I'm not in favour of any "made up game" between our very small pool of UK based players. I have seen our support for these games recently & when it has come to the crunch the species don't turn up. It wouldn't work in other similar sports either ... so it's not done. Only games v. OZ, NZ and now Samoa & maybe Tonga will drag a speccies out and that's with all our best players in the team.

I realise we think we must do something but just occasionally it is just best to do nothing (it seems a bit defeatist I know). State of origin is brilliant but our fan base/player resources are nothing like in Oz and we speccies are so wrapped up in our own clubs.

I agree with Smiffy.

Just putting an extra game or two to clutter the fixture list isn't going to make us more competitive against the Aussies.

We sometimes talk like the Australians are good because State of Origin is such a tough competition. I think its the other way round. The Aussies are so good international competition is too easy for them so they needed to make their own competitive contest, and Origin is it for them.

Fair. But it’s not just fans wrapped up in their own clubs it’s the owners to. There is to much focus on self interest for me. There was another piece written this week regarding changes to promotion and relegation and tbh I just couldn’t be bothered posting it. The actual author of it was pretty fed up I think when reading it. I love this sport dearly, yes I’m a Wire first but a Rugby League fan hence yes I do see a lot as one poster said in reply to something I posted a while back.

The game as massively changed since I went to my first game all the way back to 1970 those of us from that era loved it and I’m guessing some of us still struggle with how it is today. I know it’s had to change and I get that but I’m just worried as a sport in this country we are slowly dying and if we don’t do something it will. I struggle with where you say it’s best to do nothing I think we have long gone past that. The things we have done have just not worked.

Why not have England vs super league clubs.

Yes I get it that some SL clubs would be more affected and weakened than most, but isn’t that why SL clubs have the reserves to deal with player losses.

Warrington vs England would have me buying a ticket, Lancs v Yorkshire wouldn’t.
Is it really much difference than the successful club vs Australia that we had during the touring tests?

Isn’t England vs SL teams a sterner and more financial secure concept than the failed Roses?

Or perhaps England vs a SL club might be too much of a contest