this is what saints and leeds have dealt with for years.

get over it, it's part and parcel of being in the serious contender bracket.

Spot on klunk.

word as it that higham done is bicep again same injury that kept him out last season before making a shock return to cc final...........klunk this is only the 2nd yr they have played the french mid season isnt it or they was on a weds evening giving players time to recoup

so are you saying that now warrington are doing well that this has been invented to stop us?

stop whinging and be thankful we aren't tenth like this time last year

The 19-man England squad for the international against France at Leigh Sports Village:
C Bridge (Warrington), T Briscoe (Hull), S Burgess (South Sydney), K Eastmond (St Helens), G Ellis (Wests Tigers), J Graham (St Helens), R Hall (Leeds), S O'Loughlin (Wigan), D McGuire (Leeds), A Morley (Warrington), J Peacock (Leeds), J Roby (St Helens), N Scruton (Bradford), M Shenton (Castleford), K Sinfield (Leeds), J Tomkins (Wigan), S Tomkins (Wigan), B Westwood (Warrington), G Widdop (Melbourne).

Leeds have 4
Saints have 3
Wigan have 3
We have 3

Each of the opposition teams will be turning up fancying their chances that week.

the best teams are the ones that cope best with that.

What are we going to do if we get the to the GF and have 6 injured?

whinge and give up, or die trying?

i reckon the latter, this year......

whos whinging klunk im just making a point about a meaningless international

ah i see.

I know with being a Saints fan that we'd also be missing 8...

Eastmond, Graham, Roby, Gardner, Wilkin, Soliola, Dean, Armstrong

Thats providing Wellens and Meli return when expected... or it could be 10

I suspect Leeds and Wigan aren't far off those numbers either

Its just one of those things, personally I don't agree with the mid-season International but its here so we all have to get on with it

This.

To be a champion side we should take to the field every match aiming to win regardless of the side we put out.

1. Mathers
2. Riley
3. Atkins
4. King
5. Hicks
6. Grix
7. Briers
8. Wood
9. Monas
10. Harrison
11. L Anderson
12. V Anderson
13. Solomona

14. Cooper
15. Mitchell
16. McCarthy
17. Williams

12 of that squad played in the Cup Winning team last year, another would have but was injured while 2 are high profile international close season signings. There should be no danger of going into that game with a squad of under-able players.

There shouldn't be a restriction on players-per-club.

Because there shouldn't be any club fixtures on an international weekend. It's stupid and antagonises club fans when fans should be the target audience for international and club games.

Playing an International game on a regular fixture weekend is absolute nonsense. Playing against France just makes it worse! A complete waste of everybodies time.

The guys I feel sorry for are the three who have to travel all the way round the world for what is a totally pointless game. Certainly another massacre for France won't be doing the game any favours there......interesting only one from Bradford.....and four from Leeds given their proximity in the league table!

Aussies & Kiwis do it and their competition is as we often hear, far superior to ours. Solution would be to play the international on Friday night and all SL fixtures that weekend on the Sunday allowing players who wanted to or were able to to back up as they do in NRL for Anzac Test. Simples.