The whole farce of international RL started when they split Great Britain up into the home nations. The Great Britain test series against Australia were superb. An England vs Wales, Scotland or Ireland game is meaningless to us RL fans. never mind the wider public.

Spot on.

Yet the RU lot manage to have independent home nations and a popular combined Lions side

IIRC the RL split was (partially) down to the way sport was funded/subsidised.

I think there is little thriving about domestic RU in Scotland 9A. It's not even up to RL championship level in club support.
Scotland RU int is heavily backed by the RFU.

Quote: shinymcshine "Yet the RU lot manage to have independent home nations and a popular combined Lions side '" One of the key differences is that with RU the sport is actually played in the 4 separate countries!. England - www.premiershiprugby.com Ireland - www.irishrugby.ie/club/club_map.php Wales - www.wru.wales/eng/club/principal ... _clubs.php Scotland - BT Premiership www.scottishrugby.org/fixtures-r ... ion=116447 Whereas elite level RL is played in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and we can add Cumbria for the next level down. This is why it is a farce.

Quote: shinymcshine "Yet the RU lot manage to have independent home nations and a popular combined Lions side '" One of the key differences is that with RU the sport is actually played in the 4 separate countries!. England - www.premiershiprugby.com Ireland - www.irishrugby.ie/club/club_map.php Wales - www.wru.wales/eng/club/principal ... _clubs.php Scotland - BT Premiership www.scottishrugby.org/fixtures-r ... ion=116447 Whereas elite level RL is played in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and we can add Cumbria for the next level down. This is why it is a farce.

Spectator RL at any level is not a farce.
The governing body may be.

Personally, I got more excited watching the Aussies in front of a handful in Hull. Even allowing for the opposition, if I was a passionate fan, casual fan, new fan, sponsor, journalist or tea lady I'd have been wanted to see plenty more of [ithat[/i.

Compare and contrast to a full house at Huddersfield who, understandably, barely raised a murmur at the dire, predictable, bland, passionless dross England served up. Why would anyone be enthused by that? The tone was set for the performance by Wayne Bennett's pre-match BBC interview which was arrogant, rude, unpleasant, embarrassing and totally counter-productive. At a time when we are feeding off crumbs falling off the media table someone should point out his responsibilities to the British game. He might get away with it in the RL-friendly Australian press but we badly need to sell the game here, and the media could justifiably think "why bother?" .

Great Britain, Australia new zealand andvpng France or another international side with maybe a tournament to qualify as 4th team orca best of the rest team? ?

Continuity is key, as is success, win this or the world cup then there will be interest in the sport, unfortunately I doubt that the rfl will capitalise on that success let alone have anything in place for a tournament win

Quote: the flying biscuit "I'm guessing the average Rugby league match attendances cant possibly be much lower than what Rugby unions elite level are serving up...? this is genuine from hawick's bt premier league game with the mighty Herriots.... if we cant match or beat this then we should give up. However getting Scots to be interested in Yorkshire lads masquerading as Scots in their national team jersey is much more difficult'" 241 RU clubs in Scotland. 4 RL Clubs according to scotlandrl.com/play/national_league. I admire the ambition of the vision of playing RL in all corners of the globe but we have been trying it for many years now. RL is very much like Hurling in Ireland. Established about the same time, rich history, passionate and large provincial support, Sky TV deal, exciting sport, 80K people attending the season final. Difference is the GAA does not appear to be attempting to spread the game into England, Scotland or Wales by creating bogus representational sides where there is no local interest.

Quote: the flying biscuit "I'm guessing the average Rugby league match attendances cant possibly be much lower than what Rugby unions elite level are serving up...? this is genuine from hawick's bt premier league game with the mighty Herriots.... if we cant match or beat this then we should give up. However getting Scots to be interested in Yorkshire lads masquerading as Scots in their national team jersey is much more difficult'" 241 RU clubs in Scotland. 4 RL Clubs according to scotlandrl.com/play/national_league. I admire the ambition of the vision of playing RL in all corners of the globe but we have been trying it for many years now. RL is very much like Hurling in Ireland. Established about the same time, rich history, passionate and large provincial support, Sky TV deal, exciting sport, 80K people attending the season final. Difference is the GAA does not appear to be attempting to spread the game into England, Scotland or Wales by creating bogus representational sides where there is no local interest.

4 RL clubs in Scotland is better than 0.

At least it's a start, they should be helped with setting up new clubs as has happend in London, where while the professional club isn't doing too well, the amateur game is.

Id like to see England, Aus, NZ, France and PNG involved in every tournament with the 6th nation left to qualify.

Those five countries all have strong domestic leagues and have the potential to be competitive in internationals.

I think you misunderstood my point. No-one would reasonably denounce the formation of a RL club.

My point was aimed at the artificial, rootless, construction of a representative side of the country where the vast majority of the players involved were not born there. But the most telling fact is that very few people in those countries have any interest whatsoever in the game or those that represent them.

Hence you end up with the unedifying spectacle of watching home nations players who could not make the England side, play a meaningless game in which they are bound to lose, unless they play each other, in front of a derisory crowd and press indifference.

I would wager a bet...if your an England RL supporter, your father was not Scottish!
Likewise at club level, if I was born and raised in Wigan and my father was Wire born and bred, I wouldn't be chanting Wergun Wergun at the Piedome for sure.

Not sure you choose your club I think your club chooses you.

My Dad is a Wigan supporter born and raised in Platt Bridge.