Where should the Mid Year & Oceanic Tests be played in 2020?

[Coastbloke]

UK press reporting that England v Samoa in Australia is likely. Possibly with SBW playing for Samoa.

Daily Tele (behind a pay wall) are today reporting a June 20 England v Samoa Test @ Bankwest with the hope that SBW plays for Samoa..

 

[jim_57]

It'd be good to see England V Samoa in Sydney, NZ V Tonga in Auckland and PNG and/Fiji host a game.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

The NZ Tongan fans are amazing - I wonder if the Aus Tongan fans would come out in as many numbers? It would be interesting to put it to the test with the next Aus v Tonga at Bankwest.

 

[Springs09]

Is there any reason Samoa can't play England in England?

 

[yakstorm]

Is there any reason Samoa can't play England in England?

It would be a cost reason. Play the match in England, you have to fly across almost the entire Samoan team plus officials, etc plus what 4-6 Englishmen, whilst you play it in Australia, you will only have to fly the English players who aren't based in Australia, plus a couple of Samoan players.

Throw in the fact Fox Sports & Nine have paid rights for the mid-year Tests, whilst Sky Sports in the UK hasn't, the NSW Government is likely to throw money at this match as well.

 

[Springs09]

It would be a cost reason. Play the match in England, you have to fly across almost the entire Samoan team plus officials, etc plus what 4-6 Englishmen, whilst you play it in Australia, you will only have to fly the English players who aren't based in Australia, plus a couple of Samoan players.

Throw in the fact Fox Sports & Nine have paid rights for the mid-year Tests, whilst Sky Sports in the UK hasn't, the NSW Government is likely to throw money at this match as well.

Yes but the RFL would also get at least some revenue from a mid-season test if it was played in England, along with more exposure for the international game.

The Aussie networks will still have the rights to the game too, just now the RFL would have a primetime test fixture to sell to their TV stations.

Is this NSW government likely to 'throw money at' it? Why? They didn't contribute anything to the World Cup and they see themselves as already giving rugby league a shitload with the upgrades to the SFS and ANZ.

I imagine the real reason is because NRL clubs will chuck a hissy fit if their players have to fly to England and back in a week, like they whinged about with the Denver Test. Because professional football players can play several games in a week but can't handle sitting on a plane.

 

[adamkungl]

Tbh England should be both willing and capable to play without their NRL-based players.
A trend towards England needing to wait on the NRL to play a game - and less and less of their internationals playing in front of home crowds either in club or test football - is not a good direction for the game.

 

[jim_57]

Tbh England should be both willing and capable to play without their NRL-based players.
A trend towards England needing to wait on the NRL to play a game - and less and less of their internationals playing in front of home crowds either in club or test football - is not a good direction for the game.

Exactly. England sending out a Super League only test team against Ireland/France/Wales/Scotland wouldn't hurt anyone.

 

[yakstorm]

Is this NSW government likely to 'throw money at' it? Why? They didn't contribute anything to the World Cup and they see themselves as already giving rugby league a shitload with the upgrades to the SFS and ANZ.

They were the major sponsor of the Women's World Cup, the last two mid-year Pacific Tests, the recent World Nines and the Australia v New Zealand Test in Wollongong.... they've more than shown their support for International Rugby League in the past few years...

The only reason they didn't sponsor the Men's tournament was because of a fallout between Michael Brown and Destinations NSW... amazingly once he was shown the door, the money came in...

 

[Pommy]

Exactly. England sending out a Super League only test team against Ireland/France/Wales/Scotland wouldn't hurt anyone.

It wouldn’t but what’s the advantage for anyone?
Catalans won’t let France play mid season, they’re the only credible opposition really.
The home nations would very likely struggle to get their Australian and kiwi players released by NRL teams.
It would end up being a training run for the England players based in England. There’s no advantage to the team as you can’t really work on combinations etc and you risk creating a divide in the camp between the SL and NRL players.

 

[jim_57]

It wouldn’t but what’s the advantage for anyone?
Catalans won’t let France play mid season, they’re the only credible opposition really.
The home nations would very likely struggle to get their Australian and kiwi players released by NRL teams.
It would end up being a training run for the England players based in England. There’s no advantage to the team as you can’t really work on combinations etc and you risk creating a divide in the camp between the SL and NRL players.

