I would like to see a short mid-season break and England fly out to NZ to take on the Kiwis during the Origin period.

Lancs / Yorks as a pre-cursor to that, probably in a one-off game, would be interesting if both sides were strong.

Also agree that if Eng ever took on the Exiles again, it would be best to hold it on a Sunday afternoon / bank holiday Monday and make a double / triple header with Knights v France and Wales / Ireland v Scotland or something or other. Maybe somewhere like Blackpool!

Problem with a Roses or Origin series as a Test trial is when do you play it?

If you play it too late in the season, it's going to be disrupting the Super 8s, playoffs and CC Final. Play it in the middle of the season though, and it's no indicator of what form players are going to be in come November.

Yes to the Exiles, no to not playing the European nations. The only way they will get stronger is if they are regularly given the opportunity to play the top teams and eligible players have a guarantee of test match football. International rugby is our bigest growth opportunity, but no-one cares about a friendly sreies against a contrived team.

The international calendar needs to look something like this:

-5 Nations: England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales & France. Round Robin competition played in high summer (June-July). Regular season games to happen at same time, with selected players for international teams not playing for clubs.

-Autumn Internationals: Either touring Aus / NZ or playing them here. Perhaps also a combined 'pacific islands' side. European sides to play tests against Fiji, Tonga, PNG with one test against the big nations.

e.g. England v Tonga, England v New Zealand, England v Australia.
Scotland v PNG, Scotland v Samoa, Scotland v New Zealand.

-Roses match. One-off test played at Wembley, should be early season and a first chance to stick a hand up for an England shirt. Only England-identified players eligible to play (e.g. Adam Walker plays for Scotland, so not eligible to represent Yorkshire).

-Exiles match. Could be a success if branded as 'Barbarians' - we should actively look to get BFC involved in RL. First England trial game, again early season.

So the Calendar would look something like this:

February: Season Starts
March: Yorkshire v Lancashire
May: England v Barbarians
June/July: 5 Nations
August/September: Super 8s
October: Playoffs
October/November: Autumn Internationals

N.B. Also should be noted that Michael McIlorum would be playing for Yorkshire as he's from Leeds, and Brad Singleton (along with Kyle Amor, Shaun Lunt, Lee Mossop and Ben Harrison) is from Cumbria.

Between us, meaning both fans and the RFL, we managed to kill off an otherwise interesting idea. The negativity of us fans was matched by the incompetence of the RFL. Trying to squeeze extra games into an already busy season was always going to result in cry offs and anamosity from clubs fearing the loss of players.

So under a Roses set-up, players from Cumbria, London, Milton Keynes (Sam Tomkins), anywhere there that's not Yorkshire or old Lancashire, has to sit around picking their nose?

Yep.

Tomkins was born in Milton Keynes but grew up in Wigan. Not like Mason Caton-Brown (only recently moved north from London), Sinfield (captained Leeds but born, grew up and lived in Oldham) or Singleton (moved to Leeds only after being signed up to the club's academy, born and grew up in Barrow).

Maybe there's a shout for a 'qualification period' (e.g. Darrell Griffin becoming eligible for Yorkshire after all those years at Wakefield, Huddersfield and Leeds) but saying it's Yorkshire v Lancashire will become a bit of a joke if it's basically just a 'dream team' of the sides from the county - and contrariwise, you'd have to exclude players from the counties playing at clubs outside of them.

Have also worked up a schedule for the season I proposed above that could work:

(Test Season 2016)

31/1 - Champions Kick Off
7/2 - Magic Weekend (SL R1, counted as a home game for one club, will get swapped every year)
14/2 - R2
21/2 - WCC / R3 *Whoever played Champions in opening game to sit this week out.
28/2 - R4
6/3 - CCR2 (64 teams)
13/3 - R5
20/3 - R6
27/3 - Yorks v Lancs /R7
3/4 - R8
10/4 - CCR3
17/4 - R9
24/4 - R10
1/5 - England v Barbarians / R11
8/5 - R12
15/5 - R13
22/5 - CCR4
29/5 - R14
5/6 - R15
12/6 - CCQF
19/6 - 5 Nations Round 1 / R16
26/6 - 5NR2 / R17
3/7 - 5NR3 / R18
10/7 - 5NR4 / R19
17/7 - 5NR5 / R20
24/7 - CCSF
31/7 - R21
7/8 - R22
14/8 - Super 8s Round 1
21/8 - S8R2
28/8 - CCF
4/9 - S8R3
11/9 - S8R4
18/9 - S8R5
25/9 - S8R6
2/10 - S8R7
9/10 - Play Off Semi Final / Million Pound Game
16/10 - Grand Final
23/10 - Rest Week / England Warm Up
30/10 - Test Match Weekend 1
06/11 - Test Match Weekend 2
13/11 - Test Match Weekend 3

