No, as you say they are a representative team rather than an international team. I've got no issue with them playing a couple of friendlies in the build up to the Euro Cup if teams want a tougher challenge, but they can't be part of the tournament.

I very much like the sound of this - it adds England Knights as an extra competitive team in each competition and exposes the next tier of potential England players to the international game and get used to training/playing with each other

Do we know if the Knights will have any selection restrictions - an under 23/s side would allow the players who have excelled in Academy games over the past few years a next step on the ladder?

An international team is a representative team that represents a nation. The Knights represent England. They are an international team.
The latter comment is fine. Just depends what the tournament is. I don't see why they couldn't compete in a European Championship and leave the Euro Cup as a separate tournament (I do think it's a bit daft that the European Cup is called that when one of the teams in it are in the 4N and there's no qualification on the line. It's a different tournament really).

When they go down under, they could play the Aussie and Kiwi 'A' teams as well.

The England team will get nothing out of it. It wont do anything. Its a team against a made-up team. While you may wish to pretend that this made up team will have massive pride in their jersey, they wont. It will be seen as a kick about. It wont, in anyway help in the players find that next level you need to find to compete with NZ and Australia. If you think it will you are deluded
they did, we played them in a competitive game where the Catalans players didnt have a mass outbreak of injuries and they gave us a competitive game.

34-12 isnt a foregone conclusion. What we need is to get france interested. Give them something to play for so that they do play their best players. a Tri-nations tournament like the 6 nations in RU between Wales, France and England would benefit everyone, and it would be an actual international competition.

It doesnt go one way and not the other. France will improve because they are playing international competition. Not because they are playing better teams but because they are playing international competition, together, as a national side. They wont suddenly start catching us up because they are playing Wales.

It is massively disrespectful to both France and Wales to pretend it is a waste of our time even bothering to play them. We should be playing both. We should be playing a tri-nations tournament between the three teams from now until the end of time. Adding other nations when they get their professional game going.

We get the same as everyone else gets, International Competition.

You are being hugely arrogant, you dismiss beating France and Wales as if it was nothing in itself and their games against us are nothing more than warm ups to playing 'real' internationals against Australia and NZ. Whilst they are tier 2 nations they deserve much better than you casting them out as second class.

Wales and France deserve to play us, as we deserve to play them. Not to improve them or us but because they are professional RL nations.

We have 5 professional RL playing nations, 3 get to qualify automatically and every two years one of the other two are allowed to try and qualify for a competitive game against the other three, and you dont want me to say this is a bit arrogant and treating them with quite a bit of disrespect?

And yes it isnt a competitive game, for some reason we think we are better than to play France and Wales in a competitive game, then we wonder why they send out a second string to get smashed when we deign to give them a friendly.

ALWAYS a drubbing, how many mid-season tests against France do you think we have played? It can barely class as always anything.

There is massive benefit to the international games, there are international games being staged being the major one.

Fact is, once you get passed your inherent viewpoint that Wales and France arent worthy in themselves, and you get passed the fact they arent warm ups for Australia and New Zealand. You will see how pointless this friendly game against a made-up side is, and how disrespectful it is to these other nations to say we need it.

Wales can play France instead of England, it would also be international competition. I have absolutely no idea who told you otherwise,

France would love to play England ,maybe not mid-season according to previous BG comments but the problem with france is that not only are they generally already an inferior group of players compared to the english,their (or BGs) main problem is actually getting their best french players available to play.Assuming the bulk of the probable french national team is made up of players from the Catalan Dragons the french coach is constantly being denied access to these players by the Dragons president M.Guasch.This is really annoying for BG who has the backing of M.Larrat who is the boss of the FFR13.It's like Wigan refusing to release the Tomkins boys or Saints refusing to release Roby or Graham for example.
In RU there used to be the annual England Possibles v Probables match - has this ever been considered in RL ?

i seriously cant believe people are against this idea
a combined side of Kiwis and aussies will be a far better challenge to england than france ever were
ill certainly support it and ill bet many other antips living in the uk will as well

i'm sure if the RFL could find £5k a man to the winning team, it would inspire some of the more mercenary antipodeans to take it more seriously.

Or we could invest that £85k in development rather than wasting it on a stupid and pointless venture.

it could make a lot more than that with possible tv rights,sponsorship and gate reciepts.

That is your opinion and you are entitled to it, but there is just as many reasons (if not more IMO) that justify the opinion that it will improve the team, and players will have pride.

I will also add that to put your opinion across as fact is extremely arrogant.


You said that they can get more players playing full time in the SL now. If they can, then they aren't. There aren't enough to fill a French test team. What this quote has to do with that point is beyond me.


But a mid-season test has never been 34-12. They've been *42-14, 56-8, 66-12, 60-6. They've consistently been walkovers.
*Played as GB, with a majority rested team.


So you're saying that France aren't interested now? Isn't that something you were criticising an All-Stars team about?! If France aren't interested, then how can you be fighting for them to play in this fixture?!

I would love to see a European Tri-Nations with England, France and Wales. I've even mooted it in the past (alongside an All-Stars game). Unfortunately, it seems that we can only fit in one game mid-season, and we have to arrange a game that is best for us.


The fact that we can only fit one international in, and we have chosen not to play France, and your apparent tantrum at that fact, leads me to believe that there is some problem with France playing Wales instead of England.

We can only fit one fixture in at the moment. Is it disrespectful to Wales that you think France should play England?

Exactly.

Its not my opinion. It is the default position. It is up to you to prove it. You havent.
Nope, i said that the french test team was professional. It was.
so the question isnt what team can we make up to play. Its why is this the case and what can we do to change it.

no-one should be playing this game.
So lets play an actual international game.
why do you keep making up i dont want France and Wales to play each other?

Because international games are what we doing. Its what you think you are preparing for. Winning international games is why we have an international team. So lets play international games.

The benefit is winning international games. The benefit is thats the point of it. If we beat france or wales then we win. We have done what we have prepared for. Games against these teams arent warm ups they are the main events.
So it seems strange to take the one international game we have and swap it with a non-international because we have a limit of internationals.
its a massively better way to sell the international game to the public than by not playing an international game, which is what you are proposing.Lets follow this through. What is this 'test' we are needing for? is this 'test' to prepare for international games? or is this 'test' like a 'test match' you know how France, Wales and England are 'test nations' and playing each other is a 'test match'

You seem to be expressing your opinion as fact here. My my that is hypocritical of you 3.59619140625:5