Put the boot on the other foot.... How do you expect nations like France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to get any better?

The only way this could work is if there was a significant win bonus for the victorious team.

by playing each other, not by being beaten 60+ by England!

By playing teams of similar strength, like an English Championship select

McClennan was the perfect coach for the exiles - the best in the business at pulling a squad together, generating passion and belief in what they did. That really showed through last year and I didn't think was quite as evident this time around.

Tonights game lacked skill and intensity and many of the Exiles players played like the strangers they are and couldnt care less. It was certainly no preparation for games against Australia and NZ. At the end of the day the Exiles match is a nothing game for the Exiles players and means nothing to them. It is a bit of a get together for them and a catch up with a few old mates but anyone thinks they take it seriously is kidding themselves. They are not representing their country like the England players are and it shows. Despite this England should have beaten them convincingly tonight and didnt. It was an awful game with no skill or intensity between 2 fairly mediocre teams that any top SL team would annihilate. Wigan have beaten better teams than those by over 40 points this year. McNamara or the RFL can dress it up all they like but that was dire tonight.

The Exiles concept is doomed to failure and the standard and intensity of matches is going to decrease year on year. Lets look at the Exile team going forward. From Wigan alone Lima, Carmont, Leuluai, Finch wont be available for the Exiles next year as they wont be here. They almost certainly wont be replaced by a similar calibre of import and in some cases no import at all. Other imports from other clubs are going back home and even this year the Exiles team have less quality players to choose from than last year with King, Buderus etc going home. With the new NRL TV deal and the exchange rate the Exiles team and concept cannot possibly get stronger, it cannot it can only get weaker as good quality imports will no longer come here and with tightening quota rules the number of imports declines. Even as it some players didnt even really want to play and other pulled out with 'injuries'. After Leuluai getting injured I am sure other Exiles players will think twice about playing in a nothing match.

l would like to see the Exiles concept scrapped and would much prefer an East v West series, instead of Lancashire and Yorkshire, to include all of England and use it as a real trial game for England. Players will be much more familiar with each other through the England camps and the players will really have something to play for and will be looking to outplay their opposite number. It will also double the amount of England players playing in representative matches compared to England just playing the Exiles. It certainly has a lot more potential imo.

You're kidding? Wales, Scotland and Ireland already contain a decent volume of Championship players. Think you'd struggle to mash a competitive team together out of what's left.

So having SL s second string smash them is helping them improve?

By players deciding to play for them rather than hoping to play for England in major tournaments. Only want to develop those teams is by ensuring they play in every major tournament for the time being and then limiting the rulings on people changing countries.

Not exactly hard to understand seeing as most of them were strangers.
Was it 8 changes for tonights exile team?
As an example McDonnell had less than 24 hours to prepare, he then looked like a fish out of water.
Not hard is it.
I'll say it again.
Lets have the exile squad carry a lot more depth and meet 'now and again' as the England team does then you may actually see them looking like they know each other and the tactics they are supposed to be using.

Wasn't the rationale behind this game that it would give England an intense series equivalent to Origin in Australia, and that this would somehow allow England to become more competitive at international level? Apart from the fact that such an idea is completely flawed in numerous ways, it sounds like the Exiles match unsurprisingly failed in its sole purpose. As I said last year, unless the intensity of this match is higher than SL then there isn't any point and England might as well play against Wales or France. It's a poorly thought out idea by someone who was desperate to look like a 'revolutionary' in order to try and cover up his complete ineptitude as a coach.

As for people calling for a return to War of the Roses, it's preferable to the Exiles but the original series was scrapped for a reason.

The Roses game is realistically the only way any intensity might be engineered. For it to work, the clubs have to buy into it too. The Exiles simply don't do it for me.

Get the Roses marketed properly with full buy in and give it time to develop - a few dust ups along the way will help out no end - and it might just work.