Great Britain to pick strongest possible side

[17 stone giant]

59 minutes ago, Scubby said:

GB consisted of players from the north of England and some ex-Welsh RU players essentially. The GB brand had no desire or will to play a test in Wales or Scotland or even outside of the M62 or London. Who exactly was it representing?

It was representing everyone from Great Britain. Just because the team doesn't play in your particular area, or there aren't any players from your area in the team, it doesn't stop you from supporting them.

As I've said before, I'm in favour of a permanent return for GB, and because Wales now has the brilliant Principality Stadium, I think taking a GB game there is a must.

[RP London]

17 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

I think you are hugely underestimating the amount of players who still harbour hopes of playing in top tier internationals, and also the ones that may get a few caps early in their career for a tier one nation then be excluded from international RL we simply don't have the strength in depth within the game to have large numbers of international standard players who are wanting to play international RL sitting at home watching the games. 

The international calendar is the everything to do with players switching. Its the reason why it happens. You are chopping of a leg to treat a symptom and letting the disease continue. Cure the disease and the symptoms will disappear. Create a compelling, full international calendar where tier 2 nations regularly play tier 1 nations and each and switching will stop happening with any regularity. 

As for looking stupid in the eyes of the sporting world, I think the sporting world doesn't really pay enough attention for us to look stupid but more importantly, if we do look stupid its because like anything RL does, it does it tentatively and without commitment. There would be absolutely nothing wrong with the game taking a progressing approach to this and defending its position as not one of convenience but of conviction. 

RL allows players to switch nations. It does this because it understands the complex nature of identity. We support our players in the expression of the many cultures and heritages that we represent as a game and as individuals. The notion of identity is an individual choice, we do not feel that our players need to be put in the singular boxes others may choose for them. Our players are free to be English and Irish, British and Jamaican, Tongan and Kiwi, Australian and Papuan. The rules we put in place are for practical purposes to allow competition to thrive but we do not agree that players identity is a static and unchangeable box they tick one day. 

what a waste of a post

48 minutes ago, RP London said:

Ban switching and stop the ability to look stupid in the eyes of the sporting world.. it changes very little except that but IMO that is quite a big thing for how the game can be perceived which is important... you dont which is fine.

i obviously disagree, you have said nothing with any substance or evidence to prove otherwise.. just conjecture which i disagree with and I have already given reasons why. 

You are looking for an argument but i have already said that you dont agree with me which is fine, others do which is also fine. I am not wanting yet another circular "argument" with you.

[RP London]

5 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

lol

dunno why your laughing.. your post added nothing new to the discussion which is why i said what i said.. its all been said before and i (along with many others) dont agree with it, and have already given reasons, as a reason to keep switching.. its quite simple and it doesnt need to be gone over to death every couple of weeks.

[deluded pom?]

I didn’t like the nation hopping. That was until Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita turned the 2017 WC on it’s head. Without nation hopping there is no Tonga or Samoa playing at the level they currently are. We’d be looking a perennial big 3. Tonga only made the RL world sit up and notice them because of the allowed nation hopping. 

[RP London]

6 minutes ago, deluded pom? said:

I didn’t like the nation hopping. That was until Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita turned the 2017 WC on it’s head. Without nation hopping there is no Tonga or Samoa playing at the level they currently are. We’d be looking a perennial big 3. Tonga only made the RL world sit up and notice them because of the allowed nation hopping. 

which is a fair point, however, tomorrow they could almost kill that national team by a few of them being enticed back to play for New Zealand... 

[RP London]

5 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Its funny that you think you have added something new to the discussion Its you've simply started moaning about switching. If you solely want people to agree with that switching is terrible go set up an anti-switching forum and talk to people there. Otherwise there is chance then when you say something is wrong, people with another opinion might tell you why they disagree. 

 FFS Pot and Kettle!!!

i said "you obviously dont agree which is fine".. because you had already said it once you didnt need to ramble on again.. which is also why i didnt bother answering the full post as there was nothing new in that argument so no new response was needed.

[deluded pom?]

3 minutes ago, RP London said:

which is a fair point, however, tomorrow they could almost kill that national team by a few of them being enticed back to play for New Zealand... 

True but at least we would have had the 2017 WC with Tonga making the semi and giving England a run for their money. No switching would mean the same old Australia v other qualifier and England v New Zealand ad infinitum.

