Lions tour and expanded 4 nations....yes really

[yakstorm]

The Great Britain concept is a hard one. On one side it is a brand with so much history and tradition in Rugby League and if nothing else it would draw large crowds simply because of some of the great players and teams that took place in the past in the GB jersey, even though it's a bit of a farce.

Arguably as well for a lot of RL fans in Australia and NZ you could sell to them that it would be stronger than England even though 95% of the squad would be England, just because most fans don't know much else except for the NRL.

Anyway the part I'm more interested in is any plans to expand the Four Nations to 5 or 6.

More exposure, more content is going to help the European and Pacific teams both retain players as well draw much needed interest and sponsorship. It also gives these invitational teams a match they can realistically win, and arguably could be their open match to help them develop combinations before taking on the big 3.

 

[roughyedspud]

GB just isn't relevant anymore.......by all means have england tour though

 

[strong_latte]

GB just isn't relevant anymore.......by all means have england tour though

Agreed. The teams that make up the Super League are the pool for the England/GB team for the most part, and they're all pretty well within a narrow band in the north of England, so the whole GB thing rings a little hollow really.

If the English game gets its act together and expands into Ireland, Wales, and Scotland though, then it'd be pretty cool to have a GB team. But not as things stand now.

 

[roughyedspud]

the "english game" already has 2 welsh clubs in its system....and a scottish team isn't a million miles away from entering championship 1 either....

but even that is'nt a marker to bring back GB......not until wales & scotland produce genuine home grown stars,as good as their english counterparts, will GB become relevant...because 17 englishmen running around in GB chevrons isn't GB its england in a different shirt...


now...under the plan leaked from the RLIF meeting a few weeks ago which proposed scrapping the 4nations and starting a expanded "confed cup" flanked either side by tours after and before world cup years....it'll look like this

year 1 world cup
year 2 tours
year 3 confed cup
year 4 tours
year 5 world cup

im imagining the "tours" aspect only refers to the big 3 as everyone else might be playing somekind of confed cup qualifying comp that year......and RLWCQ in the other tour year.......

so that would rule out GB touring as wales & scotland would be qualifying for either the confed cup or world cup in "tour years"...


hopefully next years england v NZ series,which could potentially be the highest attended 3 test series in modern RL history*, will finally put the nail in the GB coffin....at least for a generation


* the highest 3 test average attendance i can find was the 1994 ashes...average attendance was 46,810,thats with tests at wembley,old trafford & elland rd

 

[RedVee]

So why did England tour as GB for all those years?
I don't remember seeing England in a series/Cup until about the '75 RLWC. I do realise there were a few a Welsh players and at least 1 Scot in GB teams, though no one down here would have cared or probably known better.

 

[alien]

^ It's totally needless and pointless, and what makes this even stupider is that a GB tour was actually proposed for next year but the NRL turned it down, which is why the England vs NZ series is happening instead.

I think it's getting to the point where people are starting to realize that the NRL and ARL just don't have a clue when it comes to international RL and the best thing is probably just to leave them to it until they move into the 20th century (right now they're still in the 19th).

We are actually in the 21st century.

 

[alien]

World Cup every 4 years, and in the in-between years I would rather a decent tri-nations tournament (Aus., NZ, and England), with each country playing the other countries twice, and then the Final. That would go for 7 weeks altogether, including the Final.

During this time there could be:
Pacific Cup between PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands
Euro Cup between Wales, France, Scotland, Ireland, Italy etc.
Atlantic Cup between USA, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa

 

[Scubby]

So why did England tour as GB for all those years?
I don't remember seeing England in a series/Cup until about the '75 RLWC. I do realise there were a few a Welsh players and at least 1 Scot in GB teams, though no one down here would have cared or probably known better.

Because you couldn't describe them as English. It was a always a mixture England, Wales and Scotland representatives. This isn't the case anymore.

 

[bowes]

the "english game" already has 2 welsh clubs in its system....and a scottish team isn't a million miles away from entering championship 1 either....

More than 2 Welsh clubs. Valley Cougars are in the Conference League South and Torfaen Tigers are stepping up next year. Even though the WRL have done a good job saving a dying league it is still a league with a bad fixture fulfilment rate and a short season so this is a positive step. Hopefully a North Wales club can enter the North West League as has already happened with 2 at Under 18s as the local North Wales league collapsed this year.

As for Scotland and League 1 WTF. The game is dead outside of Aberdeen bar an open age Edinburgh Eagles side. Ayrshire Storm entered just to play their 3 home games and Glasgow Panthers packed in midseason. The only junior league was st U14s in Aberdeen with 4 clubs also Aberdeen ran 3 open age sides.

 

[roughyedspud]

mark my words...Edinburgh Eagles will be a championship 1 team within 3 years

 

[Masoe_eats_babies]

World Cup every 4 years, and in the in-between years I would rather a decent tri-nations tournament (Aus., NZ, and England), with each country playing the other countries twice, and then the Final. That would go for 7 weeks altogether, including the Final.

During this time there could be:
Pacific Cup between PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands
Euro Cup between Wales, France, Scotland, Ireland, Italy etc.
Atlantic Cup between USA, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa

How would that benefit anyone? Wouldn't it just create more space between Aus, NZ, England and everyone else. Would also give quality NRL/SL players less incentive to play for teams like Samoa, Fiji, etc on a regular basis.

 

[bowes]

mark my words...Edinburgh Eagles will be a championship 1 team within 3 years

They're just a team playing 6 games a season (well about 4 in reality) with no reserves or juniors of any description. They lost all their games this season but made the final by default. There's more chance of Edinburgh Eagles folding than there is of them making League 1 in the next 3 years.

 

[roughyedspud]

we'll see

 

[deluded pom?]

we'll see

Big call 'spud.

 

[bowes]

It took Coventry Bears 3 years of jumping through hoops to be accepted and that's with a vastly, vastly superior setup. It may be that a rich man wants a team in Edinburgh and takes the Eagles name but it won't be the current club.

 

[roughyedspud]

its going to be done much like the welsh have done with the south wales scorpions

 

[bowes]

I'd go with Aberdeen as that's where the player base is

 

[alien]

How would that benefit anyone? Wouldn't it just create more space between Aus, NZ, England and everyone else. Would also give quality NRL/SL players less incentive to play for teams like Samoa, Fiji, etc on a regular basis.

not a permanent thing, but for now. i dont think those teams are quite up to it yet. they have competitive games but how many times have the 4th team beaten one of the top 3 teams? i dont want to see them lose all the time, but every 4 years have the worldcup and see if anything has changed. the pacific cup would be awesome to watch