17 stone giant

Haha. That's ok. I'll file it with all my others. I'll spare you any more bad ideas for now, but I'll be back next year once all the GB stuff is starting to take shape. Will be good to see the first GB shirt and merchandise in more than a decade.

The (Rugby) League of Gentlemen.

Because people on this forum repeatedly state that currently the best players are English and that not many (if any) non-English players would make the GB team or squad on merit. If your point is that in future this situation might change, then I agree that is absolutely possible. Right now, though, and probably for the immediate future, the best players are English. I grouped the already established regions together - North West, West Midlands, South West, etc. in one team. North East, East Midlands, South East, etc. in the other. Well, based on geography, I put Wales with the West, and London with the East. If you mean what would happen to a Welsh born player who currently plays for London Broncos, well, I would probably go with whatever eligibility criteria they use for State of Origin/Roses. Scotland (or at least the southern part) gets split into West of Scotland and East of Scotland on some maps. I just went with that.

Now you're talking. Has Mills Lane ever refereed a rugby league match before? We should get him in - at least he's neutral.

To be honest, despite my rant at the beginning, I actually couldn't care less what the Aussies have. I just want rugby league in England/GB/UK to be as successful as possible. I don't want Origin because the Aussies have it - I want it (in some way, shape, or form) because I think it's a good concept. I watched the "seniors" origin match on rugby AM where the likes of Morley and Peacock etc. played. It was nostalgic seeing those players that used to wear the England/GB shirt. If we had it at professional level, it would be another chance to see the big players perform. People often talk about how rugby league players should become household names nationally, but you're not going to achieve that by them playing for Huddersfield. Yes, too many games that are of interest only to diehard RL fans. Don't get me wrong - there's absolutely nothing wrong with looking after the people in the heartlands - it's those people who have made rugby league into the great game that it is, and who are the lifeblood of the sport. They absolutely should get priority and be looked after, because without them there is no game. But if the scales could just be tipped so that there are a slightly less club matches, and a few more big international or rep team matches, then maybe the 'burden' of supporting the game could be spread over more people. I'm not saying that you can convert a load of people into becoming diehard RL fans, but even if you could get them to buy a £30 match ticket once a year and/or a replica shirt for £25, you've got a contribution from them towards keeping the sport going. What it would change would depend on whether it was a success. No, there's no appetite for it right now as such - but sometimes you have to create an appetite for something. People weren't saying 15 years ago how much they wished there was a 20 over game in cricket, and how much they'd love to go along and watch it. There was no "appetite" for it. But someone in cricket came up with the idea, they decided to go with it and put a lot of effort into supporting it, and look where it is now. I'm not for one moment saying that East v West could become anything close to what Twenty20 cricket has become - I'm simply making the point that you can create something that is successful, despite nobody currently demanding it. The game could have various purposes, depending on what you wanted it to be. One would be to give people who aren't massively interested in watching club rugby league teams, a chance to watch something where the best players are competing against one another. Like I keep stressing - underpinning all these things is the reality that it won't ever work if rugby league people don't buy into the idea. Rugby league as a sport has to care about something first, before anyone else can be expected care. That is how these things work. The horse (people with a stake in RL) has to come before the cart (the great mass of people who aren't currently engaged in anyway with RL).

Yes, and there was an Aussie poster on here explaining that it wasn't always like that. They didn't just click their fingers and on Day 1 create an Origin series that captured the interest of people not only in Queensland and NSW, but also in other parts of Australia (Perth) and beyond. They had to persevere with it in order to make it the massive success that it is today. I'd be happy with Yorkshire v Lancashire. I just went for something different in my original post, because Yorkshire v Lancashire has been discussed before and interest there was, as I mentioned, lukewarm. That's why I widened it to West v East, along with that perhaps being a better way to involve the rest of the country too. For sure Wigan v St Helens is a great game (when I went to the Challenge Cup final at the Millennium back in the mid 2000's, I chose to go the year those two played, because of the history and rivalry). However, it just isn't ever going to be a match that the rest of the country will take much interest in. It doesn't matter how much you promote it - it's still two relatively small and (with all due respect) in terms of national significance and fame, unspectacular places. That isn't to say that your idea for taking it to different venues isn't a good one, and something that could and should be explored, but it's not quite got the appeal or the ability to make a statement nationally, that I was looking for. Besides, it's a game that already occurs. It's nothing new.

Haha. I'll never forgive myself for doing that to places that I've never even heard of. Seriously, though, although my line that I did on Paint was drawn without any real care, I actually took the approximate position from another map that had already split southern Scotland into West and East. The North of Scotland was its own block, but I just carried the line on up anyway. Is that maybe where the places you mentioned are located? Haha

I absolutely take your points, but you don't always need genuine animosity or strong rivalry or strong identity for something to work in sport. Yes, it can obviously help sometimes, and it may well exist in the best examples that you can think of in sport - Man Utd v Liverpool, England v Germany, England v Australia, Queensland v NSW etc. However, sometimes people watch sport for the occasion - to see something unique, to see the best competing, to be part of something special. How many people watch the Boat Race every year - Oxford v Cambridge? Do they watch because they're passionate about one of the teams and feel tremendous rivalry towards the other? I don't know - maybe East v West could be played as a sort of exhibition match (I'm not saying that it should be, but it could be an option. I think that's how it's done with East v West in the NBA). Maybe as a result players could try things that they wouldn't dare risk in a SL or international match - take more risks, show some flair and imagination. Like I say - these are just ideas. It isn't going to affect my life either way if rugby league doesn't change anything from what it's doing right now. I just think it's worth exploring different options. Shropshire v Norfolk for the Cider Cup? I think you're onto something there, Rupert.