[RP London]

2 minutes ago, deluded pom? said:

True but at least we would have had the 2017 WC with Tonga making the semi and giving England a run for their money. No switching would mean the same old Australia v other qualifier and England v New Zealand ad infinitum.

yes i do see that argument.. 

[RP London]

5 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

I don't agree, and I didn't agree with the posts you made in response so I told you why I didn't agree with them. This hissy fit has been fun to watch but weirdly unnecessary. 

 hardly a hissy fit.. but whatever

 

[deluded pom?]

10 minutes ago, RP London said:

yes i do see that argument.. 

No need to go off on one RP 

[Damien]

The key to ensuring players stay with countries is to ensure those countries have a proper international schedule and as many matches as the tier 1 nations and have them playing the tier 1 nations on a regular basis. With that in place, and guaranteed, then look to start restricting switching. 

I would probably like to see Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, PNG and France in some sort of a tier 1.5 where they are treated the same as the tier 1 nations in terms of scheduling etc but a little less restriction in terms of switching, perhaps only allowing switching 2 years after your last appearance initially then increasing this to 4 years after a World Cup cycle. Just give it a little more structure than the current free for all without pulling up the bridge completely.

[17 stone giant]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

The key to ensuring players stay with countries is to ensure those countries have a proper international schedule and as many matches as the tier 1 nations and have them playing the tier 1 nations on a regular basis.

I agree, but I think there has to be a balance between quantity and quality. There's no point just having matches so that we can say they have taken place. There has to be some interest in them, otherwise they don't do anything for the sport or to encourage players to play for those teams.

Realism is what is needed, not wishful thinking. I'm not saying that you're doing that, just that it's easy to go down that route.

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

Two players running away with the man of steel award, according to some they are not good enough 

 

[MZH]

I mentioned about Naulago earlier in the thread. This seems to confirm his eligibility.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/rugby-league-news/josh-griffin-and-ratu-naulago-3009943

Would anyone else consider him for their squad? He's raw but I don't see a better athlete anywhere in SL.

[hutch]

13 hours ago, RP London said:

jesus you're a ray of sunshine this morning!

You're over playing the impact of banning the switching IMHO. You would still have the Lauchlan Cootes of this world that know, and knew, they didnt stand a chance of getting in their national team. You would still get the Tongans playing because they see this as their spiritual country. what you would lose are the Tyson Frizzles (and really did he help Wales that much?) which is where we start to look silly. 

What you do by banning switching is taking away the "not really caring" players and also the ability for the game to look a bit silly. The true heritage players who actually care or who actually just want to play international RL would still do it and they are often the ones who benefit the game in that country the most anyway.

 

You also take away people like Jarryd Hayne playing for Fiji as he played for Australia first. Hayne playing for Fiji in 2008 created a buzz in that country that basically kick started right league being a legitimate sport. I was dead against switching but now I realise that rugby league has to do it differently to other sports. The current system is working.

[RP London]

15 hours ago, Damien said:

The key to ensuring players stay with countries is to ensure those countries have a proper international schedule and as many matches as the tier 1 nations and have them playing the tier 1 nations on a regular basis. With that in place, and guaranteed, then look to start restricting switching. 

I would probably like to see Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, PNG and France in some sort of a tier 1.5 where they are treated the same as the tier 1 nations in terms of scheduling etc but a little less restriction in terms of switching, perhaps only allowing switching 2 years after your last appearance initially then increasing this to 4 years after a World Cup cycle. Just give it a little more structure than the current free for all without pulling up the bridge completely.

I'd go with that.. I hate switching, but i understand where we are at this moment and any ending of it would have to be gradual to stop the sudden brick wall that would happen to the development of the game that we have seen. But its the international calendar that keeps players wanting to play at those nations if we can get it going. 

If they can replicate the Oceana Cup in Europe (its not that tough it just needs some will power) then we will be on our way. 

[RP London]

7 hours ago, hutch said:

You also take away people like Jarryd Hayne playing for Fiji as he played for Australia first. Hayne playing for Fiji in 2008 created a buzz in that country that basically kick started right league being a legitimate sport. I was dead against switching but now I realise that rugby league has to do it differently to other sports. The current system is working.

as i say i do see that point but to say the current system is working I dont agree with. Right now, today, it has helped but, as i have point out, right after the world cup there was talk of toumololo et al upping sticks back to NZ which would have sent the Tongan team into a brick wall. They could still do that under this system now (hence i dont think the system is good). There is no perfect system I agree but this one has the potential to destroy a huge amount of hard work as much as it does to enhance it. The key is to make sure the international game is attractive enough to make people want to play for their nation rather than looking for another "bigger one" to play for (there is not much you can do about flags of convenience, that really is on national bodies and coaches to decide). 

