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GB: Bennett admits he called up Handley over Grace because he was English :/


Scubby

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Wow, not a great look for a Great Britain representative side. Seems all countries are equal - unless you are English ? 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/31405960?fbclid=IwAR0QlJxYQY56LJnKmfuKdX9kQ8uOatbnlUJVA5d8xOYKanxhCYIVv7xcx4A 

“He’s a wonderful player, Grace. He played really good footy in the Nines, too. He’ll get another opportunity down the track.” .... Erm probably not Wayne.

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This tour has been a shambles from start to finish.

They couldn't secure a game against the Aussies - the main matchup people wanted to see.

The branding was weird - when were we ever the GB RL Lions? It's just so clunky and long. GB Lions, Great Britain or the Lions. We don't need to mention the sport in every team name!

The coach - same as the England team coach, so shocked to see that he only picked players eligible for England, even when given better options. This led to a huge Domino effect of problems...

The squad - suppose this is down to the coach too - was completely unbalanced, aging, same old in some areas, and very NRL favoured. 2 wingers in a squad? Only an idiot would do that.

The tactics - they played like a team that had never trained or practised any set pieces; they didn't show any! Every game felt like a friendly or a trial.

The marketing - non-existant. Stadiums were empty. This "iconic" GB brand brought less people in. It's like Wood thought this was all that was needed. Absolute delusions of grandeur. 

The results - an absolute disaster for GB. I wouldn't be surprised to see them lose next week too against PNG.

 

This tour was everything that was wrong with international rugby league. It felt like the problems we had 20 years ago. Everything that we learnt from that stupid period of international organisation discarded because someone who was around at that time had a bit of a feeling for nostalgia then drew up his plans on the back of a cig packet.

I'll be glad to see the back of GB Lions after this. Switch back to England and we can pretend this nonsense tour never happened...

 

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12 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

This tour has been a shambles from start to finish.

They couldn't secure a game against the Aussies - the main matchup people wanted to see.

The squad - suppose this is down to the coach too - was completely unbalanced, aging, same old in some areas, and very NRL favoured. 2 wingers in a squad? Only an idiot would do that.

I'll be glad to see the back of GB Lions after this. Switch back to England and we can pretend this nonsense tour never happened..

 

I'm glad we didn't play the Aussies now

Everything else bang on

Lets just have England and do 4 nations every year

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1 hour ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Embarrassing but not at all surprising. 

His treatment of this job is a slap in the face to the people in Scotland, Ireland and Wales who are trying to build the game and grow the game in these places on next to no budgets. 

I can't believe that of all the shambolic, disrespectful things about the Great Britain RL Lions concept towards Ireland you think any of us care about Bennett's selection policy. His cynical "I'm just going act like it's England" attitude is about the only honest and relatable aspect of the whole thing.

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7 hours ago, Scubby said:

Wow, not a great look for a Great Britain representative side. Seems all countries are equal - unless you are English ? 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/31405960?fbclid=IwAR0QlJxYQY56LJnKmfuKdX9kQ8uOatbnlUJVA5d8xOYKanxhCYIVv7xcx4A 

“He’s a wonderful player, Grace. He played really good footy in the Nines, too. He’ll get another opportunity down the track.” .... Erm probably not Wayne.

Bennett's an Aussie, and from what I've seen through the years the Aussies can't differentiate between England and GB.  I can remember Bobby Fulton calling England GB when interviewed during the 1995 World Cup Final.

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6 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

Bennett's an Aussie, and from what I've seen through the years the Aussies can't differentiate between England and GB.  I can remember Bobby Fulton calling England GB when interviewed during the 1995 World Cup Final.

and Fulton was English and still didn't know the difference.

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I've spent so many years defending International RL, almost blindly to be honest at some points but today is the straw that broke the camels back for me. I can't defend that any more and was pretty embarrassed 

 

Bennett doesn't give 2 hoots about England or GB and the sooner he is gone the better.

So totally and utterly deflated - pathetic 

Now then, it's a race between Sandie....and Fairburn....and the little man is in........yeees he's in.

I, just like those Castleford supporters felt that the ball should have gone to David Plange but he put the bit betwen his teeth...and it was a try

Kevin Ward - best player I have ever seen

DSC04156_edited-1_thumb.jpg

The real Mick Gledhill is what you see on here, a Bradford fan ........, but deep down knows that Bradford are just not good enough to challenge the likes of Leeds & St Helens.
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2 hours ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

This tour has been a shambles from start to finish.

They couldn't secure a game against the Aussies - the main matchup people wanted to see.

The branding was weird - when were we ever the GB RL Lions? It's just so clunky and long. GB Lions, Great Britain or the Lions. We don't need to mention the sport in every team name!

The coach - same as the England team coach, so shocked to see that he only picked players eligible for England, even when given better options. This led to a huge Domino effect of problems...

The squad - suppose this is down to the coach too - was completely unbalanced, aging, same old in some areas, and very NRL favoured. 2 wingers in a squad? Only an idiot would do that.

The tactics - they played like a team that had never trained or practised any set pieces; they didn't show any! Every game felt like a friendly or a trial.

The marketing - non-existant. Stadiums were empty. This "iconic" GB brand brought less people in. It's like Wood thought this was all that was needed. Absolute delusions of grandeur. 

