Fans are are being allowed their say on who plays in the England vs Exiles game at Headingley on the 10th of June. www.internationalorigin.com/ Here's my team. 1. Brent Webb 2. Joel Monaghan 3. Matt King 4. George Carmont 5. Pat Richards 6. Rangi Chase 7. Jarrod Sammut 8. Mark O'Meley 9. Michael Monaghan 10. Willie Mason 11. Craig Fitzgibbon 12. David Fa'alogo 13. Steve Menzies Really good idea I reckon.

Fans are are being allowed their say on who plays in the England vs Exiles game at Headingley on the 10th of June. www.internationalorigin.com/ Here's my team. 1. Brent Webb 2. Joel Monaghan 3. Matt King 4. George Carmont 5. Pat Richards 6. Rangi Chase 7. Jarrod Sammut 8. Mark O'Meley 9. Michael Monaghan 10. Willie Mason 11. Craig Fitzgibbon 12. David Fa'alogo 13. Steve Menzies Really good idea I reckon.

Call me cynical but I do not believe for one minute the fans will decide who plays even though the idea is a good one.

Stealths choice is very good and should England get beat as I suspect with the quality of exiles, surely we should then realise that there are way too many overseas players as things stand, if we as a nation are serious about aiming to get to same level as Aussies this is only option as in my view the quality players are coming through but chances reduce with amount of players that are non english.

Stealth,

I like your team though I have a few differences, the main one being that Buderus has been announced as captain, so will surely start at hooker.

1.Hodgson
2.Monaghan
3.King
4.Carmont
5.Richards
6.Chase
7.Leuluai
8.Mason
9.Buderus
10.Leuluai
11.Hoffman
12.Menzies
13.Fitzgibbon

So many potential lineups in that squad.

I didn't realise Buderus was captain.

This is why I put it on, no 2 teams are going to be the same.

If you read the criteria for the voting there are coach's picks for the side as well, given that you only vote for 13 players there was always going to be a bit of licence for a coach. This system seems to work pretty well for the All-Star games in North American Sports so I can't see it not working over here.



To a certain extent I agree with you. I don't mind top quality players coming over like the ones in the Exiles preliminary squad I think they add something to the league. It's the mediocre ones that come over and keep British players out that I have a problem with.

Letting the fans choose the side? Never heard any thing as daft. This is not the X factor,this is RUGBY LEAUGE the greatest game.

Why is it daft?

Surely it is an honour to be regarded worthy by fans of all clubs to be chosen for this team?

I think its a stupid idea.
Why do we need to raise the profile of overseas players.

This is being talked about as our origin. How can we keep this going without bringing more overseas players?

We should get our own one going. They should let Mac pick his first team and then let another coach pick the second team.
Play them against each other and then pick the team from them.

I don't think it's trying to do that. They are trying to produce a competitive team that might give a bit of spice and biff. The ex aussie internationals will certainly raise their game. We tried the "war of the roses" and it didn't seem to capture much interest.



That might work, and would have the added bonus that after Mac Bananas' Team looses they will realise they have the wrong coach in charge of England

I don't see it as a stupid idea. It's an interesting concept with fans involvement. It's innovative and lets see how it goes. England Vs France has been a regular fixture for the last few years and has not been competitive. This is a take on an Origin style match. It will give the England squad a much needed test. We all want to beat the Aussies (and Kiwi's!) and playing France and Wales every year doesn't give us the tests we need to prepare us for the Tri-nations. The Exiles will be a very strong squad and I'm interested to see how it goes.

Why does origin in Aus work so well?
Because any player playing crap in the 3 games does not get picked for Aus.
Will the same be said here?
I bet it wont.
We need to lift the intensity of our players. We do not need to lift those of those who have left Aus/New Zealand/France and come over here for a pay day.

We've tried mid-season games against France and they've failed miserably. Firstly beacuse of the one sided nature of the games and secondly because the French have shown no signs of improvement, they even lost at home to Wales.

The Roses matches didn't take off because of lack of interest.

We're not left with many other options to be honest. Either we go with the New Zealand All Blacks style Possible vs Probables game or an NHL Ice Hockey style All Star game which is effectively the what the RFL have gone with.

One thing I'd be pretty certain about is that whoever are picked for the Exiles will be well up for getting one over one the pommie national team, which should make for an intriguing game.

I for one will be buying an Exiles shirt anyway, because if this game does bomb, and there's enough negativity on the VT to suggest it could, that shirt will be a nice one off rare shirt to increase in value over time. I might even go to the game, I fancy a Friday night on the lash in Headingley.