Keep doing what yr doing, Keep getting what yr getting

[The Daddy3]

That just about sums up my thoughts about England's WC campaign and the general state of RL in the UK.

Yes I started another thread about it, but I felt compelled to because where we are is the result of many of the issues I've been rattling on here about. We are still not addressing those issues, haven't done for years and hence we find ourselves as further behind the southern hemisphere teams as we've ever been.

The main two issues with England RL is and always has been been:

1. Lack of geographic diversity. When you have 5-6 SL in the North West with only a few kilometres separating them competing over the same limited player pool you are not going to produce enough world class players. It's that simple. You can say exactly the same thing about West Yorkshire.

2. The continual undermining of the England RL team and international RL as a whole. Up to this point RL in England has been centered solely on keeping clubs afloat and this results in no room in the calendar for England, the Celtic nations or France to play fixtures. Wales and France are not as far behind England as people think, we just need a shift in direction and the patience to allow these teams to develop. Yes the first few years will be one sided in England's favour but I've always preached that the future of RL in Europe has to be built on a mid season England v Wales v France international series. The RFL has always strategically tried to rely on Australia and NZ series for revenue and competitiveness but have not adapted to the reality that the NRL has pushed the southern hemisphere into a completely different direction, meaning they are not so keen to release players in the off season to play international matches. The RFL still hasn't adapted it's thinking to this new reality.

The new proposals put forward by IMG addresses these issues to a certain extent, but not enough. The same clubs that have their own personal agendas get to vote on the strategic direction of the whole sport and this is the single biggest factor affecting the two issues I identified.

My feeling is that IMG wanted more radical changes but can only make suggestions based on what they think will be voted through by the clubs. Until this situation changes I dont think the change that needs to happen will happen.

 

[siv]

One other thing - the improvement we saw this year in the England team was a lot to do with their increase in NRL experiance

Oh and of course changing colours

 

[yakstorm]

Did England improve this year? It's hard to tell when they didn't face Australia, New Zealand or Tonga. In 2017 & 2018 at least, they did defeat NZ, Tonga, Samoa, PNG and then lost to Australia 6 - 0 in Australia.

Regardless, completely agree with the above sentiment. The RFL needs to stop basing their entire international strategy around the Kangaroos (with even NZ treated as an after thought) and just build an international program for England. As mentioned there is a lot of promising signs in France and Wales, they just need the opportunities, and we shouldn't forget the likes of Scotland or Ireland.

I know both Scotland & Ireland have a large NRL dependency, but I guarantee you, if you organise an end of season Test between England and the Wolfhounds in England, you'll lure across a number of them. The NRL is less concerned stopping those outside of Kangaroos and Kiwis contention away from the NH.

We've seen in the World Cup now, and previously in Test Series + 4 Nations, that England can draw 20K+ crowds against Samoa, Scotland, Ireland, Fiji and PNG, and attract TV audiences of 1.4m+, so why aren't we scheduling those types of matches more often? That is a sellable product in itself, and is going to make more money than an SL game will.