So next weeks game is being played on a building site, even better then!!!!

The most tragic aspect of this joke comp is that England and France will play each other next week knowing that they will play each other in the final the week after!!

Not Ray's fault, perhaps the BBC should have employed a statistician as Sky do. Perhaps someone we know would have done the job on the cheapish.

pointless competition. surely this time could be better spent playing an Oz u21 side or a city/country side? whats the point in giving wales and france a good hiding this off season to get a good hiding when it matters the next? we are not improving as an international side doing this.

Theyve got the Salford final part right! haha

It could get worse, Tomkins could play, aggravate his injury and miss the start of the season !!!

I think the idea is to develop other nations & RL, as opposed to just England.

And I'm sure it did exactly that.

It was painful viewing. Your failsafe plan for developing the game is?

im not sure what the rfl expect? there isnt a top level successful welsh, scottish or irish club team so how do you expect the national side to do any different?

the only hope of these sides performing well against england is by flooding their side with aussies or old heads who dont want to be/wont be selected for england anymore - and this doesnt sit right with the idea of developing the game.

short sighted as it is, i dont care about this tournament, but i will care when we play the kiwis and aussies - and i dont see how this is helping us.

on another note, the financial state of our game lends me to think expanding the game isnt the best idea...

Documented in other threads.

Surly doing a Lancs vs Yorke series would be much better! Not offence to the other 2 nations, but the standard is nowhere near that of ours! Or even make the series into 4 teams with Lancs, Yorkshire, Wales/rest of England and then France!

Anyone?

Lancashire / Yorkshire games happened on a fairly regular basis in the past.. I remember going to a few in the late 60's / early 70's. Usually on a mid-week evening, and when on the proper side of the pennines, invariably at Central Park, as the only ground with decent floodlights

Then, the games were poorly attended, and 2nd string players the norm, as the 'stars' of the time often stepped down for one reason or another. (I'll leave that open )

It flopped then and I (sadly) see no reason as to why it wouldn't flop again.