I'm not sure who mentioned it, might've been on another thread but I would also be fully behind an 8 club league. 2 games a week on Sky to fulfil their quota and at the end of the season the top team goes to the GF and 2nd and 3rd play each other for the other place. No shield or any of that crap. Less fixtures, a bit more emphasis on the Challenge Cup and a more competitive league with the talent spread across less clubs until we can actually develop some decent players.

The problem is that we need international competitions to create interest for players.

One of the reasons given for player defections to RU is the bigger international dimension.

I've long thought that the WCC could be something truly different and exciting, which RU could never offer. But 2016 might have seen that ship sunk too.

It's a strange time for RL in this country. All 3 teams in the World Club Series had big injury problems, so it's hard to come to concrete conclusions (although i still think we'd probably have lost all 3 games). I'd say Leeds and Saints and us to an extent are going through a period of transition too. You've got a salary cap that's too low, but raising it doesn't automatically create great players. You've got a reserve 'league' (if you can call it that) which is an absolute joke.

But on the other hand it's one of the most exciting times to be an England supporter. We've got arguably the best coach in the world and a pack that can compete with the very best. Question marks still hang over our half-backs, but things are looking promising for the 4 nations and World Cup (fingers crossed).

It was interesting to listen to Wayne Bennetts interview with Eddie Hemmings and how he spoke about being able to tell which superleague coaches are good coaches by the habits their players bring with them in to the England camp. He spoke about him wanting to select players ideally who are being well coached on a weekly basis as a month isn't really long enough to get bad habits out of players systems.

His choice of assistant and other coaches will be interesting but there's one things that's for sure-He knows what he's talking about.

Sorry, but you're misguided if you think RU could never offer anything like WCC.

There's ample strength in Union competitions in UK, France, Oz, NZ, South Africa, even Italy and Argentina to host something like WCC, but they simply don't need to as they already have successful and competitive international and pan-continental cup competitions in place.

RL should concentrate on a champions v champions one-off game. Less of the attempts to generate money with this sort of thing - which only results in scorn from the Aussies and any casual viewer tuning in thinking 'What's the point?' and promptly switching off again.

I doubt RU could put out any club sides who are as tough and skilled as the top boys from the NRL, but ultimatley I agree that it doesn't make much difference as a) we don't sell it properly - I'm sure that no-one outside the RL corridor knew that Brisbane were in town - and b) the NRL only seem to be getting interested at a time when our domestic sport has regressed in standards back to the pre-1980 era. So yes, though they've spent a couple of decades getting spanked by us in the WCC, now they are indeed turning scornful again.