and in the 50's bazza sydney used to get massive crowds for tests too..

GB played an Other Nationalities side in the 80s. It was entertaining but not very intense.

BTW, the suggestion about having Aussies/Kiwis in SL qualify for England on residency has merit (although very few would take it up I suspect). As does scouring the NRL for sub-Origin players who qualify on parentage etc (like Heighington). Its not like you'd get hundreds, but a couple of extra bodies available for England (particularly in the backs) couldn't hurt.

Other Nats was a massive team during the 1930s - 1960s period.

The team was arguably the best in the world at the end of 1951 after defeating France at the Boulevard in front of an all ticket 18,000 crowd. The so called Battle of the Boulevard and an all-time great international.

Brian Bevan's try scoring exploits for ON were legendary.

I know a Welsh international RU player who admits he is more proud of playing for the Barbarians than Wales

Do tell.

Wales v France v Lancaster v Yorkshire.
Three double-headers a year. England players get a rep chance, Wales and France get more matches. Eventually it could split into a merger with the European Cup and an Origin Series.

Ditch the MM and have a Rugby League Festival.

Headline game England V's "Superleague other nationalities" *think of appropriate catchy name.

Team for instance ...
Roberts
Richards
Carmont
King
Hicks
Chase
Finch
Lima
Monas
Perry
Hoffman
Lauititi
Puletua....

France v Wales
Scotland v Ireland

Then have the 7's tournament. Would make for a good day out as far as i'm concerned.

Also maybe even England 2nd team ( England A ) v's Cumbria.

I think it's about time we had a mid-season international window myself. If the Aussies wanna stick to SOO let them do that and the rest of the RL World can play internationals.

New South Wales vs Queensland
New Zealand vs PNG
Tonga vs Samoa
Fiji vs Cook Islands
England vs SL ANZACs
Wales vs France
Scotland vs Ireland

I do like the idea of an England v 'ANZAC' type thing I must be honest

lose the Lancashire and Yorkshire tag and have West v East Series.

Example you could get a decent West team mainly out of Wigan-St Helens-Warrington against a similar decent team out of Leeds-Huddersfield-Hull. you could even put up a minor game before the main event (West- Barrow, Leigh, Widnes against East - Halfax, Featherstone, Sheffield).

2 game series, one at DW stadium the other at Headingly.

But surely it work better if it was run in a 'place you were born in or a place you first played your footy' type way if you are going down the east v west route?

Wouldnt it be better to try and get a bit of good old fashioned parochial rivalry going?

No, this is something different. A predominantly Wigan/St Helens/Warrington versus Leeds/Huddersfield/Hull, sounds like a Rugby War to me.

I still cant understand why the old Lancs v Yorks thing never caught on.

2 of the biggest rivalries in UK sport... certainly at county level

Rugby League is most popular in these areas


17 players born in Lancs take on 17 players born in Yorks


Surely that would be better?

Yes, scrap an event that gets 40,000+ for two events that would struggle to get 10000 between them whilst re-enforcing the image of the game as a Yorkshire an Lancashire bun fight.

These events will never catch on while coaches are allowed to pull players out because they've broken a fingernail.

Surely Lancashire would play in Lancashire and not Cheshire?