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GB or England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland


GB or home nations  

61 members have voted

  1. 1. GB or home nations?

    • Great Britain and Irish Lions
      19
    • England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland
      42


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Should we revert to having Great Britain as the main team that competes in WC and test series over England and the other home nations? 

We don’t having a RL presences in Scotland and Ireland and have a minimal one in Wales and most of these teams are made up of heritage players and are not competitive. 

Why don’t we just have a team full of the best English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish players instead of pretending we have a ‘proper’ scottish team full of Aussies and Englishmen.

I think I’d rather see a team of 12 Englishmen and one Irish man playing as GB than 1 Irish man and 12 Englishmen playing as Ireland

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I think all the home nations having separate teams is good. 

Let them play at the level that they merit. Ireland v Serbia still grows our game! 

Lions I'm not against appearing once every 4 years as a touring outfit. 

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6 minutes ago, Southerner80 said:

I think all the home nations having separate teams is good. 

Let them play at the level that they merit. Ireland v Serbia still grows our game! 

Lions I'm not against appearing once every 4 years as a touring outfit. 

Yeah I think Ireland for example playing in a European championship with Serbia, Italy, ect is good but I’d rather see GB in a World Cup

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2 minutes ago, Mr Plow said:

Yeah I think Ireland for example playing in a European championship with Serbia, Italy, ect is good but I’d rather see GB in a World Cup

You do realise that the £15m for the 2021 RLWC was given to England to host an World Cup in England? The game also receives a host of "Sport England" funding for its pathways. Some people are busy living in the past.

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I think it has to be either always as GB, or not at all as GB. I just don't think the once every four years idea is viable.

What's the point of it? It just disrupts the progress of England because although the GB team is always likely to be mostly English (84% of the UK population is English, so common sense tells you this), the hope would surely be that we would start to see some Welsh and Scottish (maybe Irish) players challenging for a place in the team. Let's suppose we do reach that stage in four years time - for one series/tour you're going to drop a couple of English players from the team/squad and put in those two Welsh or Scottish players.

Once that series/tour is over, you're reverting back to England, and the Welsh and Scottish players would be sent back to their respective nations for the next three years (that's nice for them - one tour playing in front of big crowds with GB, and then back to playing at Wrexham or Galashields in front of one man and his dog). You'd also then be wanting to play again those English players that lost their place in the team/squad when it was GB - that will make them feel really good, I'm sure. Nothing like being cast adrift once every four years and then expected to turn out again when needed.

Remember, it wouldn't be like the RU Lions where it would have the feel of it being an honour to be selected - for those English players losing their place for a Scottish or Welsh player, it would feel like being told you're not wanted and needed, simply because the RFL have decided to play under a different banner. I know how annoyed I'd feel if I'd spent three years playing for England in places like Hull and Leeds, but then a GB tour comes along and I lose my place in either the team or squad because a couple of Scots or Welsh were included - even more so if those Scots and Welsh happened to be Australians!

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If I could go back in time I would choose England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.....

BUT

Historically Great Britain is our strongest brand. It’s what I dreamed of playing for when I was a kid, all our great international moments were as GB.

Add to the fact that the public love to get behind ‘Team GB’ and I think it’s a no brainier.

Imagine we’re playing the Aussies in an ashes series. Would anyone tuning in on BBC Scotland or Wales keep it on if it was England? I think you’d get a lot more casual viewers for the GB team.

Iconic kit, iconic brand, iconic names. That’s more important than “but they are all English players anyway”

Tradition can’t be manufactured. We have bags of tradition with the GB set up.

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33 minutes ago, Cdd said:

If I could go back in time I would choose England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.....

BUT

Historically Great Britain is our strongest brand. It’s what I dreamed of playing for when I was a kid, all our great international moments were as GB.

Add to the fact that the public love to get behind ‘Team GB’ and I think it’s a no brainier.

Imagine we’re playing the Aussies in an ashes series. Would anyone tuning in on BBC Scotland or Wales keep it on if it was England? I think you’d get a lot more casual viewers for the GB team.

Iconic kit, iconic brand, iconic names. That’s more important than “but they are all English players anyway”

Tradition can’t be manufactured. We have bags of tradition with the GB set up.

How do you think you get tradition? 

rldfsignature.jpg

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2 hours ago, Mr Plow said:

Should we revert to having Great Britain as the main team that competes in WC and test series over England and the other home nations? 

We don’t having a RL presences in Scotland and Ireland and have a minimal one in Wales and most of these teams are made up of heritage players and are not competitive. 

Why don’t we just have a team full of the best English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish players instead of pretending we have a ‘proper’ scottish team full of Aussies and Englishmen.

I think I’d rather see a team of 12 Englishmen and one Irish man playing as GB than 1 Irish man and 12 Englishmen playing as Ireland

What about 12 Lancashire and Yorkshire men and one Aussie born in Halifax? Why call them England call them north of England. Or why call them GB let's call them Europe. 

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Just to add that I think this poll is flawed because my vote would be to have a permanent GB team for all competitions (including the world cup), but that this wouldn't mean you couldn't still have Scotland and Wales teams. Ireland I wouldn't include as part of GB, so they would have a team in all competitions anyway.

