The 6 nations and autumn internationals and Lions tours raise the profile much more than the Barbarians.

Things we are all capable of doing and building but for some reason have chosen to ignore in favour of a gimmick game.

Isn't State of Origin a contrived game/competition? If no clubs had let their players be available for State of Origin how would it have advanced and become what it is today?

It could be argued that England v an Exiles/Overseas/Southern Hemisphere side/call them what you will is very similar to the Barbarians games in Union.

It could. Which is why I said

Not really, it's a state vs a state rather than a nation vs a made-up gimmick team. I'm certainly no advocate of Origin but there's really no comparison there. A better example would be the All-Stars vs Aboriginals match mentioned earlier in the thread, but at least that is a pre-season fixture involving two made-up teams and is billed as an exhibition game, rather than purporting to be some sort of international match and replacing genuine internationals.

But they only raise the profile of Union because the 6 Nations and Autumn Internationals are competitive, something we don't have in League.

Let's face it even the stronger of the European nations in Wales & France are nowhere near a match for England, as evidenced by the poor support for the England v France internationals. Sticking Scotland & Ireland in there as well would do nothing to help raise the profile of RL. It would if those countries could put up a fight against England, sadly none of them can.

That's only if you describe England v France as a "genuine international", another word for it would be embarrassing. Personally I'd prefer Yorkshire v Lancashire but I do think that the Exiles game is a far better test for England's players than playing a poor French team.

Your disrespect for international RL is the only thing that is embarrassing here.

How many people attended the last England v France game? What were the viewing figures? When's the last time France beat England/GB?

Don't you think a few thousand scraped together to watch England stick 50 or 60 on France yet again is embarrassing to the international game? Especially when compared to the 6 Nations & Autumn Internationals of rugby union.

Genuine question - do you think that an Exiles team made up of foreign SL players would make a better team than the current French side?

Lets be honest.....we don't need Burgess, Ellis or even Widdop back to play in this game. We know what they can do (well, less so Widdop)...but there is no point in dragging them across the world for a warm up game when we could use their spaces for fringe players to gain some experience and put their names forward.

Plus....I'm sure the cost of flying them over would be massive, something the RFL should be spending less money on unless it means something. This seems to be an issue in many sports in this country....grass root clubs and supporters....and even to an extent RFL workers...struggle to get by and the elite end and want for a better word "management" of the game can pump money into flying players across the world and for fancy functions etc.....not that I'm bitter!!

They werent always so competitive in RU. And in RL certainly never will be if they arent played.

And those countries will never be able to put up a fight whilst ever any person who qualifies for Wales, Scotland or Ireland understandably switches to England as soon as we show interest because the 2nd tier nations simply never play the tier 1 nations with any regularity.

It will take games to bring in and through the players to make them competitive and we are moving further away from that.

What the people who are comparing this game to Origin are missing is that the players released for Origin dont have a 24,000 mile round trip to make and the players picked often back up for their club.

IMO Souths are correct and there is no decision to be made.

Without any shadow of a doubt.

Well done The Bunnies, what a waste of time the game is.

I thought it was Red Halls plan to expand into France via the Catalans to give the G.B / England squad a mid season International.

Not going well is it.

Maybe in five years the English lads could play a Welsh team instead, if the parent club is still afloat.

My main concern is that when the Exiles thump England will the RFL use the fact that their best players were not released by the NRL?