Ratch at fullback for England, Bert at fullback for the exiles. Plenty of motivation for Stefan tonight

Bert who?... at full back.

Hodgson

Terrible crowd, couldn't it have been played at a stadium that was likely to get a crowd?

Has to be said, England have looked very, very poor, though it was great work by the wire boys for the first exiles try.

And the England try

Without our lads there'd be no points in this game... Makes you proud.

And another...

This is awful......No atmosphere, no passion, what's the point??

If we really have to give England practice, then give them a week long training camp mid season, with a game behind closed doors between 34 English players as a trial....Showing this to a watching public just makes the sport look very, very badly followed, run and, most importantly, as a product, distinctly amateur.

Honestly, it's hard to argue that it's not run by amateurs. The RFL really don't know how to develop the game and I completely agree with you that it's making the sport look terrible, a yawnion forum I also post on, is laughing at the crowd and it's hard to argue against.

The RFL should really look at how SoO was developed and try to follow that model, but something needs to be done NOW to try and save this concept, because I think it's a good one, but with no one watching it, as you say, what's the point?!

watched about 20 mins of this farce...may as well play tick and pass..hows games like this gonna help england..bet the aussies are laughing there socks off..

No atmosphere
As we know partisan crowds create little atmosphere, look at when the small supported teams come to Wire, London and Catalans the atmosphere is dreadful.

Too contrived
Team mates become enemies...really, do they? They're all smiling and just going through the motions, i understand personal pride and the competitive spirit, winners always want to win even if it's crazy golf or air hockey but this game is shhhiiite and lacklustre.

Not enough quality
Both teams and one coach

--------------------------------
Plus i don't subscribe to the England v England Knights

Straight away that's the first team v the second so the result is almost decided before it even kicks off.
Which team do you support?
If the b team beats the a team what does that tell us?
If these are the back up players who coaches the sides, does Banana coach them both? If not they have the potential to show up the 1st team coach (just putting aside that it's Banana at the moment).

The only concept that'll work is one that draws a rivalry, doesn't exclude people (so forget Yorks/Lancs) and is also a way of seeing who can step up.

Dreadful game, i switched it off and i love this game [RL] but good god it was just soulless, and compare that to SOO? 'kin hell i rather watch Wakey v Cas than this pap.

All this game goes to show is that England would probably lose to Australia's 4th or 5th choice side. International RL is, to all intents and purposes, a dead duck. Farcical.

Not trying to pick a fight, Yed, but I quite like the prospect of a England v Knights "battle"
It'll be the equivalent of a rah-rah Probables v Possibles game, and give the chance for some of the "less fancied/fashionable" players to put one over their more illustrious counterparts.

I mean, apart from Roby and Graham (and possibly Rat Boy), who are the England players that are "nailed-on" for a Test match jersey for the World Cup, in 16 months time. Not many, I'd wager.

Just imagine the motivation for some-one to put one over on an International non-aciever like Sinfield, in this context, and hopefully put his International "career" in the bin.

We've had several "big name" players in the past couple of decades (Sinfield, Connolly, Radlinski to name just 3), who've had oustanding SL/Championship careers, but their International "contributions" have been "unacceptable" (just to escape the swear filter).

This concept could be the making of a young lad, and consign the career of a non-achiever, to history.


Let's take the chance.
If we're embarrassed by the concept, play it behind closed doors. BUT, WE NEED A CHANGE. We're just stagnating, picking the usual faces

Lefty:

That'd be fine except for two big points, 1) that's not how the Exiles was marketed and not what it's designed to do. It's meant to be a trial for the England team, to toughen them up to face Australia and make them a competitive side, not to try out youngsters to see who should be selected. I too support the idea of the Knights, but as the rah rahs use the Saxons, they're clearly a B team, where a few can be promoted to the first team, but not a group who should have a raft of players promoted as we did today.

2) Do you really think McBanana is going to surprise us with his selections? Until the RFL selects a real coach, and invests in proper coaching set up, rather than promoting never-has-beens directly into the head job and actually puts pressure on the English set up to pick the BEST players then we won't see any improvement. The fact that there are so many Leeds players in the first team, when they've been so awful this season, and someone like Ryan Atkins was overlooked which promoted almost no comment, shows how amateur the international set up is in England.

Add to that the influence Sky and the clueless buggers there have on our game and you can see why this concept (which I think's a good one in principle) is falling flat on its backside.

I hear what your saying, WITB, but unfortunately, the England on show tonight, clearly couldn't give a ####. It was obvious that some of them treated it as a glorified training session. The non-attempt to put any pressure on that up'n'under, with 10 mins to go, was laughable, and showed the game for what it was...non commital. Even Kear said England players weren't prepared to "bend their backs". They obviously couldn't be ar5ed, tonight

If, for example, a half decent Knights player, outshone Sinfield, in an England v Knights, it puts pressure on that useless plop MacBanana to drop a "golden-boy", and play the Knights player in future England games.

The Knights DO have good players, and it's time they were blooded. A surprise could easily happen. As I've said previously, bar Roby, Graham and RatBoy, we're not exactly over-run with "assured" quality

TBH, we have a "DEAD-DUCK" international series, at the end of this season (England, France and Wales) WHAT A WASTE. This could have been the time for a
England v Exiles series (and not break up the regular SL season), or
England v Knights series, and we get to see some established players, get their "cumuppence"