Okay, so we maybe wouldn't be able to include the players you mentioned, but that would still leave plenty of others that could be selected. And if there are too many games already, I'd rather England didn't bother playing 'Scotland'.

What a great intense game that would be

He did and in fairness, he's right. We play too many of the wrong games.

We don't need gimmicky origin games. We need a fit for purpose International Calendar, with a three week mid-season break backed by both the NRL and SL as to allow the release of players.

The three-week period would coincide with Origin.

Year 1; Northern hemisphere sides (England, Scotland, France, Wales, Ireland) travel to the Southern hemisphere and play three games ( vs NZ, PNG, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga). Year 2; the Southern hemisphere sides travel. Etc etc.

We quite clearly need more games to help get an England side ready to compete. We also need Tier 2 Nations playing whenever possible and against Tier 1/2 Nations as to develop them and help retain their players.

The time where our International Calendar is shoehorned into an 'International Month' needs to come to an end. Football & RU play throughout the season, they can build their sides, the domestic seasons breaks to allow it, they have the consistency in their calendars which allows them to build their fan base, sell tickets way in advance and build their 'brands' as sides. Time to think bigger for a change.

You call English origin a gimmick when it absolutely doesn't have to be so. The Australians have made theirs work brilliantly.

You then suggest an international calendar that, in my opinion, is just ridiculous. What seriously is the point in England etc. going out to places like Fiji and Tonga every two years? People in the UK have little interest in international RL when it's on their (relatively speaking) doorstep, let alone when it's being played the other side of the world, at inconvenient times of day, and against teams that no one really cares about. Not to mention that the only credible northern hemisphere team is England. Scotland are just a joke - it's basically an England/Australia rejects/reserves team.

RL needs to do the opposite of "thinking big". It needs to focus on where its strengths are. It needs to make sure that England or Great Britain plays NZ and Australia more often, and in the appropriate venues. Those are the matches that people who don't regularly watch RL will want to see.

Good for them. Ours would go out with a whimper by Year 2.



Yep, that's the attitude needed to improve the International game - give up on it and play an origin match. 5.0224609375:5