Lions tour 2019 (Merged Threads)

[deluded pom?]

17 minutes ago, Henson Park Old Firm said:

 

Polo looks good

They still don’t acknowledge the Irish though.

[damp squib]

13 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

They still don’t acknowledge the Irish though.

It's annoying when players like Roby do it, but I understand that people have always referred to the team colloquially as Great Britain. However for the official governing body to continue to exclude Ireland from the team name multiple times in official articles, even after Brian Carney called them out on it on national TV, is astonishing. They genuinely just don't care.

[Saint Toppy]

Looking further ahead Meninga has now said he wants a Full Aussie Tour in 2020, including going back to the old format of midweek games against club sides. He's already spoken to Bennett about it and contacted Saints to be one of their midweek fixtures

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/st-helens-to-play-australia-in-2020-20874/

 

 

[deluded pom?]

46 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

Looking further ahead Meninga has now said he wants a Full Aussie Tour in 2020, including going back to the old format of midweek games against club sides. He's already spoken to Bennett about it and contacted Saints to be one of their midweek fixtures

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/st-helens-to-play-australia-in-2020-20874/

 

 

I don’t see how it could happen. We need to play our GF in early October. Will clubs start up again once the Kangaroos are here?

[wackojacko]

9 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

I don’t see how it could happen. We need to play our GF in early October. Will clubs start up again once the Kangaroos are here?

If they want games then there are surely a few national teams that would benefit much more from it.

[Allora]

This Great Britain Tour may set the English game back a decade.

It has no support, little or no publicity, from what I can see little or no media coverage or TV rights.

It will be a money pit that the English game can not afford, I will be surprised if the crowd average is any more than 15,000, I think less than 10,000 IMO 

Contrast with that, the Womens State of Origin game played tonight at North Sydney Oval drew a crowd of 10,600 compared to last years 6,800, give them a couple of years and they will be playing in Parramatta at BankWest in front of 20k

[Dave T]

11 minutes ago, Allora said:

This Great Britain Tour may set the English game back a decade.

 It has no support, little or no publicity, from what I can see little or no media coverage or TV rights.

 It will be a money pit that the English game can not afford, I will be surprised if the crowd average is any more than 15,000, I think less than 10,000 IMO 

Contrast with that, the Womens State of Origin game played tonight at North Sydney Oval drew a crowd of 10,600 compared to last years 6,800, give them a couple of years and they will be playing in Parramatta at BankWest in front of 20-25k

The BBC here seem to be covering it a bit, I think they will get announced as the broadcaster as they already do England games, but I expect there was no bidding war and it will be a relatively nominal fee.

[Allora]

5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

The BBC here seem to be covering it a bit, I think they will get announced as the broadcaster as they already do England games, but I expect there was no bidding war and it will be a relatively nominal fee.

Its a poor set up Dave that seems to have no planning or organisation.

It sets our game back in a massive way.

Once Australia said they had no interest it should have been cancelled IMO.

I think it will be like the Titanic

 

[deluded pom?]

26 minutes ago, Dave T said:

The BBC here seem to be covering it a bit, I think they will get announced as the broadcaster as they already do England games, but I expect there was no bidding war and it will be a relatively nominal fee.

How much do you think we’ll have to pay them Dave?

[Scubby]

1 hour ago, deluded pom? said:

How much do you think we’ll have to pay them Dave?

We all know it will be exclusive to Our League in order to get maximum exposure. With Rugby AM doing the pre match studio bits. 

[17 stone giant]

2 hours ago, Dave T said:

The BBC here seem to be covering it a bit, I think they will get announced as the broadcaster as they already do England games, but I expect there was no bidding war and it will be a relatively nominal fee.

It would be great if the BBC did get it. It's still the best way to reach a wide audience. I agree that they probably won't have to pay a fortune for it, given that it's early morning UK time and not a tournament as such.

[17 stone giant]

2 hours ago, Allora said:

Its a poor set up Dave that seems to have no planning or organisation.

It sets our game back in a massive way.

Once Australia said they had no interest it should have been cancelled IMO.

I think it will be like the Titanic

 

I don't necessarily agree with that, but I do think that there's a risk that they get trapped between two stalls.

If you're not going with Great Britain permanently, then you obviously need for the GB team when it does appear, to have a fairly different look to the England team. Otherwise you're just changing the name and shirt once every four or five years, but the players themselves would be the same. That would look a bit silly.

