Watched Ireland v All Blacks this morning and of course the origin game earlier on in the week. Full of intensity, passion, brutality, and inspirational crowds.

Have been looking forward to exiles game all day hoping for a little bit of the same...........my god what a massive disappointment. The crowd is pitiful and the game has been very boring - yes I know its been raining.

In terms of comparing this to the standard of origin game would have to be someones idea of a truly terrible joke. One has to wander what sort of cricket score would be racked up by either of the state sides if they took on either England or their anzac leftovers!

Discuss.......

11 thousand and odd there this evening .... don't think so tbh - think they'll be a damn site less at the 2 nd game .
Rubbish !

i think there will be a mad dash for tickets for 2nd game,














































not

Dreadful.I bet Aussies are shaking in their boots.

Totally dire game, very poor advert for UK RL IMO

England looked very poor and even with a depleted Exile team construed to give Engalnd an easy win they made very hard work of it.

Chuffing christ some of the match reaction from Wigan fans is way OTT. Someone suggested that the concept should end and another suggested that the RFL pay the wages of their injured player.

I don't think the weather helped to be honest, but it was rather dull!
I'm considering going to Hudds, quite fancy the two shirts and a ticket offer on the VT for £44

That was a terrible game, raining or otherwise.

The Exiles looked like what they were - a group of strangers thrown together at the last minute and as a result, England should have put a cricket score on them; they failed to do so.

Not sure what it tells us, other than the obvious.

The 'Exiles' is a poor concept there will never be the intensity as who and what are they actually playing for? I can't believe it actually counts as an International. If we want to emulate Origin then we need to get a Yorkshire v Lancashire thing going and stick with it over a number of years so that you build the interest and the intensity so that it gives it a bit of history. Sadly we are always looking for a quick fix and trying to manufacture rivalries but it doesn't work like that. Was yesterdays game any better or more constructive than playing France or Wales?

Should have a 4 team inter counties championship. Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and a rest of GB. Players play for the counties of their birth and the rest of GB side could maybe have a choice of say 4 overseas players of their choice who are playing over here in order to strengthen their squad. Set a side 4 weekends during the season for games with everyone playing each other once then top two play off in the final. Jamie peacock wouldn't like it but with the right marketing and commitment from the players it could be a concept that takes off

Uptoncat - like we once had Yorks,Lancs,Cumbria and Other Nationalities.Good idea but still the same old same old got selected for Great Britain unlike Origin games where you have to show up or stand a chance of being out of the Ozzie side.

It needs to be taken seriously for it to work. That starts with the players and their mindsets. If the players don't take it seriously then who will?

So if we had East vs West as a genuine selection match this would add intensity an, IF it could be marketed properley, there should be good numbers turning up to watch.
One of the big problems with the exiles game is the selection policy of the national coach.
There doesn't seem any genuine fofward planning.
I know we have the knights games, but some of those lads should be in the main event and this would allow some fringe players to play for the Knights .

it was passing my mind how poor the game was as far as atmosphere at the ground.
I truly believe this exiles competition is another white elephant that some white collar worker has dreamed up to be the holy grail, no dowt it will of been the weasel Mr Lewis that left another legacy for the RFL to clean up.

there is a rivalry but due to lack of support it will never become the high tension game that sky would like to emulate

my views is scrap it and put the east verses west games on.
use the pennines to separate the two and sod putting imports in let us build our own little origin games on

Yorkshire Yorkshire Yorkshire

Sometimes I think Wakey fans take this chip on the shoulder no one ever picks our players stuff a bit far and frankly it gets a bit tedious.

Truth is it was a fairly decent game considering the weather.

As for a concept it's decent one for what it is.

For starters the War of the Roses was crap, utter rubbish I know I went to most of them. There may have been some pride in the Yorkshire shirt but none of the "Lancashire" players ever gave a toss.

As for our local opposition, the French - well there just not good enough and have not been for 40 years - hence no passion and no competition.

Then we have the home nations, Ireland, Wales and Scotland - all the player not good enough for England representing countries most have never even visited.

At least with the Exiles there is an element of pride and team mate v team mate as in Origin. I'm not suggesting for a moment it is or ever will be Origin but it's closer than the rest. It also pits the England lads against players of genuine NRL trained ability and at least is similar to playing Australia, sort of Australia light. Sure most are not the best but they are still better than most Northern Hemisphere players.

If you view Exiles as a training tool for playing the Aussies then short of playing NZ in a mid season series before playing them then it's as good as it ever going to get.

It needs to be three series - it needs money thrown at it - it needs some imagination, but above all it needs persistance.

I'm actually going the the Hudds one, why not what harm can it do - sometimes you have to swallow your pride - and to be fair the only Trinity players with a realistic shout was Amor and he's really a Leeds player and Aiton.