All 400 of them Spud ?

iirc did'nt NZ 'A' play a NFP (championship) select side in 2002?...and the NFP side won?

Yes at Hilton Park

Of course I understand what you're saying. The same argument applies for England Knights. Super League players who aren't good enough for England, are encouraged not to play for Celtic nations because England Knights will give them a false hope that they will be selected for England. It's like SOO in Australia.

I have no idea why people seem to be obsesses making up gimmick teams to play international competition when the vast majority of international sides we have are crying out for games. It seems absolutely mental.

We have teams, lets use them. There is no reason we cant have both GB and the home nations. In fact doing so would encourage players eligible for the celtic nations to not only choose them, but stick with them as it doesnt discount them playing against the tier one nations as happens now.

If there is no difference to a players opportunities to play at the top international level between a player paying for the Welsh/Scottish/Irish player and a player playing for England then Carvell, Brough etc wouldnt swap.

If the home nations play as the home nations against each other/france and in the world cup, but play as GB against the Aussies and Kiwis in 4 nations then will not only be strengthening and supporting the growth of the game in the home nations, but also providing competitive international games and removing the incentive for players to switch nations.

Im sure there are plenty of fringe England players (besides the ones we know of like Horne, Gilmour, Carvell, Brough, Briers) who qualify for the other home nation countries, which if they did play, would bring up their level of competitiveness provide a sterner test for the England players, and quality real international competition. Bringing back GB as the squad which plays against the Aussies and Kiwis, and having an annual competition between the home nations and france would allow that to happen.

erm nope....the england knights is essentially the england u'23's team, a bridging team between the england under 20's academy ( recently beat the aussie kids) and the full england team...designed to give these kids abit more exposure to internationals instead of chucking them in at the deep end against against australia or NZ..


and it's nothing like state of origin in australia

You mean ' English ' players choosing to play for ' England ' , what a strange concept , never work

What Australia does is nothing to do with our situation

In what way is having options to choose ' coercion ' ? , John Duffy is from W1g4n , he plays for Scotland , ditto Mick Nanyn , both their choice , however there are still hundreds of other Championship players that will only qualify for England who are highly unlikey ever to get to either SL or the top tier international teams , these are the players that could help to ' bring on ' the home nations , the benifit would not directly be England , it would be the the other nations that would benefit from competitive matches

That's nothing to do with my post and I think you've completely misunderstood what I'm trying to say. The Championship team is a stupid idea too but I'm not talking about that here.

Not the first time , anyway the whippet needs to go for a walk

Dont forget your flatcap, its gone cold out

I don't understand the logic in people saying that prospective English players who aren't good enough for the first team should play for one of the Celtic nations. Why the hell should they if they? If they don't consider themselves Welsh, Irish or Scottish then what's the point? If it stops them being available for England (which is what people want the rules to be changed to, right?) then why should they? Why should we weaken the England team to prop up those around us when we can't compete with those at the top? Especially if these are bonafide English players that WE'VE developed in THIS country?

If the Welsh, Scottish, Irish, etc. want decent players, they need to develop some. If they can't, then that's life. That's sport.

We need to make England as strong as possible to compete with the Aussies and Kiwis.