The International game in RL is often branded a joke compared to RU, due to players qualifying through means such as the grand parent rule or residency.

In the RU World Cup Wales have 11 foreign born players, as do Scotland. France have 10 and Austrailia 8. This has barely been mentioned and the fans don't seem to care.

Maybe we shouldn't talk our own game down so much and then wonder why the media give it little attention.

7 of the 11 Welsh players were born in England but raised in Wales. International RL is regarded as a joke because an Ireland team at the RLWC had 1 Irish-born player out of 24, Italy RL had 1 Italian-born out of 24 and Scotland RL had 2 Scots-born out of 24.

Obsessed

I guess what I would say to this is that this is just the way our international game has developed. Just because other sports do things in a different way doesn't mean that that is how we should do things. Its like when people compare our international attendances to union; 20,000 or whatever just happens to be how many go to a RL international, its the way the sport has developed. Just because only 3 teams have won our world cup doesn't make it necessarily worse than the union one, that's just how things are. Rugby League is by far a massively better quality game than any other sport and things like where international players are born aren't going to make the quality on the pitch worse.

You are getting a tad obsessed with me aren't you.

I think I love you

You are only human (I think)

There are more reasons than that, and players switching nationalities is much worse than those playing through heritage or residency rules.

International RL is a joke, mainly because the RLIF is a joke. That and the fact the NRL don't give a toss either. The RLWC left zero legacy on the game. The RUWC will p!ss all over the RLWC in terms of revenue, crowd figures etc...

Everything but tries and entertainment value, in fact.

Bitter much? The 28,000 crowd full of South Africans and Japanese people at Brighton would disagree with you on that

England made 77 tackles in their World Cup game against Fiji . James Roby made 62 tackles in the Saints v Wigan game.

To be fair to the Japanese team this afternoon that is one of the first times I've ever seen a Union team gamble and aim to score a try instead of going for a drop goal or playing for a penalty. Even as an RL fan I can give credit where it's due it was great entertainment

This. I just watched the highlights. But the simple fact is that games like the Japan match are very much the exception to the rule in international RU.