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Mascord: Kangaroo tours return 2019/2020; Great Britain to play Ashes Series

Messages
11,354
Meninga's crusade to restore international rugby league to its former glory in Australia has enjoyed a victory even bigger than the crushing Four Nations final victory over New Zealand.

Kangaroo Tours are back.

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Fairfax Media understands the first Australian tour of Britain since 2001 will be announced within a fortnight, for either 2019 or 2020. Officials from the two countries agreed in principle to the resurrection of one of the game's most treasured institutions in meetings around the RLIF Congress in Liverpool last week.

Great Britain may also end a decade of dormancy for the incoming Australian tour, replacing England for fully-fledged Ashes Tests. The last extended Kangaroo Tour was in 1994.

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"We wanted to win it and show everybody back home what it means to us to play for the Kangaroos," said captain Cameron Smith after the 34-8 win over New Zealand.

"We want everyone back home to get behind this team, get behind the international game. Forty thousand people here without the home team, that's a fantastic result, a fantastic atmosphere for us.

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Ambassadors: Cooper Cronk, Mal Meninga, Cameron Smith and Darius Boyd have restored international rugby league's former glory. Photo: Alex Livesey
"It's where these games need to be played, in the big stadiums.

"We spoke about how we wanted to go about it, rebuild the international game and put it back on top where it needs to be. We've made some pretty good steps throughout this whole season to do that."

1479680199641.jpg

Two for the good: Josh Dugan scored a double in the Four Nations final against New Zealand. Photo: Martin Rickett
Meninga's 2016 side evoked memories of some of the teams he spearheaded in the northern hemisphere in 1982, 1986 and 1994 as they played with precision, extravagant skill and occasionally even grace to rack up a 24-0 halftime lead at Anfield.

The win lifted Australia back to the top of rugby league's world rankings for the first time in two years.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...after-success-in-england-20161120-gstlfy.html
 

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,546
Wait a few days and we will get the we cant do this or we cant do that statements
 

Arucard

Juniors
Messages
589
I don't get why Great Britain has to come back for it.......
Playing with a different name isn't going to make them play any different. And there aren't any players that would make the team from the other nations that make up Britain other than Brough. Unless they are gonna call up the heritage players for it like Coote etc......
 

roughyedspud

Coach
Messages
12,181
I told you all weeks ago that a ashes series will come back...won't be in 2019 cos thats not a tour year,i was of the understanding it'll be in 2018...

Also it won't be GB...thats just mascord being a GB twat as usual..it'll be 3 tests v england with midweek tests against wales,scotland,ireland
 

RoosTah

Juniors
Messages
2,257
I told you all weeks ago that a ashes series will come back...won't be in 2019 cos thats not a tour year,i was of the understanding it'll be in 2018...

Also it won't be GB...thats just mascord being a GB twat as usual..it'll be 3 tests v england with midweek tests against wales,scotland,ireland
Good. Playing as GB is a pointless exercise until at least a couple of the other BI nations are developed to a decent standard that they can field consistently competitive teams on their own
 

roughyedspud

Coach
Messages
12,181
2020 is the 125th birthday of RL in england so maybe the aussies will come up here then for a full tour* instead of 2018.

maybe australia & NZ will face each other in 2018??..leaving england to either find someone to play 3 tests against or organise our own little comp with 3 other teams,kinda like we did in 2012 with france & wales?? i dunno


*full tours mean weekend tests & midweek tests...not club games!
 

RoosTah

Juniors
Messages
2,257
2020 is the 125th birthday of RL in england so maybe the aussies will come up here then for a full tour* instead of 2018.

maybe australia & NZ will face each other in 2018??..leaving england to either find someone to play 3 tests against or organise our own little comp with 3 other teams,kinda like we did in 2012 with france & wales?? i dunno


*full tours mean weekend tests & midweek tests...not club games!

I like the idea of a tour with 3 tests against England, but opening the series against Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Maybe play one on a weekend and the other two mid week
 

roughyedspud

Coach
Messages
12,181
yep

Australia warm up v wales,scotland or ireland,we'll play france then into the test series and a couple of midweek games..

sorted...see how easy this should be lol
 
Messages
11,354
play the French game in Lillie, its only 16km from the famous battle of Fromelles or Armistaie day thta'll pack out the stadium.
 

Pommy

Coach
Messages
14,657
play the French game in Lillie, its only 16km from the famous battle of Fromelles or Armistaie day thta'll pack out the stadium.

Is league not a southern France sport? Lille is very Flemish and shares more in common with Belgium than it does much of France.
A nice place had a great New Year's Eve there a few years ago.
 

LESStar58

Referee
Messages
25,496
Guess we'll need to wait and see what announcements the RLIF make in the next coming days. (It is the next coming days right?)

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...after-success-in-england-20161120-gstlfy.html

OK; so my question is this... if it's an old school Kangaroo Tour do the home nations become Great Britain again (I'm guessing no) or do they just play England? And will there be mid week games and against who?

I think in the interests of developing the international competition then they should drop the mid week club games (and I'm limited them to Leeds, Wigan and St. Helens) and play matches against Ireland, Scotland, Wales and then France on the way home (just like the good old days).
 
Messages
14,139
Forget midweek games. To treat games against Wales and Ireland like tour games with second string teams would be pretty weak. And where will they be played? The Celtic nations struggle to get four figure crowds at decent times. A Wednesday night in November in Bray or Wrexham or Llanelli is unlikely to have them flocking in, let alone finding somewhere in Scotland. I'd make it five games. France, Wales, ashes tests over five weekends. Done. If they want to take 35 players and play midweek then they can play the emus against club sides in the north where people will turn up. If they played four club games it would allow the rfl to use it as incentive for clubs outside the top two or three to earn a game. Maybe teams three to six should qualify. It would give the teams at the lower end of the eight something to play for.
 

jim_57

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
4,290
I'd like to see european nations get home games with the ambition of building crowds and support in those countries. With a bit of marketing budget and a big draw I'm sure Scotland, Ireland, Italy etc. could draw a reasonable crowd even just with the curiosity factor. Proposed tour:

Australia V NZ (locked in IIRC)
France V England (Should be Locked in)

Wales V England
France V Australia

Ireland/Scotland/Italy V Australia
Ireland/Scotland/Italy V England
Wales V France

England V Australia × 3

5 weeks, getting ambitious with crowds, marketing, stadium etc. 5k+ for Italy, Scotland, Ireland. 10+ for Wales, 15k+ for France, average of 35k+ for England V Australia.

So essentially England does a mini tour of Europe and Australia does a full 5 week tour of 3 countries. Meanwhile NZ plays the Pacific Nations and/or tours North America.

Work a similar model every tour year, just replace Euro with Pacific teams or Australia with NZ.
 
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