france & england both appear to be between a rock and a hard place but for different reasons

england is obviously too good for the french to make the game a real contest and france isn't good enough to compete at that level

french RL is improving under BG IMO (though I would prefer his back-room staff to be all french and cut out the 'jobs for the boys' ) but can never attain the heights of england level,not in my lifetime anyway - the occasional flukey result will happen but the difference in class is so obvious
It's up to france to sort themselves out with the likes of Wales etc and for england to somehow wangle annual matches with the top two
Maybe we should be more concerned about making the SL more competitive with less imports playing over the next five years and slowly encourage the english talent to come trough or,at least given the chance.

I would have England playing against an Australian All Star team, wearing green and gold, coached by Aussies etc, giving them a sense of national pride when playing England. The French can then play a second string England side as part of a double header giving them a competitive game, but also allowing England to have a look at more players. I would extend the season by a week and give all teams a week off so that all attention is on the game.

Your memory is playing tricks on you.

[urlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/jun/12/england-france-rugby-league[/url

England hammered a dismal France and never got out of second gear. Steve McNamara will have got nothing from the game. For example, Gareth Widdop looked brilliant in that match, but was adequate at best when the real test came at the end of the year. I'm unsure what France get out the game either.

I agree with people saying we shouldn't just cast France aside. I would like to see them play a game on the same weekend, possibly before the England game, against Wales. Another poster on the Wigan forum suggested France played an 'England Lions' squad, which would be made up of fringe England players, allowing France to be competitive and to give more English players a chance.

Well technically that isnt a 60+ point victory

From a club point of view i hope chase doesnt get picked, no sense risking him for no reason.

Unfortunately, this is the attitude which will only see this venture fail. As a supporter of a club who pays the players wages though, you are well within your rights to feel like this.

My concern would be that it turns into the situation England football have with friendlies. Clubs will see this as an opportunity to allow star players to recover from the inevitable 'knocks' they routinely carry through club games, so many would play for their clubs the previous Sunday, pick up a minor muscle injury and be running around again the week following the 'All Stars' game.
And as I presume the game would not be recognised as a full international, players would not even recieve a 'cap' and the game would technically be 'non-competative'?

Could this not be incorporated into say a 3 week mid season break? With this game played on the Wed of the middle week to give these players a weeks "camp" before the game to prepare, then well over a week after the game to recover.

it is a nice 'fantasy rugby' even t. It would be better with some kind of club split but its a nice event. Thats all. It should complementing international football, not replacing it.

in friendlies. Strangely in friendlies Catalans seem to have a lot of injured players who cant play for france.

Our last competitive game against france was 34-12.

A trii-nations mid-season tournament between England, Wales, and France would do everything we need. two, likely three games, More likely to see players like Carvell sticking with Wales and France do compete when in a competitive match. Rather than when we deign to hand them a friendly

That would be a brilliant team IMO, and would be a very good game.

We scored 60 points, so not exactly playing tricks, but it is close enough!

There won't be an much of an improvement in France (or Wales) until they have enough full times players to make a squad. We will always convincingly beat them until this happens. There's not much point in playing a team in a "test" if they can't keep up with us. This test has NEVER had a close score, and never will until France get at least a second SL team to add numbers to the squad.

People keep talking down this new initiative in time honoured RL tradition as well before it's even been tried.