Except Samoa proved it's not impossible to close the gap.

Though I would be focussing out efforts on France and Wales rather than Scotland.

But we have to get the international structure and calendar sorted. That Wales play a game in Wakefield is just crazy. The late nature of the fixtures being arranged not only holds back the likes of Wales from building their profile in their country but also affects the ability to get players to commit to play internationals and the ability of them to build on the playing side.

Get a regular, set in stone, international calendar with annual games and you'll see the 2nd tier nations rise.

Wasn't Jamaica v Wales a Jamaica home game though?

It would have been if they'd taken international RL seriously and qualified.

Indeed.

Official alleged attendance of 5K (which looked like 3K tops) tells you everything you need to know about the fans of SL.

They aren't genuinely interested in international RL. Their interest only extends to the club they support and England, but only if some of their club players have been selected.

Better get those promo codes organised for 2021 and sell it off cheap in order to avoid embarrassing attendances.

Tickets for a just fiver again, just like in 2013

Well I think the organisers will be happy if we emulate 2013. Wasn't it the highest attended and most profitable World Cup ever?

International RL should take France seriously, France has a full time pro league, junior teams and leagues amature leagues, an elite super league team, can provide a side solely of home grown French speaking born n bred players. Scotland has none of the above, wales have more of a right to be in there than Scotlan. Yes Scotland qualified from euro cup two years ago, but what have they done since, do peaple in Scotland even know they have an R L team.

It should be France full stop, every year and they will improve and increase there standard.

Catalan have been in Super League for over 10 years and several French players have moved to other SL clubs and the NRL and they are still rubbish. Employing coaches with bad records such as Bobby Goulding and Richard Agar hasnt helped matters.

The 4th placed 4Nations spot should always be the best team from the previous year (why we used Scotland's 2014 performance instead of Wales 2015 cup win baffles me however...) Automatically picking France would demoralise Scotland, Wales and Ireland and no completion for a place would most likely hit France's performance too.

As for last nights game, it should have been played in Scotland, even if we only got say 2k up there it would be better promotion that 5k in the already RL mad East Hull.

"International RL should take France seriously" oh dear. wow. Should Football take San Marino seriously?

given that it was the French that pioneered the RL World Cup - then yes, they should be taken seriously.
However, so should Wales, Scotland, Ireland and any other expansion team.
Qualification for the 4 nations should be based upon results in qualification tournament and not handed out by right.
tbh the difference between wales, france, scotland etc is marginal (they are all 50 points behind the major nations), the real issue is that all 3 of them should be closing the gap and they arent.

Regarding the Aussies were in town so you should go watch the game argument. I just don't see it as entertainment watching such a one sided game and a team just running in try after try with nothing coming back from the opposition. Was always going to be the case.

Well each to their own and all that but I would have thought that the so called RL mad place of East Hull would have liked to go see the best RL team on the planet. I clearly thought wrong. To be honest I don't quite fathom why this game wss played in an old stadium when we have so many grounds more suited to international RL.

Maybe it was the cheapest?

No it shouldn't, Scotland qualified to be the 4th team in this 4n

France realistically are the only nation with the infrastructure to be able to close the gap, at least in the next ten years and they have to be playing at the top level. It was not that long ago that NZ were well behind Aus and GB they got better due to the Warriors being in NRL and playing regular against Australia, which is why they surpassed Gb/England.

Wales are the next best in terms of infrastructure and an RL tradition. We should be aiming at getting then up to speed within 10-15 years.

Yeah Coz that's a like for like comparison.