I thought if it was over the same weekends at SOO a three week NRL break would stand a better chance.

I think the other home nations still need exposure to a higher level of competition (playing England). If 'tier 2' nations only ever play other tier 2 nations, then where is the challenge to test yourself against the very best? Would a Welsh youngster be more inspored by a game vs Scotland at Workington in front of a couple of Cumbrians, or a game vs the old enemy England?

We need to make International RL the pinnacle of our sport. We need to give the emerging/Tier 2 Nations the chance to test themselves, improve, create that pathway for them to compete at the highest levels.

England will dish out a fair few drubbings of course, but so what? We have to think longer term for a change. Some will say England need a bigger mid-season test to compete with the Aussies, well if that's the view taken - prioritising the England team to be competitive then all we'll ever have is a three-team International game.

The same goes for Fiji, Tonga, PNG, Samoa. Maybe Fiji playing more test matches would help convince Radradra to represent Fiji instead of pledge to Australia? (maybe he's only bothered about money, who knows?)

Football & RU set the standard for International competition & we're massively lagging behind, mainly due to our own insular nature and poor governance.

Been saying for years RL needs some sort of 5 nations sell it to BBC or ITV and market the hell out of it take it too Ireland Wales Scotland and France and let the home fans get behind them and build from there,

I would love the NRL and Super League to both take a mid season break, I just don't think the NRL will ever agree to it. If it was to happen though with State of Origin on 3 consecutive weekends, a mid season test series against NZ would be the best thing for England. This could alternate between hemispheres so both sides have internationals on home soil every year.

I'm afraid most those teams aren't in a fit state to take part in a comp like that.
The players and fans killed the War of The Roses, who's to say they wouldn't kill it off again.
To create room in the calendar, we should start by ditching two teams from Super League. There just isn't enough quality in the comp to spread around.

It probably would be. But what's best for the game? I think we have to get out of the mind set of placing England's (or any other nation's) needs above the needs of the International game as a whole.

Don't blame ya mate. It's a foul place

But seriously, War of the Roses, Yorks v Lancs...anyone who thinks that that's the basis for a decent marketing campaign needs to think again. It might get a bit of lukewarm backing along part of the M62 but nationally??

Didn't the RFL come up with some stat showing that a high proportion of tickets for London games were purchased by folk living outside the heartlands? If we're going to run with some sort of sub-international concept it should appeal to them too (as well as others from all other parts of the country). That Yorks-Lancs county rivalry thing looks faintly ridiculous from any sort of distance.

People in Yorkshire are no different to people , say, in Wales or Scotland, in that we are proud of our "nation" and heritage, we just haven't proclaimed independence yet.
I often get asked by outsiders just why we are so proud of our county, more so, than say, someone from Dorset, my answer is simple, Yorkshire isn't just a county, it's our culture, our way of life, our heritage.

Well said

[*]

There isn't a single rugby league team from Lancashire in the top seven leagues of this sport. It might go further down the rugby league structure before you find one but I haven't looked that far down.

This is the clearest as it has Saint, Wigan, Wire and Widnes all within their respective counties, Laughing Gravy, you need to move with the times and stop holding on to the past.