England need more Test match league

England will get better. Unfortunately for them it's a case of get good players but not great. After the players get great they are poached by Union - it's much worse in England than Australia. I live in Uganda but converse a lot with the Brits here and they know very little about league but know that the defense in League is much better (their words, not mine). They were saying this afternoon that the English Union team needs more leaguies!! That's the problem for England, they are also a breeding ground for Union. Wigan remind me a lot of the Broncos - in a League heartland, very successful, but unfortunately (like the Broncos) have their great players poached by another code; e.g. Jason Robinson, Shaun Edwards, Chris Ashton and now Joel Tomkins (luckily not Sam). This is the main problem for them at the moment, they need to find ways of getting more finances to keep their talent in League. May be the NRL is the way to go, with the NRL looking to expand, and everyone saying that the talent pool will be diluted if this is done than bringing in Brits isn't a bad way of keeping the competitiveness in the NRL, whilst developing the English (and other nationalities) players. Then the Super League could be pumping out more British youngsters into their comp, whilst getting some experienced older NRL players to give those kids leadership and mentoring. Let's not forget that the power at the moment in International Rugby League is shifting from who can come in 2nd to the Kangaroos to who can beat the Kangaroos now. In the early 50's and 60's the Brits were on top, it's just the way sport goes. Look at cricket - Australia dominated each format of the game for so long, and now they aren't in the top 3. Time changes a lot of things.

"Maybe they should expand the four nations and make it the six nations with the top qualifiers from the pacific cup, the atlantic cup and and the european cup." I like that idea. Have each round's games played as a tripler header. Would be good for the sports networks. Might help bring more people to Test matches too. If you can see three Tests for say $50 then that's value for money.

So Welsh players in the squad such as:- Andrew Gay(South wales Scorpions) Eliot Kear (Crusaders) Christianan Roets (Scorpions) Lloyd white (Crusaders) Gil Dudson(Crusaders) Jordan james(crusaders) Andy Bracek (crusaders) Peter Lupton(crusaders) Ben Flower(Crusaders) geraint davies(unattached) lee Williams(crusaders) are all english players with welsh grandmothers.Would love to see your evidence re the above.

No Jaceman,the RFL claims there are more rl players.At last reports rl has junior as well as adult rl players in old blighty.Juniors have this evolutionary tendency to age. A few teams in the south LOL.do some homework maestro.

I doubt he will be playing for anyone,for some time.

jaceman Yes,they do play rl there..

Yeah Warriors, good point about the Kangaross trophy cabinet being bare. I like the Kiwi one with two trophys in it!

Apparently there are 20K adult RL players in the UK so they are always going to struggle. CC claims there are more but whilst there are a few teams starting in the south they are reasonably social..

Ryan Tandy could play for Oz..

Do they play RL in Italy??

Wales RL team is full of English players with Welsh grandmothers...

England beat France overnite 32-18. Seems the French gave them a good game. Another please aspect was a near capacity crowd of 17,000 in Avignon. The French play Ireland in Limerick and Scotland in Perpignan over the coming weeks. Aside, England could actually be the dark horses of the Four Nations with a growing number of NRL raised players.

Glad you like the idea Oikee. Just giving it some more thought though i think teams should still have to qualify to earn the right to play against the big boys. Maybe they should expand the four nations and make it the six nations with the top qualifiers from the pacific cup, the atlantic cup and and the european cup. Maybe they could have a jackpot so every game the Aussies win the jackpot can get bigger every year. Imagine the interest it could gain. Also with the prize money I think 50% of the prize money can go to the players and coaching staff and the other 50% goes to developing rugby league in that country.

Fair Dinkum, i really think it is time, and place for rugby league to think outside the Square, these days it's all about Money, instead of wasting Hundreds of Millions on trying to promote the game, just offer a bounty on the Kangaroos heads, watch them flock to the game. So 10 million as reward compared to hundreds of millions trying to promote the game, Genious Warriors. So what after 10 years some team beats the Kangaroos, what a ride. :) This is the best thought ever, nice work Warriors.

:) finally, someone who thinks and talks my language, yes a 10 million dollar bounty for anyteam outside NZ who beats the Kangaroos. This is what rugby league needs to promote, after all, these days, its all about money. Great idea, wish i had thought of this, nice work Warriors. Straight away you would prick the ears of the Americans,(i smell money), and China will lift it's head out of their building cities obsession to look. It would create news, around the world. And King of the Georginites, mate dont make me laugh, Wales, come on mate, when Wales ever win anything with the word Rugby in front of it, come talk to me. Watch what haopens to this lot in the 4 nations, and that is how i rate Wales. No offence to Wales, but gee whiz, England might as well give up if Wales win anything.

In that case screw the England team, a successful ESL has greater importance than a more consistently competitive English team.

Yes the Kangaroos are a sublime team but I would not say they are unbeatable. After all their trophy cabinet is pretty bare. I still think the Kiwis are still the team to beat, they will only get better and better as the tournament goes on. What I would like to see is some of the other nations stand up and knock off the big three. Maybe they should offer a massive financial incentive to any other team outside of the top three if they can knock off Australia. It might be costly at first but it would certainly put some life back into international rl if it were to happen.

"This is not rugby union where Wales can get away with stodgy defence" Ummm..... did yo uactually watch Wales play Oikee? Yes they had got defence, but they had sublime attack as well. Did yo usee them tear the irish a new one? they played rugby people want to watch. that is why 65K people crammed the Millenium stadium at 9.00am in the morning. Please dont sell the Welsh rugby team short.

I really think international RL is not worth pursuing heaps. Just the odd game here and there. We all know the pinnacle of RL is SofO. The fans know it too. The AFL and NFL prove u dont need to be widely played internationally to be successful. So what if rugby union is played in Russia or Argentina!? Keep internationals to a minimum. The Kangaroos are just too good. Its rarely a close spectacle, its frankly something that should be made special by being infrequent.

Well said Matt, to be fair though, the Super League has alot bigger player base to chase players from, (Europe), so they need to keep promtoing the international game and get as many players from around Europe into the super league comp. As for the NRL, yes, let them attract the very best players fomr any country, even France could do with a few players over here in the NRL, to give them another kick start. The highlight of this year's 4 nations for me is seeing jumpin Jack Reed play for England. This guy is one of the most coolest calmest guys i have seen play over the last 10 years, nothing ruffles him, and he has got skills hidden away which the Broncos are yet to enjoy, some of his round the corner offloads have been pretty to watch the later part this year, plus he is like a bulldog, (british bulldog). This kid is going places, plus the red hair helps. :) Either way, good or bad, looking forward to him running out for the Bronco's again next year, along with 3 games Hodgo.