Have advocated it for years and it is the best we can manage to give the England squad decent opposition prior to which otherwise they will not get.
A very good idea and I hope it works.

Common sense applies here. If you have so many players selected (think it's 4) then you can postpone the game. Wigan wont suddenly be without Sam Tomkins, Joel Tomkins, Sean O'loughlin, Darrell Goulding, Ryan Hoffman, Brett Finch, Amos Roberts, Pat Richards and Jeff Lima one weekend.

I hope there will be a rule where you can only select so many players from one club. Otherwise it will be mainly all Wigan, Saints, Leeds and Warrington players playing in the fixture.

cue mysterious injuries as in wendyball meaningless friendlies

That's a very narrow minded viewpoint. The game needs a much improved international scene if we wish to grow, which will inturn benefit Wigan (greater sky money etc).

As for injuries, it's just part of sport. I don't think for a second it's a meaningless game either. What about pre-season games? You don't get a point for them, but players could quite easily pick up an injury? What about training games?

The only thing I would hope is a cap on how many players from one club you can select for the fixture. The top four teams - Wigan, Saints, Leeds and Warrington (possibly Huddersfield) - would make up the vast majority of both sides and I hope we can avoid a situation like that.

Sounds like a great match and I would certainly be attending, is there any venues in the pipe line?

I think this would be a great idea. Not only would it spread the potential problems of injuries around the league fairly, it would force creativity in the selection process rather than the obvious 'top player' selections.

About time this got organised. The last few mid season internationals have been a waste of time. This would be the nearest to origin games we'll get over here.

A maximum of up to 2 players from each club for both teams is the only way this is going to work if its going to be on the same weekend as a round of fixtures, however it kind of defeats the object of the game which im assuming is to strengthen England RL by giving them bigger tests before facing Aus/NZ.

A weakened England Team;

Tomkins - Wigan
Fox - Hull KR
Shenton - Saints
Bridge - Warrington
Cudjoe - Huddersfield
McGuire - Leeds
Robinson - Huddersfield
Graham - St Helens
Sinfield - Leeds
Burgess - Sydney
Westwood - Warrington
Ellis - Wests
O'Loughlin - Wigan

Scruton - Bradford
Smith - Salford
Lynch - Bradford
Purdham - Quins

vs a Weakened 'all stars' team:

Pattern - Salford
Monaghan - Warrington
King - Warrington
Delaney - Leeds
Richards - Wigan
Leuluai - Wigan
Dobson - Hull KR
Perry - St Helens
Buderus - Leeds
Mason - Hull KR
O'Donnell - Huddersfield
Puletua - St Helens
Fitzgibbon - Hull FC

O'Meley - Hull FC
Fa'alogo - Huddersfield
Feka - Salford
Randall -Quins

Not as exciting...

I dont want WIGAN calling off games due to this international game as we will end up playing another midweek game on top of that cas game that hasnt been arranged yet 2 months on from the fixtures being in the clubs hands.If we are taking the international game serious cancel a weekend so all you have is the focus on the england game.

The interesting thing for me is the England Knights squad which will be announced shortly. It appears that this will be a squad between academy and full International level, I'm guessing 19 - 22 year olds.

They should be able to pick a team from that age group to compete against the full French squad.

got to agree with this, you could have a tri nations between england nights, france and wales which would be a very good little comp.

Well not really seeing as they couldn't even win the Euro Cup. They're e, just face it.

2008 - LAST in the World Cup and in the game I went too they were dreadful.
2009 - Hammered in the 4 Nations
2010 - Lost to Wales in the Euro Cup

For all those complaining that their team will be losing players, isn't this making for a good opportunity for young players to break through and make a name for themselves? It would be interesting to see what team we would put out if we had lost Leuluai, Richards, Tomkins x2, O'Loughlin etc...

To be honest, I think we would cope better than most other teams even though we are likely to lose a lot more players. How will Cas/Hull KR handle losing Chase and Dobson for instance?

Roberts
Goulding
Gleeson
Carmont
Charnley
Deacon
Finch
Fielden
McIlorum
Coley
Hansen
Hoffman/Tuson
Farrell

Lima
Prescott
O'Carroll
Logan Tomkins

Not a bad side at all imo