Scotland and Wales would still be able to play against visiting touring teams - in fact I would be very much hoping they would do exactly that. Wales played Australia when the Kangaroos toured in 1994, so they could do so again next year, even if GB was playing Australia for the Ashes.

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3 hours ago, Mr Plow said:

Should we revert to having Great Britain as the main team that competes in WC and test series over England and the other home nations? 

We don’t having a RL presences in Scotland and Ireland and have a minimal one in Wales and most of these teams are made up of heritage players and are not competitive. 

Why don’t we just have a team full of the best English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish players instead of pretending we have a ‘proper’ scottish team full of Aussies and Englishmen.

I think I’d rather see a team of 12 Englishmen and one Irish man playing as GB than 1 Irish man and 12 Englishmen playing as Ireland

17 of Wales European squad of 25 this year were born in Wales. So not many heritage players there.  There are alot of young Welsh Players playing Championship Rugby.

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It was only ever GB because the sport of rugby league, almost uniquely in the world of team sports, failed to develop and grow into new territories. Any new nations, PNG excepted, came through splits occurring in another sport. The most accurate title the RFL's representative team ever had was The Northern Union.

Post-war it became GB to accommodate the talented players from Welsh clubs and, latterly, the big signings from top union clubs. We never have had a Great British game, the vast majority of the sport is actually crammed into a smaller region that it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Having a representative team called Great Britain, rather than England, Wales and Scotland, was always the sign of a small-time, small-scale sport. That it is being reconsidered is just an indication that the game has lost its way once more.

 

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Kill the GB idea. Steal the logo and colours and just call it England Lions. No one would even realise. Retain the iconic stuff as well as the Home Nations bring separate.

A handful of Welsh people might be upset. Maybe one Scotsman. The Irish probably couldn't give a toss about the GB brand.

Wells%20Motors%20(Signature)_zps67e534e4.jpg
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57 minutes ago, yipyee said:

What about 12 Lancashire and Yorkshire men and one Aussie born in Halifax? Why call them England call them north of England. Or why call them GB let's call them Europe. 

I actually quite like that idea. If we're going to amalgamate sporting nations then, yeah, let's have a European side (keeping the Union Flag and GSTQ, of course). Expand Australia to include Melanesian nations, NZ similar with Polynesian nations, and everyone else can play for Rest of the World.

Hey presto, a return to the glory days of four team world cups! ?

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20 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Kill the GB idea. Steal the logo and colours and just call it England Lions. No one would even realise. Retain the iconic stuff as well as the Home Nations bring separate.

A handful of Welsh people might be upset. Maybe one Scotsman. The Irish probably couldn't give a toss about the GB brand.

I know GB&I have never played a home game outside England, similarly have Wales, Ireland or Scotland ever recieved a cent from the RFL after a tour/tournament in the past?

Why not just steal the jersey then? They could even gauge any backlash by using it firstly as a one off heritage/aniversary jersey. 

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6 minutes ago, swann5 said:

Great Britain to tour , then back to own nations . 

GB as a down under touring side make sense as realistically Wales are never going to be able to afford to tour. 

GB once every 4 years down under. Is not a bad idea. A 4-6 game tour. 

England then can play Oz and NZ at home once every 4 years in a 2-3 game series. France can get 1 home game here too and if money allows Wales could get a midweek / weekend game. 

And a world cup in the other year of 4. 

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6 minutes ago, saintspete83 said:

Gb for tours and ashes, home nations for WC....... Problem solved 

Not really unless you want the home nations to hardly play. All that is going to do is leave a weak England and a weak GB brand with them interchanging at will.

I grew up with GB but a major part of what made GB special, in the incoming and outgoing tours, no longer exists and will never come back. GB now is just England with a different name.

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I can't vote in this poll because I want to see GB as well as the home nations playing regular competitive international Rugby League. Not either/or.

Other sports manage it.

I don't think it should be beyond the wit of Rugby League to do likewise.

.

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15 minutes ago, John Drake said:

I can't vote in this poll because I want to see GB as well as the home nations playing regular competitive international Rugby League. Not either/or.

Other sports manage it.

I don't think it should be beyond the wit of Rugby League to do likewise.

Other than RU, which other sports are those?

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11 hours ago, Methven Hornet said:

It was only ever GB because the sport of rugby league, almost uniquely in the world of team sports, failed to develop and grow into new territories. Any new nations, PNG excepted, came through splits occurring in another sport. The most accurate title the RFL's representative team ever had was The Northern Union.

Post-war it became GB to accommodate the talented players from Welsh clubs and, latterly, the big signings from top union clubs. We never have had a Great British game, the vast majority of the sport is actually crammed into a smaller region that it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Having a representative team called Great Britain, rather than England, Wales and Scotland, was always the sign of a small-time, small-scale sport. That it is being reconsidered is just an indication that the game has lost its way once more.

As you point out, GB is a team manufactured to accommodate those Welsh and other RU converts.  How ironic it is that critics of the "manufactured" Wales, Scotland and Ireland teams want another manufactured team in their place!

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