17 stone giant

I might be barking up the wrong tree, but if you're referring to Italia 90, it was Waddle who put his penalty over the bar. Pearce's penalty was saved. Anyway, it's great hearing prominent people talking positively about rugby league, especially someone like Pearce who is (I think) hugely respected by football fans in England. I liked him as a player, but I've grown to like and respect him even more having listened to him on the radio etc.

If they were proposing to bring GB back as the national team, and for all competitions, then it would have some purpose. But to bring GB back as some sort of unique thing, at a time when you know that you don't have any players from Wales or Scotland (Ireland is kind of separate anyway) of the required standard, is just completely pointless. If the aim is to fool people and potential sponsors into thinking that this is a different product to the England team, then we might as well go all in and get the 13 Englishmen to play as England in year 1, Great Britain in year 2, European Allstars in year 3, and Northern Hemisphere Allstars in year 4. That way we'll have four amazing products to market and sell to different sponsors. We'll just have to hope that nobody studies the team line-ups too closely.

How keen are NZ on hosting the matches? Given that they came to us in 2018, I think it's good to give them something in their own country, if they want us. Maybe just make it three games in NZ - two against NZ and one against Tonga. That would keep down the costs of having to travel to Australia to play PNG. I'm not sure where that would leave the non-English members of the squad though, as I'd imagine we'd put out our strongest 13 for those three matches. Hopefully the RFL will have a bit more money after the home series in 2020 and the world cup in 2021, so the next time we tour we can go for something more substantial (including a match against Australia).

I lost a lot of interest when it was announced that we wouldn't be playing Australia.

I love Jonathan Davies, both as a player and as a pundit/co-commentator.

Thanks, but my question was more concerned with how many of those fans aren't from/don't live in what is now Lancashire, yet still support Lancashire at cricket. I'd imagine that if you're a cricket fan living in Manchester, you're going to support Lancashire, even though you live in Greater Manchester and not Lancashire. If I apply the same logic, surely someone living in Manchester who likes rugby league, would also support the Lancashire team against Yorkshire. Given the lack of top quality games that have the potential to appeal to a wider, non-RL fan, audience, I find it quite incredible that more isn't made of the Lancashire v Yorkshire rivalry. It's a game that I think should be on the BBC every year, and something that RL fans should get behind.

Does anyone from Greater Manchester or Merseyside support Lancashire at cricket? If so, why can't they also get behind a Lancashire rugby league team? At the end of the day, it's top class sport.

It should be Great Britain in rugby league. I love England in football, cricket, and rugby union and I would never want a permanent GB team in any of those sports,, but I think we're better in rugby league as Great Britain, because Scotland and Wales will never amount to anything. In 50 years time they will both still be garbage.

I put in May (Lancastrian) and Corbyn (Yorkist), so there's some rivalry for starters.

I think a War of the roses match would be great. As a neutral, I'd be more interested in it than I am in club RL. I also think the potential for making a spectacle of it and attracting a wider audience, is much greater than for something like the Challenge Cup final, which realistically will only ever have limited appeal outside of regular RL fans. I'd make sure that it was on the BBC and try and get the whole country involved in the occasion. Things like this are also a bit of fun, to help people choose which side they're on: http://red-or-white.mirror.co.uk/index.html

I like the idea of an origin game, but I agree with your assessment. Either do Yorkshire v Lancashire, or do East v West (or North East vs North West).

I think that's great news for both codes of rugby. It gives rugby in general a presence, and then allows for exposure to both types of the game. Having a dedicated channel (albeit both codes combined) is a sign of the importance of the sport(s). All the more reason not to drop the "rugby" part of the name rugby league, which is suggested sometimes.

Nice idea, but according to Wikipedia, his real surname is actually "Bradford", so maybe he'd be better placed at Odsal.

I heard Hawksbee and Jacobs talking about it too on Talksport earlier. I think having a famous footballer linked with rugby league is rarely going to be a bad thing. It's all extra publicity.

Can I please ask what part of the idea you think has "very little chance" of succeeding? Do you not think that a discarded American football player could be converted to be a rugby league player? Or is it that you don't think any of them would want to play? Or is it that you don't think it will be possible to create any NA clubs for them to play for? Or is it maybe all of those things?