the UK teams got a right pasting. Can anybody remember it from a different perspective? Would it be worth having a look at something like this again?'" www.rugbyleagueproject.org/compe ... mmary.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Worl ... ampionship We should definitely do it again.

Just think, it could have been worse.
Most people agree that the ARL loyal teams were stronger than the breakaway teams that went to the Super League fiasco in Australia.

When was the last time we beat the Aussie national team? Just because we might not win doesn't mean that we shouldn't do it. The top 6 of SL would be competitive against NRL teams, particularly if it was played over here. 1997 was a disaster for English RL, but there's no reason nearly 2 decades later we shouldn't try something similar. A simple 5/6 week tournament in one country as opposed to the drawn out competition played in both hemispheres we got then would be better.

As a sport our strength is the club game, and we need a platform where this can be highlighted. Too many people think that we should just follow the RU format and push the international game, but that won't work as long as we've only got 3 competitive teams.

double post

My preferred format would be to keep it as an annual SL Champions V NRL Champions game, played 2 weeks after GF weekend, alternating hemispheres (it could be done so that it is in the same hemisphere as that year's international tournament, then the players involved join up with their country after the WCC). Then as part of a 4/5 year cycle, an expanded 8 team WCC is played in the October/November slot instead of the 4 Nations.

The Clubs have their off season trip away after their Grand Final and the players get some much needed time off for surgery, recuperation and family time.
The Test matches only involve 20 or so players per country not 80 players as you are suggesting, the players Union in Australia would never agree to it.

Both competitions need to shorten their seasons but I can not see it happening