londonrlfan

Well good luck to the Skolars and hope it works out. It's really important for the city to have 2 clubs at least at full time Championship level, if not one in SL. Perhaps they could team up with Broncos to run a joint FT academy for young players in London & the South?

So swap Greece for USA/Canada and it'll be the same teams. It's boring seeing the same teams all the time - heritage nations will dominate in Europe and CI get their usual stroll. I'd love to see Nigeria make it instead of CI and one of Scotland or Ireland to miss out.

Because international sport should be about authenticity. People can blame union etc all they like, but I'd guess the reason why RL aren't accepted by GAISF, Commonwealth Games, IOC etc is due to the lack of authentic teams. They won't be fooled by a bunch of Aussies in kilts. RL has always gone for the short term option, rather than putting down solid foundations, and as always the short term ends up being the wrong one. So what happens when migration to Australia stops? Will we not bother with internationals?

https://europeanrugbyleague.com/articles/2199/jamaica-name-24-man-squad-for-rugby-leag... Lol, even the international website calls them that. "Six players from the domestic game are included, all from Duhaney Park Red Sharks who recently won the National Club Championship Grand Final for the fourteenth time in 16 seasons, along with former Excelsior Community College speedster Abevia McDonald, who now plays at London Skolars." Notice a Jamaican player at London Skolars is called a domestic, because he's a product of their domestic game.

No it isn't. A domestic player is a player that was produced by that country's system. Just because you're good enough to move to SL, NRL etc doesn't mean you aren't homegrown.

That's what a domestic player is. Not sure what you're confused about exactly? Are you saying Casty was no long a French player when he moved to the Roosters?

They are. Edwin Ipape is a domestic product of PNG RL not English RL.

The tiny island nations who don't contribute anything to the playing numbers does nothing for the sport tbh. It's a foundation built on sand. Not sure why the likes of Wales and Fiji are being lumped in with them? And Jamaica and Greece have both made an effort to use domestic players in their first tournament. Scotland are in their fifth consecutive WC and have never bothered and never will. Teams like them make a mockery of growing the sport. Might seem harsh to apologists, but they've had numerous chances and are full of excuses.

There's nothing wrong with the rules, but there should be a limit on how many heritage players you can pick. Domestic players must be represented at the WC. And yes that means French/Welsh/PNG/Fijian players playing in England and the NRL.

Chalk and Cheese compared to last night. Jamaica a breath of fresh air with their creativity and passion. And how good was it to see domestic players putting in tackles on NRL superstars?!

Yes Jamaica!

Any in the north? There needs to be much more of a geographical spread than this year. Hopefully there will be a game or two in Paris, or Lequipe et al will ignore it.

I think they were lumbered in with Modern Pentathlon rather than union. Didn't I read somewhere that there wasn't any domestic union in Greece atm? I think it may have been on here.

Exactly. We're told sides have to rely on heritage players because of blowouts, but we're still getting blowouts. Would Scotland have been any worse off if David Scott played tonight?

England fans don't travel in the M62 either! Imo a French World Cup should be about growing the sport in France and growing its audience, not relying on M62 fans travelling down.