I cant say this news is any surprise. At the end of the day the Exiles match is a nothing game for the Exiles players and means nothing to them. It is a bit of a get together for them and a catch up with a few old mates but anyone thinks they take it seriously is kidding themselves. They are not representing their country like the England players are and as last year showed the intensitiy of the games are poor and you can see that players werent giving 100%. The RFL can try and hype it up as much as they want, and they certainly will if England win, but it is a meaningless friendly. It is also a concept which is doomed to failure with the number and quality of imports declining year on year, even next years Exiles team will be a pale imitation of this year just looking at the Wigan players alone that wont be here.

I think that any player would be more inclined/ honoured to represent their country than a scratch team like the Exiles and therefore it would be a lot lighter of a decision to drop out for the likes of Finch and Carmont than any of the England lads.

But it's attitudes like yours that we need to change - State of Origin is meaningless if you choose to look at it that way. Only by hyping it up and making it an honour to be involved will we make it mean something - and we really need it to mean something because then you get the intensity of rep football and then you get a better England.

I'm fully behind it as a concept - we don't have the right level of rivalry across the pennines to have an origin series and some serious form of representative competition is vital to strengthening our game. I'm desperate for it to work and become a highly competitive three game series - Ethihad, Elland Road and Wembley would do me, and I foolishly assumed most other League fans felt the same way,

I think that's the reason they actually brought the concept in, they know about the increased salary cap and the fact the aussie lads are effectively giving up SOO and the Oz national team by coming here, they are trying to bring something in to attract them.
Now granted it's nothing major but it's something.

Dont be daft, this is the attitude of the Exiles players and I have been told as much by a couple of them. If you really think they could care less about it and are prepared to give 100%, play through the pain barrier etc for something that means absolutely nothing them then you are kidding yourself. State of Origin means something and they are representing something, not just a made up entity which means nothing. Just watch last years game and tell me that 1-17 on the Exiles were giving 100%.

Yes, but you go back 25 years and SoO was just a made up entity wasn't it? We have to make it mean something to all involved, and that's partly down to the RFL, partly to the players and partly down to us fans. If we can sell out the stadiums, and move to bigger stadia then the players will start to care a bit more. I don't care who you are, if we can make an Exiles game sell out the Etihad then any overseas player worth their salt would want to play in that game, and want to win it.

You seem almost like you'd be happy to see it fail, and I just don't understand that attitude.

NSW and Queensland are not made-up entities they actually mean something to Australians. The Exiles is a completely made up entity that doesn't represent anything, therefore people don't get excited by it, including the players.

You make an awful lot of assumptions. I would love the concept to be a success as you envisage but I am also a realist, whose opinion as partly been formed by the Exiles players that I have spoken to. Players will not put their careers and future at risk and/or jeapodise their season for a game that means nothing to them. This has already been shown by the withdrawls this season and the lack of effort last.

Also how are New South Wales and Queensland made up entities? Have you ever met a Queenslander and asked him what he thinks of NSW (Nothing to do with RL or State of Origin)? The State of Origin is much more like an international or say Wales v England at RU then the Exiles game. What does an Exile represent? Do you realy think they care less less about being one? There is simply no comparison no matter how much you would like it to be.

Lets look at the Exile team going forward. Lima, Carmont, Leuluai, Finch wont be available for the Exiles next year as they wont be here. They almost certainly wont be replaced by a similar calibre of import and in some cases no import at all. Other imports from other clubs are going back home and even this year the Exiles team have less quality players to choose from than last year with King, Buderus etc going home. With the new NRL TV deal and the exchange rate please tell me how the Exiles team and concept could possibly get stronger, it cannot it can only get weaker as good quality imports will no longer come here and with tightening quota rules the number of imports declines. It will be lucky last another 3 years imo.

the only way we will get top imports from NRL in the next few years is to pay them more than they can get in the NRL, that means paying at least twice the amount a UK based player would be on. This means we would have less cap left to pay home grown players which could then drive them away from the sport. We need to get more money into the game to be able to compete on a level playing field.

Just add a third game and

West England
East England
Exiles

WE v EX
EX v EE
WE v EE

The games then have something for the foreign guys and the WE & EE teams are used to assess which players should play for England in the main comp. You'll get more out the fans i would think too.
Winner is either the one that wins both their games or the highest agg score

You make some excellent points in that last paragraph. IMO the RFL took too long to implement an oversees "All Stars" game/series as the mid season international(s) for GB/England. It was often talked about but we kept persevering with games agaisnt France or Wales. The Exiles concept has now been introduced just as we are about to restrict the amount of oversees players a club can have. If we'd have introduced this a few years ago and had players like Barrett, Gidley, Lyon, Jones etc playing then it could easily have gathered momentum and turned in to a decent series.

As it is, as much as I want as many good English players in SL as possible, with the current quota rules plus the NRL salary cap increase, we are going to end up playing a team of journeymen, players at the end of their careers or who are simply not good enough for the NRL. On paper it was a decent idea but I fear it may end up just sort of petering out like the Lanc v York games did.

I don't know where this lack of effort by the Exiles theory in last year's match comes from. I went to the match and didn't notice any slackers, indeed they were going strong at the end and won it at the death.