gingerjon

We literally gerrymandered the tournament to get an England v Oz final and then England clucked it up. I’m not sure you can get more rugby league than that.

Disappointingly, someone appears to have deleted the Euro XIII pages from Wikipedia.

Do we play Ashes Tests in World Cups?

As said, if that's all it is: fine. However, if it is used to give credibility to the man who brought us Euro XIII, Franchise League (complete with club announcements and a fixture list), and Bath Gladiators withdrawing from the RFL to set up their own competition then that does become a problem. Even though all of those are jokes, they are all damaging in their own way.

Related - I've said for years that an England XIII should play a Cumbria XIII as their warm up to the Autumn internationals. This may be the only time I'm ever going to say that making that imaginary game a double header would be a good idea. England are going to be severely undercooked for what will likely be their most visible game in years. The fact that nobody in the RFL seems to remotely care about addressing that is, as ever, quite revealing.

Oh god, there was Franchise League as well, wasn't there? https://www.facebook.com/franchiserugbyleague/

If this is all it is then it's harmless. If this is another diversion that ends up making a mockery of genuine development attempts - just look at how much mental energy, if nothing else, was taken up by Euro XIII - then it becomes problematic.

This "Dean Buchan is running a real club in Valencia, has set up a rival to the RFL in Gloucestershire (etc), the Euro XIII draft will be in Atlanta" is the nonsense we had before IMG.

I quite like it. It looks like a German handball training top and there can be no higher praise.

The ghost of 2000 looms large. One of the many failures of that tournament was starting* with England v Australia and England not turning up. * I know it wasn't technically but...

There will be an opponent. Probably even some shirts to buy. But there is no real club.

No. I thought we'd buried this nonsense.

So, doable. Not with the current Rugby League Ireland-in-the-UK set-up, obviously. But eminently doable with the right people and persistence. Rugby league is a tiny sport globally - you don't need that many players to have an impact internationally.

It doesn't need to be big.

I think they are the same in that they have 50m markings not the 40m that the AFL had when they used to go on the road to undersized grounds elsewhere - but I think the suburban grounds they tend to play at have overall smaller dimensions. I do take your point that the lack of distance on kicking means players group far more than in the men's game and the resulting spectacle is not the best. It really does fall short when compared to the quality of the NRLW.

Women's AFL has 16 players, men's has 18.

Don't worry, those players who made the long journey from Yorkshire to Newcastle for a jolly are Irish through and through and will save the day.

Yes. Next year's schedule has already been released and there is no gap, unlike in previous years.

Compilation of 'favourite' repairs.

Thread just proves no one reads poor @Archie Gordon's posts. Also, and more importantly, there is no space in the calendar this year for a mid season test.

I don't really watch the NRL too much but it's not particularly noticeable as a delay of game there. I don't have a problem with it at all. It gives the referee a useful weapon in terms of control and places the onus on players to back up their moans.

And the Aussies still blew it at Headingley.

https://www.rugby-league.com/article/63310/“backing-the-best”-campaign-–-aiming-to-create-a-new-route-for-young-athletes-into-rugby-league?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0cdi42witn8oBAvkR0XG13JnSHOh7kACaVuefpswqcOr6_raQQzFsOfQk_aem_3a2qngG0W-QuQ_6O-ORbcA Awakening Rugby League in the City (ARC) will see the creation of a pathway for talented athletes who may never have considered playing Rugby League an opportunity to experience the game for the first time in a supported environment. The RFL will use the awarded funds to work alongside Salford Red Devils and Swinton Lions to deliver ARC within Manchester and Bradford Bulls and Community Lions Foundation in West Yorkshire.

Sort of. The BDO properly collapsed in 2020 so they are sort of the same and sort of a different organisation as well. But, yes, that tradition.