RugbyLeagueGeek

Isn't there a Welsh poster on this thread who indicated that they would be interested in watching a GB team? The flip argument is that you're definitely not going to get any Welsh, Scottish or Irish people supporting England! And as it stands there's zero meaningful, high profile competition for any of those home nations in the pipeline, so very little opportunity to get any supporters engaged. It does look as though the powers-that-be are essentially giving up on any sort of meaningful international programme for those nations. The whole thing is a very sorry state of affairs.

Yes. Do you? Whatever fella. I'm going to leave it there because otherwise this is going to completely derail a decent thread if it hasn't already.

You're just resorting to making strawman arguments and petty digs now. Those two issues have nothing to do with each other. I've never claimed that Scotland RL don't have responsibility as well. This is what I said: You seem happy to absolve the RFL of these responsibilities. Unless I see evidence to the contrary, then I'm not happy to absolve them of it. From where I sit, it looks like the RFL have just completely washed their hands of something that they should be taking some responsibility for. Nothing biased about that whatsoever.

And yet you believe that the RFL's constitution has changed to remove any reference to GB and Ireland, and instead refer solely to England, despite the only available evidence referring to their constitution stating otherwise... Ok whatever

You do you fella. Believe what you want.

That refers to their constitution. They haven't just plucked that content out of nowhere. I can't find an actual copy of their constitution anywhere (which in itself is pretty poor IMO). I would love to see their constitution, and if/when it was revised to change from making reference to GB and Ireland to solely England

If it's in their constitution then it should be in the documents that matter as well. You seem to be suggesting that they have changed their constitution and not updated things accordingly. I think that it's just as likely that they haven't changed their constitution and are trying to absolve themselves of their responsibilities. Either way, both scenarios are the mark of an amateurish organisation.

And yet it's in the RFL's constitution.

This doesn't mean that it isn't the RFL's responsibility as well though

Perhaps to try and absolve themselves of responsibility? Instead, Scotland RL now get all the blame.

It's not in their strategy documents, but it is - in their own words - part of their constitution "The objects of the Rugby Football League as set out in Constitution are: (a) to foster, govern, develop, organise and manage the Game, in respect of all age groups, at all levels and for both sexes, in Great Britain and Ireland" https://www.rugby-league.com/governance/customer-charter

And it's still a terrible idea now!

Doesn't surprise me unfortunately. I have zero faith that the powers-that-be in our game have the aptitude to correctly diagnose the problem, or the capability of solving it.

On the bright side, he did get paid £250 quid though...

This is a great point. It completely mirrors the thinking employed when admitting those expansion teams in to League 1 10 or so years ago - admit the teams to enable the RFL to stick some pins in a map and claim that the game was expanding, despite the clubs being built on sand and there being next-to-no infrastructure to support their development. The strategic thinking (or lack of) seems exactly the same. When the RFL made the decision to split GB&I into the 4 home nations, I don't believe they had any plan or idea as to how those home nations would actually develop. If the rumours about Sport England funding are correct, then the decision was probably made with primarily that in mind, with the perceived bonus of then ending up with 4 international teams instead of just 1. But as you say, they've just ended up as hollow vanity projects (edit - Wales don't deserve to be lumped in with Scotland and Ireland).