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Should England Knights play the Exiles?

JM2010

By JM2010
in The General Rugby League Forum

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JM2010

JM2010

Posted
Posted

With England hopefully playing France mid season and a lot of people saying that the Knights shouldn't play full nations should they take on the Exiles mid season to give them a competitive game and an opportunity for them to stake a claim for inclusion in the England squad for the end of season games. It would also provide a high quality game for fans to attend

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Damien

Damien

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8 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

Not in a mood for a discussion I see!

No haha. I though it was a flawed concept and wasn't a fan of the Exiles concept the first time around. It even became diluted year on year as people stopped talking it seriously and that was against a full strength England team. I can't see any decent overseas player wanting to risk injury playing in a Knights game in front of a small crowd.

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Southerner80

Southerner80

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On 11/2/2018 at 11:11 PM, jim_57 said:

If England play France why not have Knights play 'Elite All Stars' or France under 23's as curtain raiser. Either a double header or the day before in the same city/region.

Problem would be Knights are too good for the France under 23s unless you pick the Knights as a developement team and not all SL so to make it more interesting. 

I would be happy to see the Knights play the Maori, PNG, the Indigenous Oz and a SL all stars team that is heavily French yet has some Anzac and older England talent thrown in.

As ever issue is getting the players for a all star team to take part and who will pay them? 

Rugby doesn't have a equivalent of the Barbarians in Union as really we have alot more common ground culturally with soccer ie a club first game. 

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jim_57

jim_57

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51 minutes ago, Southerner80 said:

Problem would be Knights are too good for the France under 23s unless you pick the Knights as a developement team and not all SL so to make it more interesting. 

I would be happy to see the Knights play the Maori, PNG, the Indigenous Oz and a SL all stars team that is heavily French yet has some Anzac and older England talent thrown in.

As ever issue is getting the players for a all star team to take part and who will pay them? 

Rugby doesn't have a equivalent of the Barbarians in Union as really we have alot more common ground culturally with soccer ie a club first game. 

Knights could be whatever they want it to be. In my opinion should be a development side as in under 23/25 with maybe a few "older heads" thrown in for the experience of the young guys.

I'd argue there is no real evidence Knights are too good for France U23s either. France are very competitive in junior age groups, under 23s is a nice in between of juniors and full tests. Of course Knights would win most times but they'd get some decent games out of it.

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Tommygilf

Tommygilf

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Exiles doesn't have to be buried, just needs to be done right. As an invitational side that could have fringe internationals from a range of countries in it like the Barbarians. Needs building up properly which RL notoriously can't do.

They probably wouldn't be a match for England, but Wales, France, even PNG? Beneficial for those nations too if England seems intent on not playing them.

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ghost crayfish

ghost crayfish

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Perhaps they could play Ireland or the exiles or someone mid-year, as part of an England-France double header, but I think the Knights would be best as a touring entity. PNG is perfect. Taking the young Englishmen out of their usual environment, challenging them against more physical teams than they're used to playing... that's the real value. Funding might be a problem of course...

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MatthewWoody

MatthewWoody

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Two things 

This Knights' tour emphasided that this concepts was good. The experience of PNG, the people, the games, ecc. will prove important for the players in the future, both at club or test level.

In addition to this, PNG at home can provide a great atmosphere of football and whoever plays there never forget it. Last year in the Italian camp I was talking to some of the QLD Cup based guys and they share great memories of their trip to PNG to play the Hunters.

So, need to exploit both "concept", both teams. Have the Knights' play/tour again with a meaningful opposition (you just can't play  an European team playing under domestic quota, it'd be a massacre) and have someone else tour to PNG for a series. I mean, if England/GB is in Australia next season (a big "if"), have NZ tour PNG. There were some videos on YouTube about their tour there (maybe, late 80s?) and it was really great. 

+

A very simple (but not so sure, given we're talking about rl) would be having the Australian PM XIII or the Kiwi equivalent to play the Knights. But it's just not gonna happen.

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Allora

Allora

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1 hour ago, MatthewWoody said:

Two things 

This Knights' tour emphasided that this concepts was good. The experience of PNG, the people, the games, ecc. will prove important for the players in the future, both at club or test level.

In addition to this, PNG at home can provide a great atmosphere of football and whoever plays there never forget it. Last year in the Italian camp I was talking to some of the QLD Cup based guys and they share great memories of their trip to PNG to play the Hunters.

So, need to exploit both "concept", both teams. Have the Knights' play/tour again with a meaningful opposition (you just can't play  an European team playing under domestic quota, it'd be a massacre) and have someone else tour to PNG for a series. I mean, if England/GB is in Australia next season (a big "if"), have NZ tour PNG. There were some videos on YouTube about their tour there (maybe, late 80s?) and it was really great. 

+

A very simple (but not so sure, given we're talking about rl) would be having the Australian PM XIII or the Kiwi equivalent to play the Knights. But it's just not gonna happen.

The Australia PM XIII is a concept that has been going for many years to build PNG pure and simple.

They are never going to play any other games.

Talent is secondary to whether players are confident.

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