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GB Lions should not have been brought back


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.....until we get more people playing the game in Scotland, Ireland and Wales and the England brand gaines greater visibility in the minds of the general public. 

GB Lions had decent crowds at some points but it was never iconic. 

Needless to say,  this was yet another terrible idea from Nigel Wood along with trying to bring promotion/relegation into the international scene. 

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It's of marginal impact to the real issues behind GB's failure on this tour.

But IMO it's a stronger brand than England and the players are very much behind it. Decrying it's use is just a fig leaf that doesn't address real issues.

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13 minutes ago, M j M said:

It's of marginal impact to the real issues behind GB's failure on this tour.

But IMO it's a stronger brand than England and the players are very much behind it. Decrying it's use is just a fig leaf that doesn't address real issues.

On what basis do you assert that it's a stronger brand than England? 

 

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7 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

Ive posted this on the game thread but the Silver lining here is that to the wider sporting public the England brand hasn’t been tarnished with the poor performances. The GB brand only really resinates with RLfans so in a way I’m glad they brought it back for these games

Unfortunately, the reality is that neither 'brand' resonates with the wider sporting public, because we simply don't play anywhere near enough internationals to penetrate the consciousness of the casual viewer.

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1 hour ago, The Daddy said:

Needless to say,  this was yet another terrible idea from Nigel Wood along with trying to bring promotion/relegation into the international scene. 

But I kept getting told on this very forum that it would be the greatest thing ever, and we can only beat the aussies as GB, etc, etc

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

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10 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

The GB brand only really resinates with RLfans so in a way I’m glad they brought it back for these games

I'm not sure that this is the case. The GB shirt offers a clear visual distinction between league and union. To the casual viewer, the England shirt doesn't offer any distinction. Living outside the heartlands, when I talk to casual sports fans about rugby league, the most common response is "is that the one in the 6 nations?"

When I was growing up before I was a league fan, I knew the difference between the codes because rugby league wore a blue and red v that was clearly different to RU. I would massively prefer England to play in red or blue rather than white, in order to provide a clearer distinction between the codes. And to have a chevron ?

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A majority of the time the media down here have been referring to them as England, the whole GB thing is totally missed on anyone outside the UK. If we had been playing regular games against Wales, Scotland and Ireland over the last 12 years as well as England and all of a sudden these 4 teams were combined then you could see the benefit (See RU). But this is the same players from the England WC squad in different shirts.

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the ru players simply are not switching codes from Scotland and wales as they did in the past, if things were like they are now back then we would never have seen jonathan davies or alan tait in a gb shirt or phil fords iconic gb antics, they wouldn't have switched codes these days, how much of that talent pool has been severed from the talent supply?

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25 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

the ru players simply are not switching codes from Scotland and wales as they did in the past, if things were like they are now back then we would never have seen jonathan davies or alan tait in a gb shirt or phil fords iconic gb antics, they wouldn't have switched codes these days, how much of that talent pool has been severed from the talent supply?

Ultimately you are right. Its a problem that has reduced the amount of high profile players in our game over here. 

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Unless I'm mistaken about this, one thing I don't like is that caps aren't being kept separate for England and Great Britain.

Surely if the intention is for them to be two distinct teams, the caps should be treated as such?

So, James Graham should have, say, 40 England caps, and 10 for GB (or whatever the accurate number for each is). They shouldn't be merged into total caps.

With RU a player might win 100 caps for their country, but only get 3 for the British and Irish Lions. This distinction is a reflection of the fact that the Lions are special and different.

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1 hour ago, 17 stone giant said:

Unless I'm mistaken about this, one thing I don't like is that caps aren't being kept separate for England and Great Britain.

Surely if the intention is for them to be two distinct teams, the caps should be treated as such?

So, James Graham should have, say, 40 England caps, and 10 for GB (or whatever the accurate number for each is). They shouldn't be merged into total caps.

With RU a player might win 100 caps for their country, but only get 3 for the British and Irish Lions. This distinction is a reflection of the fact that the Lions are special and different.

But...GB was de facto a national team, not a rep team who toured every 4 y like the B&I Lions. And still are, imho, so it's just correct imho tu count them together. 
When it comes, say, to Tedesco, then it's more normal to say he's got 6 caps for Italy and tot for Australia. 
Imho of course. 

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2 hours ago, MatthewWoody said:

But...GB was de facto a national team, not a rep team who toured every 4 y like the B&I Lions.

I agree with you that it was - that's certainly how I always perceived it anyway. But I don't think that's what it is now, given that the intention seems only to be to play once every four or so years (and possibly only away from home?).

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1 hour ago, Scubby said:

There is an Ashes series in 2020. It is England v Australia (which I think was the original concept anyway pre-GB).

Yes it was, and the cricket Ashes series is also England vs. Australia so RL may as well be consistent with that.

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McGuire  interviewed on the touchline today only talked about England.

Watch a lot of old tour recordings and the Aussies only talk about England.

GB means f'all and is pointless in the modern era.

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3 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

But getting the England team to pretend they suddenly represent the whole of the British Isles is definitely pointless. Until such a time that we have non English players knocking on the door of course. 

I understand the point you're making. I guess as others have said, it's that balance between whether you only re-introduce GB when players from Scotland and Wales come along, or whether by introducing GB now and giving those players something to aspire to, it will aid their development.

I think it's not easy to know what to do with GB, and where to fit them in to the international schedule (if at all).

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