I know its a bit union esque but why not 5 nations? The 'big 3' plus one of the pacific nations and one European side. To limit the number games you could just have a round robin with no final.

Why does Cricket bother with the West Indies? How does that improve Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana etc...

Oh.

And when it changes to 2 , 4 or 5 nations or the World Cup or whatever you want to call it the final STILL will be NZ v Aus!!!

Until the structure of the game changes in this country it will be ever thus.

Why does Rugby League never stick with anything if it doesn't work straight away? In 4 or 5 years time the French will be stronger as Cats and Toulouse youth set ups will be emerging. PNG hopefully will have a franchise making them stronger and with a bit of luck there will be a few eligibility rule changes so the big three don't steal smaller nations players.

Personally I've enjoyed watching the PNG lads as much as any of the other three teams (more in fact than England!). PNG do need get their act together internally though and come to the tournment better prepared and picking their best available side. Seem politics there is part of the problem.

As much as I love RL's constant evolutionary ways at times we do liek to throw the baby out with the bath water and just react to media critics.

Agreed. I do wonder though how a representative side from the only nation which has RL as its national sport can display such woeful basic skills of the game, even allowing for the fact some of the better players were not available some of the PNG lads were shocking.

tbh if you are not playing at that pace and intensity every week, which 99% of that squad aren't, then you can;t expect them to step up in one off situations. Its no different to watching the difference in pace and composure of teh england team whn they played NZ and Oz. That's why I believe it has very little to do with the number of English players in SL and everything to do with the coaching structures from jnrs up and the overall quality of each team. Again if was just down to numbers the world rankings would be: PNG, Oz, Eng, NZ

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they stick with crap london sides and a welsh side that gets about 200 people at games.