Standard of SL

Quote: giddyupoldfella "Rugby League can't become a top class sport in the UK with the way the game is currently run.

Super League is a failing competition.

We need to make it an ever lesser competition and go down the representative route instead.

We need to go into areas of Scotland, Wales and Ireland and build clubs and get into the Schools to build the game in those places. We need to create an annual 5 nations championships between the 4 home nations + France.

We also need to create an annual War of the roses 3 test series. Obviously we have problems of loyalty on the West of Pennines with that one but it must happen because it should.

The top players can make representive games their priority and play for their clubs when available.

A four year international calender should be as follows.

Year 1 Ashes series Great Britain vs Australia

Year 2 Tri nations series

Year 3 Ashes series Australia vs Great Britain

Year 4 World cup

Representative games are the only way forward. Seeing the best play against the best is what you need in any sporting competition.

Build it and they will come.

Or we could keep going with what we have now?'"

I prefer a club based approach - like football rather than cricket or RU. But it is about what works rather than what I want, and I agree radical options have to be explored.

It is now a long time since GB/England beat Australia in a game, never mind a series. As you acknowledge, one side of the Yorks-Lancs rivalry is barely aware it exists. Seeds sown in Ireland and Scotland would take a long time give us green shoots - neither are populous countries and both are pretty crowded sports markets already.

If we go down the rep-focused route, I think we need another level between club rugby and the international game. Like in RU, where you have the Irish Provinces and the four Welsh pro clubs affiliated with local semi-pro clubs. Only 2 pro clubs in Scotland. They’ve done similar in the Southern Hemisphere in Super Rugby. However, I think we’d need to be less constrained by traditional or major boundaries to be able create a coherent and balanced competition that could appeal to both the core support and new audiences. That is what the WRU did. Mind you, they’re held in similar esteem to that a lot of us seem to have for the RFL (or the leadership of SL when it breaks away, periodically).