That's why I think it's worthwhile including the heritage players (at least this time), and then hoping that some genuine players will be produced by Wales, Scotland and Ireland for the future tours.

I don't know how realistic it is to expect those countries to develop players of the required standard. In the past when GB had some great Welsh or Scottish players, I seem to remember a lot was because of them coming over from rugby union. That trend doesn't seem to happen anymore, and I don't think the lure of appearing for GB once every four years, is likely to change that.

[Man of Kent]

3 hours ago, Allora said:

This Great Britain Tour may set the English game back a decade.

Utter nonsense. The World Cup in 2021 is going to be the best yet, far better than the miserable effort you lot put on in Australia (off the field) in 2017.

[gingerjon]

5 hours ago, Scubby said:

We all know it will be exclusive to Our League in order to get maximum exposure. With Rugby AM doing the pre match studio bits. 

It was good how that streaming international really was part of a structured experiment to find the best way of broadcasting rugby league.

[THE RED ROOSTER]

On 20/06/2019 at 12:50, Saint Toppy said:

Looking further ahead Meninga has now said he wants a Full Aussie Tour in 2020, including going back to the old format of midweek games against club sides. He's already spoken to Bennett about it and contacted Saints to be one of their midweek fixtures

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/st-helens-to-play-australia-in-2020-20874/

 

 

NRL Clubs will not allow their players to play English Club sides Traditional Tours are as extinct as the Pig footed Bandicoot

[roughyedspud]

1 hour ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

NRL Clubs will not allow their players to play English Club sides Traditional Tours are as extinct as the Pig footed Bandicoot

They shouldn't be playing club sides anyway...the mid week games should be against Wales,Scotland & ireland

[deluded pom?]

4 hours ago, roughyedspud said:

They shouldn't be playing club sides anyway...the mid week games should be against Wales,Scotland & ireland

But Mal played for Saints.

[RayCee]

4 hours ago, roughyedspud said:

They shouldn't be playing club sides anyway...the mid week games should be against Wales,Scotland & ireland

I think a Kangaroo side would win very comfortably against SL club sides. The drain of the best players to the NRL and not getting top NRL players coming over to the UK are contributing factors. 

With both pro leagues playing at the same time it kills a traditional tour anyway. It would have to be after the season has concluded and players need a rest before starting preparation for the following season.

[ghost crayfish]

Along with tests against France and Wales, a match against England Knights would be good. Expecting clubs to keep their squads together and training through October/November for your games is a bit unrealistic I reckon. The only post season club fixture should be the WCC

[Allora]

9 hours ago, RayCee said:

I think a Kangaroo side would win very comfortably against SL club sides. The drain of the best players to the NRL and not getting top NRL players coming over to the UK are contributing factors. 

With both pro leagues playing at the same time it kills a traditional tour anyway. It would have to be after the season has concluded and players need a rest before starting preparation for the following season.

Back in the day it was the second stringers called the "Emu's"

Wigan was the fourth Test

[Scubby]

43 minutes ago, Allora said:

Back in the day it was the second stringers called the "Emu's"

Wigan was the fourth Test

I think back in the day is the key phrase here. Imagine England touring Australia in November and trying to arrange club fixtures with Brisbane, Souths, Melbourne and St George. The idea is genuinely that stupid!

Some UK club sides will have finished playing in September and some players from the recently finished season might not be contracted (or even insured to play) by mid November.

[Mattrhino]

16 hours ago, roughyedspud said:

They shouldn't be playing club sides anyway...the mid week games should be against Wales,Scotland & ireland

I suppose the difference is vs Saints, Leeds, Wigan etc they will get a 20k all paying crowd and make a big chuck of change versus a 3k or 4k against Wales or Ireland. 

[deluded pom?]

3 hours ago, Allora said:

Back in the day it was the second stringers called the "Emu's"

Wigan was the fourth Test

Not in 1982 it wasn’t.

[roughyedspud]

10 hours ago, Mattrhino said:

I suppose the difference is vs Saints, Leeds, Wigan etc they will get a 20k all paying crowd and make a big chuck of change versus a 3k or 4k against Wales or Ireland. 

RL in Australia is a billion dollar sport, a few sacrifices for the greater good can be made here and there and it puts vital cash into the pockets of Wales,Scotland & Ireland!

[deluded pom?]

3 hours ago, roughyedspud said:

RL in Australia is a billion dollar sport, a few sacrifices for the greater good can be made here and there and it puts vital cash into the pockets of Wales,Scotland & Ireland!

Or Saints.