2blackrooks

Scottish RU have just announced there teams for the new semi pro super 6 tournament for the tier below the PRO 14 teams Glasgow/ Edinburgh, They miss out teams from Glasgow, North of the Forth (Dundee/Aberdeen) and only 1 borders team picked. If money was available these areas will have disillusioned RU players who will now be left playing amateur rank RU. All prime areas for development for RL to tap into. Dundee had the backing from the university and the local council, Aberdeen have been crying out for Semi Pro rugby (Newly reformed Aberdeen Warriors RFL just started training) The borders do have a RL history and love rugby. But it all needs investment and no money to do it

Great news guys and the best of luck, I remember heading down to the Harvey Hadden stadium many moons ago to watch the Dons v Notts City RLFC. Its been some journey from Mansfield Marksman to Notts city now the Outlaws. Good luck guys

I think you hit the nail on top of the head there, though give the top of the championship automatic promotion then playoff situation Between 2,3,4th championship and 2nd bottom SL (In an ideal world but unrealistic financially)

Great to see an international circuit coming back. France really need this to progress and personally a strong France will be good for England. Needs to be taken around the country though so to promote the sport both in France and England. Can't see it being a sell out, that's why they have to pick the stadia carefully. An empty 20+ thousand stadium aint good for no one. Again great to see the euro champs back, Ireland,Scotland Wales France need this. Yeah an England second string kind of dumb's it down a bit, but we have to start somewhere and if it continues over the next 6-10 years we will see the 1st team coming in as the home nations get stronger. I just hope they will be allowed to field there strongest teams. A development tournament would also be useful for the home nations, bringing the next home grown generation through,

Personally would love to see 1 or 2 Irish and Scots teams enter league 1, the Irish certainly have the will to do this but the Scots struggling with only 3 teams this year. As a curve ball what about a couple of representative teams from either Tonga/Fiji/Samoa/Cook islands certainly spice things up a bit.

Sometimes laugh when a player is clearly tackled but still standing but not going anywhere but the ref doesn't shout held,this then turns into a contest to get them on the floor, lifting the leg for me is a clear penalty as well as trying to trip them when in the tackle. Id like to see players at least engage in the scrum and not loosely cuddle each other and stop feeding, at least the good old hooker will then need to do his job.

Played RL for years before moving north and playing RU and falling out of love with the great game, but now finding that passion again, Many comments I hear concern 3 areas of the game and to an extent agreeing with, firstly the use of the leg in the tackle (tripping to get the player on the floor) Lifting the leg in the tackle to do the same and finally the Scrum.....whats the point surely if its not contested then can't we find a better phase of play to replace this. What changes would you make to increase the appeal of the sport

Rumors way back in November suggested a likely 6 nations type event later this year though fully fledged England team would not appear but a England Knights team similar to RU England Saxons. All aimed at strengthening northern hemisphere teams. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/nov/22/rugby-league-six-nations-2018-ireland-england http://www.totalrl.com/rugby-league-planning-inaugural-six-nations-tournament-2018/

Ireland looking to get a team into league 1 within 3 years, Scotland only have 2 teams this year, Edinburgh Eagles and the Stathmore Silverbacks joining England's North East RL. They will both be entered into the NE cup, take par in the Dacia 9’s tournament and play a series of friendly/merit games against North East opposition Also to further help strengthen ties between the region and Scotland we will also be welcoming a Scotland u16’s side into the u16’s cup Mean while Richard Egan, the chairman of Rugby League Ireland has planned future development of the game in Ireland “We’ll strengthen our domestic competition and then the following year, take the leading lads out of that to play against some teams in England. Then, in year three, we’d hopefully enter League 1. “I’ve approached the RFL and said it needs to happen; you saw the amount of Irish interest and heritage in 2013 when we sold out our World Cup game with England.

You got to ask yourself what have the Catalans done for the national team, probably nothing. I really hope the pro 13 or whatever they call it pays off, northern hemisphere RL is pretty dismal at the moment and we need a strong France. I've seen Toulouse a couple of times this year and they do impress and with a french coach the relatively young and inexperience french team things are moving in the right direction. Yeah the WC was a bit of a disaster but they drew a bum deal in the group against England Australia and Australia 3rds err Lebanon, the writing was on the wall. I think the French have to do something because the SL focus is now eyeing America and with Serbia steadily growing I see a team here vying for a league place within the next 5-6 years. Good luck France

The hope is overtime as in RU teams will become stronger and the gap lessens. At the moment the international scene is a joke, one Irish player Liam Finn wrote in the mirror about how Ireland have no idea when there next game is, https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/international-rugby-league-needs-give-11836918 And Oliver Roberts in Total RL http://www.totalrl.com/oliver-roberts-calls-for-professional-irish-team-after-receiving-touching-letter-from-exiled-teenager/

The thing is when the RU WC first started 30 years ago we saw similar scores. If run properly the rugby league world will look much different than it is today. The RU pro 14 is a great concept if the funding was there then teams from Ire, Sco, Wal, Fra with a smattering of Balkan teams could see great progress in the international scene.

To be honest at least its an international game, the lack of this will kill RL. Ireland, Wales, Scotland should organise something themselves because no one else will. Invite Serbia

There was once a league team in the borders The Border Eagles who won the first Scottish championships. I know personally at lower levels RU players love playing league and would play to gain fitness for the RU season. So the pool of players are there but there is no funding to get things up and running, also the lack of international play is what going to kill RL. Aberdeen defo forming, Edinburgh select played Leeds city college the other day lost 30-26

Wouldn't it be better if they played each other twice = more development games = more progress