Dave T

No, they have a brand that they have built for years. In the same way I support Man City despite not being from Manchester. But there is no brand in Lancs RL.

It isn't a technicality. We are trying to appeal to young fans, and most will have no links to Lancashire. It's little surprise it's old men and Yorkshire folk asking for this.

England have played France in mid-season in the UK 3 times in the summer era and twice in France.

How many in Lancashire?

We could lose any kind of game over theast couple of years to be fair!

I thought it was a decent game, but I am surprised to see so many rating it up there with the games of the season. There was a lot of passion, big defence etc. but there was a limited amount of attacking skill on show from both teams imo. For long spells, defences were on top, with a very slow ruck area, and its reflected in the 5 clean breaks that were made.

If we did this, which stadium do you think we'd go for when Lancashire get a home game?

Genuine question. Those that are championing this (and I've already said, i'd certainly watch it on TV and maybe even go if it worked for me) - what do you think good looks like here? Is it a one-off game that gets 10k in Warrington/Saints/Leigh/Leeds/Hudds and passes by with little fanfare or is there genuine hope of it doing more than that/ Because in reality, it hasn't really mattered what we've done in that mid-season space - we've done England internationals, Roses games and we've done Exiles - they all pretty much cater for the same crowd I'd argue. I think then it just comes to personal preference - mine is that England should be given every opportunity to play, and I'd spend far more effort on them than this. I was always disappointed that we didn't capitalise on the Exiles concept (although I hate the name). That first year saw a decent level of promotion, interesting squad selection concept, a lovely kit and a decent first match. True to form we then backed off and half-assed it. My preference would be an England game against whoever - Exiles, France, Wales, possibles etc. before a Roses game. It shouldn't be ignored that the majority of RL teams have no affinity with Lancashire any more.

Which same dead horse are we flogging?

So what do you think it'd do?

I'm not sure why Lancs v Yorks with 8 to 10k is any better than Eng v France with similar? Surely an England game with a proper England camp is better than 2 x Lancs /Yorks camps? I'm not ashamed of Northern roots, but most of us aren't from Lancashire nor have any link to it.

If your results are broadly similar (crowds, commercials, tv etc) then international RL should be a far higher priority than trying to bring something that's died a few times back to life. The Challenge should be making a mid-season international work rather than looking at something like this imo. Let's be blunt, if we stage a Roses match it'll be similar to an international versus France, but it'll reinforce that our sport is for Northerners and others should turn away. If this would draw 20k and big viewing figures you can ride that, but not when it doesn't bring the tangible benefits.

I'm not sure what point you are making, and I'm not sure I can blame you, because the quality of writing in this publication is dire: "Rugby league is now longer a sport that can be self-sustainable. Hull FC can be, in fact we will move towards that at the end of the year having paid a huge government loan for Covid." I have no idea what the above means. Is the 'now' a typo? If he is saying RL is no long self-sustainable, his next line saying Hull can be doesn't make sense. So I have no idea of whether Pearson's interview is positive or negative, because the article makes no sense.

I like flicking between matches, as I've said before, it pretty much guarantees that on a Friday I'll watch Super League and stick with it for the full 2hrs. Had it been the Saints v Hull game only I'd have given up after a short while. That said, I think I am coming round to wanting every game in its own slot. One of the benefits at the moment should be filling the schedule and it's still a case of blink and you'll miss it. Maybe two games on a Friday at 8pm and then all others in unique slots.

I've always liked the idea of England vs Possibles. Basically Wane gets his first picks and then a guest coach picks a team of next in lines. I don't think it'd be commercially strong or anything, but on the field I'd find it most interesting.