It makes the international game a joke, but the administrators allow it because it means they can concoct enough players from England, Australia and New Zealand, to distribute amongst various nations to try and artificially create tournament sides for non-RL playing nations made up of top flight professionals.

I always cringe when I see the player profiles in the match programmes of World Cup games, because you will see loads of players with entries like "played 6 Tests for New Zealand, after participating in the last world cup for Tonga".

Then when Scotland play Ireland the post match interviews will all have deep Wigan accents or Australian accents.

For a competition with more depth to it I'd love to see the following included along with a further 8 teams

Australia
Australia B
Australia Aborigines
New Zealand
New Zealand B ??? -
New Zealand Maoris
England
England B

I don't agree with the comments about declaring your allegiance to a country. I think thst we need to promote our international game as much as we can and making the smaller nations stronger and therefore more competitive during our flagship competition can only be good for the game. Putting in for instance a 1 year cooling off period where you can't revert back to a major test playing nation could be an option but I believe would stop some quality players from deciding to participate.

The main example is James Tedesco.in my opinion this man is the best full back in the world, 2nd best at worst. Is the competition better for his decision to play for Italy after he wasn't included in the Australia squad?? I believe it is. More than likely he will be the Australia test fullback from next season. So more than likely he would have decided not to participate if a penalty or a sanction would follow.

Our own Ben Currie could have been another example. Certainly an asset to the world cup. If not included in the England squad then Ireland beckons. However, next year if he shows his 2016 form again he will more than likely start for England. So if he were to be penalised for representing Ireland would he choose to still play for Ireland or sit out the world cup in the hope of England selection next year.

I don't think our international game is big enough or strong enough to exclude any quality players in this tournament

Just my thoughts

I get some of the comments on here, but for me once you have played for a country then that is it you should not be allowed to change that is just wrong on so many levels. Another one for me that’s nonsense is my great great great great, you get it grandma was born in whatever country allows you to play for them is also ridiculous.

Yeah, but that isn't a real rule is it? It's limited to a gran parent correct? At least these players do it as they have pride on the country and not for a huge pay out like in Football. They could quite easily put their feet up and relax after ANOTHER tough season, but no, they put hand up for one of the "smaller" nations where they most only likely get expenses.

You could split Aus into NSW and Queensland and they'd still batter all before them.

You can be born somewhere and then move away and never live there ever again in your life. Why should someone have to represent that country?

Mo Farah would have won all those medals for Somaliland/Somalia, not Great Britain if those rules applied in athletics despite living in Great Britain for 99% of his life and holding a British passport.

Atkins might hold up in strength against Australia, the Kiwis and Tonga though. Percival will be lucky not to have a -minus metres gained against those countries, he’s too slender and light to play against the big men of the NRL at the moment. Needs to get in the gym and up his calories big time.

Whether its Atkins, Percival or Watkins the Aussies have a far better side, but after the World Cup all the talk on these forums will be that we lost because "Wayne Bennett is clueless" and didn't pick X player over Y player.

Atkins hasn't been picked.

Hardaker as been dropped from England squad aswell.

Has the squad been announced early?

No it gets announced at noon tomorrow, it was just on BBC Grand Final highlights show that Hardaker was dropped and there is to be an announcement by RFL tomorrow regarding the Hardaker situation.

I think the Hardaker thing is out of everyone's hands in terms of playing right now.

i.e I think he's banned

Thanks

2nd sample?