Thanks for that Matty Johns.
Seriously, why blokes like you, who are apparently fans of Rugby League, seem intent to undermine the international game at every opportunity I just don't understand...
The reason international League hasn't had the hype of Origin is simple: competitiveness and perception. In the 80s and 90s the Kangaroos rarely dropped a game and NZ had a virtually non-existent player pool. But now the NRL is flooded with Kiwis and the have their own club team. A fact that has seen the Kiwis beat Australia in tournaments more often the NSW has won Origin over the past 10 years.
The real problem is largely now one of perception. The Kiwis beat us regularly, and whilst some people still think international League isn't competitive, that fact is giving the game more interest. And that's why in spite of all the negative talk from guys like you this series broke crowd and ratings records for the 4N.
I award you 0 points for comprehension.
The fact is at the moment State of Origin is bigger than International Rugby League, it's far more popular, that can't be disputed.
For IRL to grow it needs to be questioned why this is and what can be done to fix it. But it seems like nobody is bothered to do much about it anyway.
Players having more pride in playing for their State than their Country is an unusual scenario but it's derived from how rubbish International Rugby League was for a long time. As soon as more focus is put on the pride and passion of playing for your country, that's when we will see this reversed. Until then the public and the players will always place Origin at number one.
England let themselves and the International down too.
If Samoa, Fiji and Png had the quantity of players England do and the same money thrown at their development that England does then England wouldn't even qualify for the 4 Nations. They are way behind where they should be.
