With the current England squad now, theres real competition for places, should we introduce SoO as a trail match for the England squad? Similar to how Australia use thier SoO for a trial match for their test side? Non Lanc York players can choose their counties, a bit like New Zealanders do for the Aussie SoO (I know it's wrong but....)

Lancashire / Yorkshire

1. Tomkins / Hardaker
2. Charnley / Briscoe
3. Watkins / Cudjoe
4. Goulding / Reed
5. Riley / Hall
6. Sinfeild / Widdop
7. Lomax / Chase (NZ)
8. Morley / Crabtree
9. Roby / McIlorum
10. Graham / Burgess
11. Farrell / Ellis
12. Hock / Buchanan
13. O'Loughlin / Wilkin

14. Ratchford / Burrow
15. Hill / Carvell
16. Mossop (Cumbria) / Westwood
17. Hughes / Ablett

Or do you think it's stupid, and stick with England playing the exiles? All I'm thinking is, it'll be a competative game, 34 English players playing instead of 17, shows whos the best for England.

Totally agree. Exiles waste of time. If non Yorks or Lancs want to play in this fixture then theyve gotta choose who for. No chopping and changing and no overseas players.

Has to be decided if county of birth or where they played their first 1st grade game though.

1st grade game

Hardaker
Briscoe
Watkins
Cudjoe
Hall
McGuire
Brough
Morley
Crabtree
Ablett
Ellis
Sinfield

What team is this, England? Theres no 9 as well BTW

With the amount of good English players playing over in the NRL now I think a Lancs vs Yorks match could do better then in the past 'if' the Australians were prepared to allow Burgess, Graham, Widdop, Hock etc play in them. It would be a good chance to see those players in action in the flesh rather then on the TV but the Aussies aren't interested in helping the game flourish in anywhere other then Australia itself.

The teams would certainly be of a better quality then the last time we tried if they could play.

A full strength example-

Lancs

Tomkins
Charnley
Watkins
Goulding
Riley
Sinfield
Lomax
Hill
Roby
Graham
Hock
Harrison
O'Loughlin

Subs
Morley
Mossop
Farrell
Ratchford

Yorks

Hardaker
Briscoe
Reed
Atkins
Hall
Widdop
Chase
Crabtree
McIlorum
S Burgess
Westwood
Ellis
JJB

Subs
L Burgess
Bailey
Bateman
Burrow


2 pretty impressive sides IMO and it probably shows an increasing depth in our player pool. If we had a more competitive edge to actually being selected for England then this fixture would have more legs. I think we are getting that with a good few positions not nailed on for a change.

Even if it's not Lancashire v Yorkshire, maybe we could have England v England Knights. That would be an interesting game as the B team would want to prove themselves against the A team and be in contention for the first team squad

just esl players, aussie based players would never come back to play in this

red rose
1 tomkins
2 charnley
3 watkins
4 ratchford
5 riley
6 sinfield
7 myler
8 hill
9 roby
10 morley
11 hock
12 tickle
13 o'loughlin

14 wood
15 farrell
16 lomax
17 clough


white rose
1 hardaker
2 hall
3 cudjoe
4 atkins
5 briscoe
6 mcguire
7 brough
8 crabtree
9 burrow
10 lynch
11 westwood
12 ellis
13 wilkin

14 carvell
15 ablett
16 houghton or mcilorum
17 jones buchanan

that look's a more competative game then we're getting at the moment

How would people want eligibility to go for something like this? Most of them seem to be birth I guess so far (ish). Would that be the best way, or would say Debut Youth/SL game be better? Allow players to self select? Also would it be a pure England team thing (with the potential to put down Wales etc as a result like SoO does) or would you want to allow other nations in? If it was just England, I'd want to make them free rep weekends and have the European Cup on at the same time with Wales v France v Scotland v Ireland to make sure they get the games in too...

The majority of the England team are born in the two counties, so that eligibilty won't be a problem, however players like Mossop and Chase will have to choose there county if we did play this series. Chase would probabley choose Yorkshire as he has played all his rugby there and is settled there, however Mossop might choose Wigan as the majority of his team mates would qualify for Lancashire, and he plays his rugby in Lancashire. But it'd be up to the player I guess to see where his loyalties lie.

It would be interesting...... Also we could poach the best Welsh/Scottish/Irish players to play for England, like the Aussies do with a lot of Fijians and Tongans, to improve our national squad and pool.

I really do believe this is the way forward if we are going to be competative and consitanly beat Australia. Finally, I think with big game players rested for the battle of the roses, it will give younger players a chance to shine in roles they woulden't usually get due to senior international players taking there place. For example Ste Ward could start at 6 for Leeds, when Sinfield plays for Lancashire, Murphy could replace Charnley on the win at Wigan when Charnley plays for Lancashire, this can only be good for youth developement as well

you just have cumbria vs south england as a curtain raiser to yorkshire vs lancashire, cumbria have plenty of super league player's with the likes of ben harrison, lee mossop, shaun lunt, kyle amor and ade gardner, and the south of england with louie mccarthy scarsbrook, darrell and josh griffin, tony club, kieron dixon and so on.

Yeah but the best players should play in the Lancs v York, as we want to make that our SoO. Actually Sam Tomkins was born down south wasn't he? Therefore on your account, he should play for the south? We should rig the game like the Aussies do with their SoO to make the best players avaliable to play against eachother, to improve our national team, by having an intense trial match to filter out the best players

i wouldn't be against that, i'd love to see a successful national team, and everything we can do to improve to be at the standard's of aussie's i'm all for, i believe we can produce just as good a 17 player's as the aussie's, i just think there's something mentally lacking, and that come's down to the standard of the two competition's and the lack of competative representive game's (on our part). i also love the rule of golden point in australia and would love to see it in our game, that's a mental test.

i think war of the roses is the rep game we need to doing straight away.

While I think history and heritage is important, Lancashire v Yorkshire is anachronistic and in my view is no basis for high-profile competition.

And there is no way that NRL-based players would fly over for it unless it became a big deal SOO type affair.

I'm more in favour of having a GB team, with the SOO (for want of a better term) being Celts v Saxons. Place of Birth could come into it, but any heritage system could work.

I understand the England A v England B, but it would face the same problem as a viewing competition that the exiles has. Which team do the fans pick and associate with. At least with a Saxons V Celts there is something to jump behind, with Exiles there is no fan attachement and the same goes for England B.

Lancashire and Yorkshire would be a bit too narrow for my liking. We need to open this out. With players like LMS and his cockney dulcit tones, he's not going to convice anyone he is Lancashire. But he would make a convincing Saxon.

It's traditional to have Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the facts are, the majority of SL players come from these 2 counties........ LMS could be an adopted Lancashire player? Like Rangi Chase is an adopted England player...... similar concepts.

The Aussie SoO has a hatred in it, to make it more intense. The same goes with Lancashire v Yorkshire, there is a kind of historical hatred which could make the game more intense