Was it Lancashire that picked Dom Peters one year, because the England coaching staff wanted to have a look at him?

Only in rugby league would the solution to the problems our international game faces be to not play international games.

Whats the point in pushing these failed concepts again? Best case scenario we get a counter-productive parochial series with limited accessibility usurping the growth that can be made through the international game.

There is a limit to the £10 tickets we can sell to the same 200k people living in the suburbs of Leeds and Manchester.

Because people are stupid.

But I don't think anyone has said don't play internationals. I think most have people have advocated more internationals. But we aren't going to get Australia over mid-season. And unless the NRL move SOO to a 3-week consecutive series then we aren't going to get NZ over either (and the NRL are highly unlikely to do that).
So most people are advocating internationals against France and/or Wales mid-season.
But we all know that currently they don't provide much opposition. So an Exiles game or Yorks v Lancs series may be a way of getting players into representative rugby with a decent, relatively intense game.

It can be as accessible as we like. As far as I'm concerned all federation trained players who are eligible for England would be eligible for the Yorks v Lancs series in the same way as NRL players are for SOO. The small minority of players this would really affect wouldn't have much if any impact on the credibility of the series since it would be 1 or 2 players. And would anyone really object to someone like Brad Singleton playing for Yorkshire or LMS playing for Lancashire?
As long as the players aren't allowed to switch allegiances and are eligible and trained in England who cares?

I'm opposed to letting Londoners and Cumbrians play just because those are growth areas for the game and eventually we want to see players brought up their representing those areas rather than being appropriated by the (already fairly strong) Yorkshire and Lancashire.

But (as above) I'm in favour of these *as well as* more internationals, not instead of them (that would, as rightly pointed out, be stupid).

Again, it must be pointed out that France, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, PNG, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa etc aren't going to get any stronger if we never play them and eligible players instead choose to play for Aus/NZ/England.

The England team (minus all NRL players) actually isn't that great I don't think:

1. Hardaker
2. McGillvray
3. Watkins
4. Cudjoe
5. Hall
6. Williams
7. Smith
8. Walmsley
9. Roby
10. Hill
11. Ferres
12. Farrell
13. O'Loughlin

14. Clark
15. Huby
16. Taylor
17. Ablett

They'd probably still win the 5N the first few times but it'd be close, especially if exemption were given on overseas/fed trained to players eligible for home nations e.g. James McManus, Kevin Gordon, Peter Wallace and Luke Douglas (Scotland) or Ryan Morgan, Ben Pomeroy, Ben Jones, Sam Williams & Tyson Frizzell (Wales).

The Barbarians game would be a real challenge and then there'd be the AIs at full strength against the tourists.

Could always have England vs SL Australia and France vs SL New Zealand?

SL Australia
1. Gidley
2. Vidot
3. Fonua
4. Moon
5. Monaghan
6. Carney
7. Walsh
8. Achurch
9. Hinchcliffe
10. Cuthbertson
11. Taylor
12. Minichiello
13. Stewart

SL New Zealand
1. Inu
2. Gelling
3. Sa
4. Webster
5. Sa'u
6. Tuimavave
7. Chase
8. Tasi
9. Roberts
10. Rapira
11. Pritchard
12. Taia
13. Manu

Quite like the idea of SL Australia and SL NZ, but would it potentially alienate us further from the actual Australian national team in terms of developing a strong International calendar? Not sure how the suits and the media over there would react to such teams.

Who cares? It wouldn't be for the benefit of Australia/NZ. You'd certainly get far higher attachment to SL Aus and SL NZ than some form of Anzac team of exiles.

I don't think the county concept works because not enough people are interested - including the players.

Good sides them. That NZ half back pairing would probably create more problems for England than the one we just saw in the full internationals!