Haha. Look, I know people aren't exactly enamoured with my idea - and I'm happy to admit it's far from perfect - but at least it's not completely mad. You could at least get two fairly well matched teams from the East and West, based on how I've divided up the country. But North v South - in rugby league? I think the North would probably win 200-0, and we'd be lucky to get 0.

There we have it again. Negative and more negative. Why would it have to look pathetic? It would only look pathetic if you allow it to look pathetic. Would it even be a blatant copy? Yorkshire have been playing Lancashire for many years - maybe even before Queensland and NSW did, I'm not sure. Either way, it's been a long time, and why even does it matter anyway if it's a copy? That is such a non-argument. When someone came up with the idea for a tv show called Big Brother (I think it might have been the Dutch, but I'm not sure), did every other country say "we're not doing that - it's a blatant copy. It would look pathetic." No, they took the idea and made it a success in their country too.

Yes, but they are club games, which personally speaking I have very little interest in watching. It's great that you do, but my point was that for those of us who don't, there isn't much else. Contrast that, say, with me being able to watch England rugby union play maybe ten times a year (as well as watching other international matches not involving England). Like I said, it wasn't a complaint about rugby league - the sport does what it can and you can't create matches out of thin air - but rather an observation that for people like me, there's not too much on offer. None of those reasons apply for me. I don't watch because I'm not interested in club RL. I'm the same with club RU. It's not an idea that I would be expecting to transform the fortunes of rugby league and attract millions of new people to become regular fans. It was just an idea for creating hopefully another small cog in a much larger wheel - another outlet for the game to showcase itself, and for people who don't normally watch the sport, to see it. Put it this way - if I asked one of my friends (many of whom watch and attend various other sports) if they wanted to come round and watch, or even better to attend with me, a rugby league match, the first thing that they would say is "who is playing?". If I reply with "Wigan v Warrington", I can pretty much guarantee you that the answer will be no. If it was a Challenge Cup final, then maybe, but even then I wouldn't fancy my chances. It's just not a fixture that would hold any appeal to them as a non-fan (if I can put it that way). If, however, I said it's England v Australia, I'd have at least a chance of them being interested - likewise if I said "it's West v East in a rugby league origin and told them that it's the best players playing etc.". The relevance of this is not that people who watch the occasional rep match are going to become diehard fans, standing on the terraces at Leigh or wherever - I'm not suggesting that at all. However, rugby league needs to try and establish a large pool of people (a bit like myself really) who are happy to just watch the sport maybe four or five times a year, when it's an international or a special event. That is what gives rugby union it's power and success - not loads of people attending matches for Exeter and Northampton, but a whole load of people whose level is to watch and support the England team. With that wider support base, rugby union is able to sell merchandise and it has a presence that it can capitalise on financially and, ultimately, for the good of the sport, and to re-invest and help the sport grow. Now, I'm not suggesting that rugby league can do the same, because there just aren't the international teams for England to play. That is why it needs to maybe try and be a bit more creative and find other avenues. Why not a Roses origin match - Yorkshire v Lancashire? That would have some wider appeal in the country - providing that the sport made it into a success and into spectacle. The problem with rugby league is that too often it looks at the negatives - it looks for reasons why it can't do something, rather than reasons why it can.

Dammit, I fail on the second point. Who made the criteria this tough?

One of the aims was to create something regular (ideally annually) that non-current RL fans could watch and hopefully buy into. If you're not a huge follower of club RL (which I'm not), there are very few games to watch. Next year there isn't even a mid season international, so I'll mostly be in UKRL hibernation until the GB tour begins. I'll keep an eye on the Challenge Cup, just in case it takes my fancy, and even more so the Grand Final, but that's about all really. I'm not complaining about that - it's just how it is - but it would obviously be nice to have a bit more.

Who is your favourite poster on the Total RL forum? If you don't use the forum, is it because you weren't aware of it due to a lack of marketing?

Well, obviously the first stage is that rugby league as a sport has to care. That means the administrators (RFL), the players, and the existing fans, would need to make an effort to help it succeed. The motivation for them doing so would be that they love rugby league, and they want rugby league to be a success and to grow. (Just as an aside, I would maybe give it to Eddie Hearn to organise and market this event.) The above would need to happen before you could invite and encourage the rest of the country to care too. Regarding reasons to care, well, it would be two teams full of the best rugby league talent that Great Britain currently has available (barring maybe the NRL players). There is a shortage of decent international matches, so it would help to fill that void, without costing a fortune in travel or time spent away. Given the right backing, I think it could be quite a good spectacle. If it was played partly as a GB trial, that would add something to it as well. I think the BBC could be persuaded to show it too.