Snooze, you lose

Lima will probably banned anyway so scratch him off the list...!!

Exactly. Not questioning the logic of the match but why we have a set of League Games two days after it. Us bigger clubs will be hammered for players. If it was just England I'd say get on with it, like last year but it isn't really fair to expect 6-7 players to back up two days later.

Currently looks like 3 Wigan players will make the Exiles final 22 - Leuluai, Richards and Carmont. And I wouldn't be surprised in the coaches pick Hoffman too.

I also think 3 Wigan players will probably make the England squad - O'Loughlin and both Tomkins.

That's 6 or 7 players playing 2 days before a league game. Surely we'd have grounds for postponing it, if that is the case?

I like the idea of the Exiles game - I even like the fact that the fans are involved in picking the side - but not on the same weekend as a regular SL round. That's just crazy.

Btw, Cas are likely to have just 1 player involved in the England v Exiles game - Rangi Chase.

This is the point.

More of the RFL's "level playing field" initiative.

Well I've voted for no Wigan players to play in the Exiles. The results so far produce this team

B. Hodgson
P. Richards
J. Monaghan
M. King
G. Carmont
R. Chase
T. Leuluai
D. Buderus
C. Fitzgibbon
W. Mason
M. O'Meley
C. Newton
L. O'Donnel



There's no choice on Leuluai, he's the only scrum half available.

Oh and there's a limit to how many choices from each to team a single voter can make but I can see no limit imposed on the final selection.

just voted myself but am wondering (never got round to checking myself as am on a quick dinner break) how many players for other SL teams have been selected for the game. does anyone have as many as (potentially) 7 players involved or with the possibility of involvement?

the rfl seriously are on to us

joking aside, i think its a great idea and i may be asking the missus if i can go to the game as its a day before my birthday - nice present!

i'm sure there was an option over leuluai - i just assumed he had 100% of the votes so far?

also, i think its basically 3 players per team per selection but overall if every picks a maximum of any 3 players from, for example, wigan, then overall they will become the majority anyway.

i.e. if i picked amos, richards and hoff and a hundred others did, then someone else picked tommy, richards & hoff etc etc they would become the majority overall

Compare our 6 or 7 players involved with Leeds, who are likely to only have 3 - Sinfield and Hall for England & Buderus for the Exiles.

Sammut was available on mine.

Jarrod Sammut.

We should pick certain non-Wigan players and vote for them en masse.

I've voted and didn't pick any Wigan players...

Hodgson
J Mon
King
Soliola
Meli
Chase
Sammut
Mason
Buderus
Leuluai (K)
Fa'alogo
Morrison
Faiumu

However, when I voted (bout 5 mins since) the most popular choices were:
B Hodge, Richards, J Mon, King, Carmont, Chase, Tommy, Buderus, Fitzgibbon, Mason, O'Meley, O'Donnell, Menzies.

You're speaking like this was never a problem for anyone before Wigan this year.

IIRC Leeds beat Cas with 7 players missing through international duty in 2008 and Saints had 6 of their 7 backing up to win 46-16 against Huddersfield the same weekend.

Players back up all the time after origin in Aus too.

I don't see the big deal really - if you have high profile international players, they're going to get called up for rep matches. If you don't want them to back up, don't make them (a la Leeds), if you do then play them (a la Saints).

Sure, but why not allow Wigan and Warrington (who are the only other team to probably have more than 4 players involved) to postpone their SL fixtures from that weekend? Why they plan international games and SL games on the same weekend is beyond me anyway!

If you have more than 4 out, I think you can postpone. Pretty sure that's been the rule previously.