Do you think tours to europe will return ?

[Kurt Angle]

I'm going to post on the prospect of tours returning to RL.

In whatever format, I felt the 2003 roo tour had the right number of games, and the quality of opposition was a good build up.

Now my additional point is in reference to the post made in the 'fool proof way to get crowds to 7's' post.

Someone stated that 'people only go the the 7's for the clubc, because they don't recognise the players of international sides'.

This I feel has to do more with our exposure to these faces rather than the game on the pitch. The likes of Russia, France and Fiji I'm sure entertain most of us.

So, to help expose the players more, could we perhaps add a 2nd 7's tournament based in europe at the end of the year.

I'm a big advocate of seeing an Australian side fielded, being voted in by fans by the internet and 1-900 numbers.

So we'd see this side play at Aussie stadium in January.

But we a touring side goes to europe in late october/early november.

Well we have a touring squad of 22, 11 backs. Add 2 or 3 specialist 7's players on the plane flight over. Once they land, jetlag is there, so they won't thrash weak sides, and probably won't win it against a strong england side.

Like the specialist one-day cricket players, these guys are sent home immediately, with the original 22 to play the real stuff.

NZ just sends a squad of 10 for this tournament. And when they tour, we just send a squad of 10.

Now what this does is gives a cheap outlet for the euro sides, Russia, Serbia, Italy, Wales, Ireland.. etc.

Obviously foxtel would need to jump on board.

But we the RL fans would start to see their faces twice a year, and for not a great cost.

You could host it in a southern french city with nice weather and the poms should travel to it.

Whatya think ?

 

[Big Bunny]

There already are northern hemisphere equivalents, the are on a smaller scale though. Yorkshire 9's, Middlesex 9's, Dublin 9's, Amsterdam 9's and a French tournament is expected to kick off this year sometime. I Australia, Pacific Islands or NZ wanted to they could have sent squads over for any one of them, as could the Poms on a larger scale for 7's qualifiers, main draw or the Wollongong 7's. It isn't going to happen though, at least it won't until the RLIF has some cash to throw about.

 

[Fairleigh Good!]

There already are northern hemisphere equivalents, the are on a smaller scale though. Yorkshire 9's, Middlesex 9's, Dublin 9's, Amsterdam 9's and a French tournament is expected to kick off this year sometime. I Australia, Pacific Islands or NZ wanted to they could have sent squads over for any one of them, as could the Poms on a larger scale for 7's qualifiers, main draw or the Wollongong 7's. It isn't going to happen though, at least it won't until the RLIF has some cash to throw about.

There aren't currently any 7's events that feature pro League players in Europe as far as I'm aware. The tournaments mentioned above are amateur tournaments with no professional organisation.

What I would love to see is a real world 7's, or 9's, not this nonsense the Aussie have with just NRL teams plus a couple of international teams. I think there are a couple of Super League sides who could win that tournament yet only Widnes, arguably the worst side in England are invited. Why not invite St Helens or Leeds for a bit more competition or flair.

A proper international 7's or 9's would be awesome to see too. Aus, NZ and England could field only under 23's plus a star captain of any age, with the other international teams fielding their strongest lineups including a few per team with NRL or Super League experience (El Masri etc).

That kind of thing would go down a treat as a festival kind of event if held in England.

 

[yankeeboy]

Widnes were not invited to the 7s, the RFL just wanted to cut costs. They received 1 entry, the same as last year, but as Widnes are already in Australia, it's cheaper than sending out an England Select team.

I think that tours will return, but not until after the 2008 World Cup. I'd prefer warm up games against Developing Nations (maybe the Roos go from Australia to PNG, NZ, Japan, USA, UK, France, Russia and home). There would be one tour a year (Lions, Kiwis, and Roos) and on the Lions tours, one or two games of each test series would count towards a Tri-Nations.

 

[Stevo_G]

i think a 9's tournament in england a couple of weeks before the sevens would be a good event with all sl teams and some international teams also

 

[Jeffles]

I've advocated a Northern Hemisphere Sevens for some time. I'd have it in Summer though (July-August). It would also coerce the RLIF into another meeting.

Australia and NZ could send teams with a 1 player per club limit.