John C H

Imagine if England still couldn’t win the thing with Australia and Nz fielding expat teams. I’m already expecting to be knocked out before the final but for an expat team to win it, May as well throw the towel in

We had a successful World Cup a few years back and nothing changed. Why would this be any different? Will merely paper over the cracks again.....

RLWC. By an absolute country mile. Don’t care if the football team win a throw in, let alone the competition. Mon the Scotland!

Pretty much every Origin team from the last 15 years beats every England team from the last 15 years sadly. And I include the NSW team that lost 8 series in a row. The Aussies are just better than us in every department. Sad but in my opinion true.

Having spent many years in Australia, Origin is no doubt seen as the pinnacle over there. A look at the attendances of it verses the international games in Australia tells you all you need to know. Australia is very insular in my opinion when it comes to rugby league despite pundits/presenters like Matty john’s talking up the need for a strong international game, I fear the attitude in Australia is a long way from changing. Nrl and origin will always be the main concern. Perhaps we need to just accept that and play our own cards accordingly.

Looks like really good stuff from what I can see. All I was hoping for. Nothing I love more than kicking around with a ###### Romanian car brand emblazoned all over me.

I think if he plays origin then that means he switches allegiance to Australia does it not? I may well be wrong on that as the rules seem to change regularly. Was talk of allowing pacific island rep players in origin a couple of months ago but not sure what came of it.

With the Keary injury I’d say there’s a half’s squad spot available. If Jarome luai plays origin and impresses he might be in the conversation. Walker depending how he continues to develop may be ready. The way Canberra are going will not do eight on any favours unless he can be the architect of a monumental reversal in form. Sadly, he’s probably not far wrong.

Sadly that has been used on a couple of occasions over the past year so that’s not going to wash this time!

Does anyone know if the game will be available on iPlayer on Saturday evening by 7 or 8pm? Misses has organised a full day of fun visits to friends houses (not fun, no fun at all) so won’t be able to watch live.

Apparently there’s a load of Samoan eligible players happy to flip from Australia and Nz if parish gets the boot. They were saying on NRL 360 that parish doesn’t let the players express or celebrate their heritage, something which is really important over there. Selfishly, I hope parish stays as a strong roster of Samoan players plus the john’s brothers (love them or hate them they know what it takes to win, especially joey) and sonny Bill could derail England’s World Cup chalkenge before it gets going at st James park. I don’t think we will get past Tonga anyway, be it in the quarter or semi, but I suppose that’s a different conversation!

It’s either a massive lizard or a tiny whale.

I agree, this country isn’t a patch on Australia or NZ lifestyle wise. I spent about 5 years in Australia and a couple in NZ and could happily have stayed long term but family issues brought me home. It’s easy to judge others but you don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors.

Easy to say, but the reality is often different.

Surely you are on a wind up here? If so, you’ve hooked a lot of folk! if not, I think you need some sort of assessment or intervention!