Ireland put in a good effort with 0 NRL based players 2 years ago, play them if France won't come to the party. Also sure England would probably always win but let's not get carried away here like England fans always seem to. You just lost handsomely to PNG, you could definitely use some more 'training runs'.

As for creating a divide that's just pure speculation. Any number of factors COULD create a divide at rep level, that's up to selectors and management to work around. Australia seems to do OK with the State Of Origin Factor which I'd argue has the potential to be far more divisive.

 

[jim_57]

Daily Telegraph reporting Tonga V Samoa in Utah could be played "after the 2020 season".

I haven't been able to read it because of the paywall.

 

[Pommy]

Ireland put in a good effort with 0 NRL based players 2 years ago, play them if France won't come to the party. Also sure England would probably always win but let's not get carried away here like England fans always seem to. You just lost handsomely to PNG, you could definitely use some more 'training runs'.

As for creating a divide that's just pure speculation. Any number of factors COULD create a divide at rep level, that's up to selectors and management to work around. Australia seems to do OK with the State Of Origin Factor which I'd argue has the potential to be far more divisive.

England didn’t get beat by PNG. Also none of the home nations are PNG, realistically the majority of players playing for the home nations minus the aussies and kiwis are doing so because they will never get a spot in the England side.
What effort are you talking about? There were NRL players in the World Cup squad wasn’t there?
I’m not against it happening but a full run out against Samoa makes more sense in every level.

 

[Twizzle]

 

[jim_57]

England didn’t get beat by PNG. Also none of the home nations are PNG, realistically the majority of players playing for the home nations minus the aussies and kiwis are doing so because they will never get a spot in the England side.
What effort are you talking about? There were NRL players in the World Cup squad wasn’t there?
I’m not against it happening but a full run out against Samoa makes more sense in every level.

No? England's best 17 players coached by England's coach did though.

Maybe so, same could still be said about a lot of nations including the Pacific Islands, although they do have a bit of a shift happening.

Ireland's effort in the 2017 World Cup with no NRL players, they had 1 NSW Cup player. I was surprised by that too.

Their results were:
36 - 12 def Italy
14 - 6 def by PNG
34 - 6 def Wales

So they did better against PNG than GB did recently, also heavily defeated Italy with Tedesco, Vaughan and a few other NRL players.

I'm not against them playing Samoa either but I think a northern hemisphere game could benifit them as well. As adamkungl said it'd be good to see the Northern Hemisphere and England be a bit more proactive and not just rely on scraps from the NRL when it suits them.

 

[Springs09]

England will most likely always beat Samoa too. I really don’t get the English attitude of ‘we’re too good for Scotland and Ireland’ when it was the same problem we had with the island nations not so long ago. Ireland and Scotland have beaten the island nations enough times to show that the potential is there.

The only way they are gonna get better is if you actually play them.

 

[adamkungl]

Samoa aren't even better than Scotland ffs

 

[Springs09]

Samoa's only good game since 2016 has been the mid-season win over PNG this year. They were shit at the World Cup and got flogged by Fiji this year. Ireland gave a very good account of themselves at the World Cup and Scotland were 4th in the world after drawing with NZ in 2016 but England still can't be f**ked to even attempt to play them, instead lets go all the way to Australia to play the current shittest island side. Makes sense.

If Ireland were lucky and could put out a full strength squad pretty sure they could have something like this:
1. Gregg McNally
2. Ed Chamberlain
3. Ethan Ryan
4. Toby King
5. Liam Kay
6. Gareth O’Brien
7. Marc Sneyd
8. Kyle Amor
9. Michael McIlorum
10. Brad Singleton
11. Oliver Roberts
12. Joe Philbin
13. Tyrone McCarthy

14. Bob Beswick
15. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook
16. Anthony Mullally
17. George King

Using only Super League players.

 

[Pommy]

Samoa aren't even better than Scotland ffs

f**king hell, works do tonight?

next you will be telling me storm aren’t better than Widnes.

 

[adamkungl]

f**king hell, works do tonight?

next you will be telling me storm aren’t better than Widnes.

Worst Scottish team in a decade vs a Samoa team which is...pretty much the same?

Where has the delusion that Samoa are any good come from? That time they went ok against NZ for 40 mins 5 years ago? They aren't worth the trip.