I dont like switching, I would do away with it but, as my previous post, I understand you may need to do that in stages but the international game must adapt and develop too.

[Damien]

57 minutes ago, RP London said:

I'd go with that.. I hate switching, but i understand where we are at this moment and any ending of it would have to be gradual to stop the sudden brick wall that would happen to the development of the game that we have seen. But its the international calendar that keeps players wanting to play at those nations if we can get it going. 

If they can replicate the Oceana Cup in Europe (its not that tough it just needs some will power) then we will be on our way. 

In an ideal world I hate switching too but am just trying to be pragmatic and reflecting where we are now at as a game. I think what I proposed gives a much better balance than what we have now and stops the complete free for all but at the same time doesn't dissuade players from choosing smaller nations by pulling up the drawbridge completely.

[17 stone giant]

I hope the https://www.rugby-league.com/ website will add a specific Great Britain Tour 'button' to their left hand side and top menus - where they currently have the links to Betfred Super League, Coral Challenge Cup, England etc. 

I think it deserves one now that the tour is fast approaching. It's time to up the promotion and showcase what is coming.

I know they have the Great Britain tag https://www.rugby-league.com/?tag=great_britain for some articles, but it would be good to give people a quick and easy way to find them.

Hopefully the GB section will then have the fixtures (including UK times), details of tv coverage, information about the opposition and venues, a bit about the history of the GB Lions etc.

Maybe all this is currently being worked on and will be done soon anyway (I think I read someone say that the shirt will be out this month), but I just thought I'd mention it because we're not too far away from it the tour now. I think it's nice to have a few months of build up to events such as this.

Edited just to add: If the RFL do have plans to do some of the above, I'd even like it if they created the button and section now, and then added the content later. Even just a link to a basic page about the tour, with a brief intro and then a "Coming Soon" type message, would be good. Just something to tell people that GB are actually touring this year!

[Dunbar]

2 minutes ago, 17 stone giant said:

I hope the https://www.rugby-league.com/ website will add a specific Great Britain Tour 'button' to their left hand side and top menus - where they currently have the links to Betfred Super League, Coral Challenge Cup, England etc.

That seems like a very sensible suggestion.

Probably won't happen.

[RP London]

5 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

That seems like a very sensible suggestion.

Probably won't happen.

as the Womens Challenge Cup final is in less than a month I cannot seem to find a kick off time anywhere I wouldnt hold your breath!

Any help on that time would be much appreciated too as I'm trying to organise travel... googled, looked on websites etc and cannot find it for love nor money! 

[Dunbar]

6 minutes ago, RP London said:

as the Womens Challenge Cup final is in less than a month I cannot seem to find a kick off time anywhere I wouldnt hold your breath!

Any help on that time would be much appreciated too as I'm trying to organise travel... googled, looked on websites etc and cannot find it for love nor money! 

https://www.totalrl.com/schedule-confirmed-for-challenge-cup-triple-header/

Full schedule:
11:15am – Coral Women’s Challenge Cup Final (to be shown live on BBC Online)
2pm – Coral Challenge Cup semi-final 1 – Warrington v Hull FC (to be shown live on BBC1)
430pm – Coral Challenge Cup semi-final 2 – St Helens v Halifax (to be shown live on BBC2)

[RP London]

13 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

https://www.totalrl.com/schedule-confirmed-for-challenge-cup-triple-header/

Full schedule:
11:15am – Coral Women’s Challenge Cup Final (to be shown live on BBC Online)
2pm – Coral Challenge Cup semi-final 1 – Warrington v Hull FC (to be shown live on BBC1)
430pm – Coral Challenge Cup semi-final 2 – St Helens v Halifax (to be shown live on BBC2)

cheers.. I have been googling around and it wasnt coming up at all! god knows why.. one of those few days!

[Hullfan]

On 25/06/2019 at 20:56, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

Two players running away with the man of steel award, according to some they are not good enough 

 

Poor league