England v Other Nationalities took place for many years ,albiet many years ago.

Happening too many times now. If Tommy had used a legal tackle he would still be on his feet.

Chase is a nasty little S*** who shouldn't ever be given a Wigan Shirt , I'd rather see one of the young lads promoted to the first team than sign him..hopefully Tommy's injury will not be as serious as first thought..but if we have to get someone in then please don't let it be chase

maybe its the rugby gods, lets see what clarke says he is always impartial

Because he got injured in an game that has feck all to do with the club who pay his salary.

Tommy might like to go Abseiling, Skydiving or Parachuting, but I bet IFL wouldnt let him.

The RFL should pay up - end of.

And what was illegal?

I only ask as he seemed to have been a half second late from being able to wrap the ball up. Is it the illegal clash of thigh on thigh in a tackle that looks fine or some other slight against the rugby gods?

You have made such a compelling argument, how could the RFL hope to counter it(!)

They may not be of the same standard as aus but are alot better challenge than playing France. You may not like the exiles concept but at the moment it is better option than what we used to have.
My concern is that with the increased cap and strong aus $ the standard of player coming to SL will drop and kill the concept.
Personally I liked the roses matches but sadly our sport is very insular and club based as proved by some on this thread. We mostly care for for our little clubs. Boo other players from teams we don't like or moan and want the concept stopped when a player from our club gets injured.
With our general attitude (not just Wigan I mean all SL clubs) we will never succeed internationally

It's not the attitude of the fans that means we aren't competing with Aus and NZ, it's the calibre of the players. Why do so few people understand this?

Is it balls.

I was there and, believe me, it was sh*te. The fans weren't interested, the exiles weren't interested and I've never been so bored watching rugby league in my life, and I sat through all 80 minutes of Salford 5-2 Catalans.

The entertainment value was nil, and a properly thought out Lancs Yorks would be so much better - at least the fans could dislike each other.

It's a useless, useless concept.

Bad Luck Tommy, but theres now an opportunity for someone to step up. Our youngsters haven't let us down for a long long time. Perhaps we'll discover someone with the impact Sam's made. Useful testing everyone out. But no doubt there will be calls to panic buy and end up with some one we dont need.

I understand it's the players, but when we try something to improve the standard of opposition our players face we all moan and want it to be finished before its been given a chance to succeed.

Does that really make much of a difference internationally though? I really dont think it does. It is like saying France is a step up on Wales but it means sweet FA when Australia and NZ are 10 step ups from that. Much the same applies when you talk about the Exiles. Indeed on tonights showing I would even wonder how much of a step up it actually is on France. England should have beaten the Exiles by plenty tonight, 20+ easily and that is being generous. That Exiles team wasnt a good team by any means and most of them didnt look bothered and they played like strangers. The most laughable thing for me was when Leuluai said to Waterhouse (I think it was him) for him to take an inside ball, Waterhouse couldnt understand so Leuluai generously demonstrated to Waterhouse (and the England players) what he meant. The play was promptly run and Waterhouse smashed. That is the sort of rubbish standard the match was. It was awful and the intensity was poor.

I'd like to see Mellor given a run out for the next three games (Widnes, Bradford and Wakey) to see how he goes. The way our defence is working, we can afford to lose some of our attacking threat.