The results - an absolute disaster for GB. I wouldn't be surprised to see them lose next week too against PNG.

 

This tour was everything that was wrong with international rugby league. It felt like the problems we had 20 years ago. Everything that we learnt from that stupid period of international organisation discarded because someone who was around at that time had a bit of a feeling for nostalgia then drew up his plans on the back of a cig packet.

I'll be glad to see the back of GB Lions after this. Switch back to England and we can pretend this nonsense tour never happened...

 

Bang on. Nigel Wood and his quick fix gimmick ideas have caused untold damage to the sport in the UK. 

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3 hours ago, Big Picture said:

Bennett's an Aussie, and from what I've seen through the years the Aussies can't differentiate between England and GB.  I can remember Bobby Fulton calling England GB when interviewed during the 1995 World Cup Final.

It’s more a rugby league issue as GB RL team to all intents and purposes are England, so naturally the two are viewed as interchangeable. Even when there was the odd Welsh or Scottish RU convert playing for GB (Davies, Tait) they were still playing a predominantly English sport. The Lions in RU have a much more UK/Ireland wide identity, so it’s much harder to make that same mistake of not differentiating between the two.

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2 hours ago, DC77 said:

It’s more a rugby league issue as GB RL team to all intents and purposes are England, so naturally the two are viewed as interchangeable. Even when there was the odd Welsh or Scottish RU convert playing for GB (Davies, Tait) they were still playing a predominantly English sport. The Lions in RU have a much more UK/Ireland wide identity, so it’s much harder to make that same mistake of not differentiating between the two.

I get your sentiment but I disagree. I grew up with that GB side that had a number of great Welshmen in it, but it goes beyond that. 

RL is played in all corners of the UK and I think it's fantastic for us all to have one team to rally round. That is pretty much it as far as I am concerned... The act of coming together as one nation, alongside the ambition of gaining the ultimate honour of representing such a unified team, should be the aim of all players of our sport. 

Also, there are people like me who don't like the England brand (I support Wales at all sports), so will not be as keen on seeing the St George cross everywhere when you switch on international rugby.  With that in mind, a great way to potentially grow the game is to include players from the other UK nations.  At the moment, let's take Regan Grace as an example. A remarkably talented player, his inclusion in the GB side might have ignited some interest from the Welsh media and, by extrapolation, would have ignited some interest across Wales and help sides like the West Raiders.  If we'd have just called it England, the Welsh media would have ignored it completely*.  Obviously this is hypothetical given the stupidity of not picking him.

GB and England are not as interchangeable as you suggest. 

*Read "Fibber in the Heat" by Miles Jupp, a brilliant book which, among many other things, highlights the fact that the Welsh media was only interested in the England (and Wales) cricket tour of India because a Welshman called Simon Jones was selected. He ended up injured and Welsh media coverage ended there.

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I'm unsure on Bennett's comments. They show contempt to the sport in the country. We can either:

1. Praise his honesty in refusing to pretend GB isn't just England in a smarter kit. Or...
2. Criticise him for deliberately undermining his employer.

I'm not sure which is correct. I haven't criticised Bennett's attitude to the media throughout his tenure as that is just his personality. But comments, such as the one's about Blake Austin earlier this week, gave the impression that he didn't care.

This is the national team we're talking about, making public comments that you haven't researched or prepared for a test match adequately is utterly unacceptable and given his contract expires next week, doesn't give the impression of a man who wants it to be renewed.

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21 minutes ago, Chris22 said:

I'm unsure on Bennett's comments. They show contempt to the sport in the country. We can either:

1. Praise his honesty in refusing to pretend GB isn't just England in a smarter kit. Or...
2. Criticise him for deliberately undermining his employer.

I'm not sure which is correct. I haven't criticised Bennett's attitude to the media throughout his tenure as that is just his personality. But comments, such as the one's about Blake Austin earlier this week, gave the impression that he didn't care.

This is the national team we're talking about, making public comments that you haven't researched or prepared for a test match adequately is utterly unacceptable and given his contract expires next week, doesn't give the impression of a man who wants it to be renewed.

If we continue to employ him after the contempt he's down the RFL and the country in this series, we can't expect any effort next year 

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How can Blake Austin play on the wing and Regan Grace not even get selected? As a Kiwis fan can you guys please keep Bennett on as coach until the 2021 world cup so we dont have to worry much about beating England lol. but in all seriousness if coaching position is going to go in a different direction from Bennett it would have to be done now with him off contract and still 2 years to go before the World Cup.

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17 hours ago, Big Picture said:

Bennett's an Aussie, and from what I've seen through the years the Aussies can't differentiate between England and GB.  I can remember Bobby Fulton calling England GB when interviewed during the 1995 World Cup Final.

In the first game of this tour, the Video Ref called them England.

Rank amateur stuff.

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15 hours ago, DC77 said:

It’s more a rugby league issue as GB RL team to all intents and purposes are England, so naturally the two are viewed as interchangeable. Even when there was the odd Welsh or Scottish RU convert playing for GB (Davies, Tait) they were still playing a predominantly English sport. The Lions in RU have a much more UK/Ireland wide identity, so it’s much harder to make that same mistake of not differentiating between the two.

True, we often used to joke about this years ago, but for me the GB shirt is iconic, it means a lot to the players and is a genuine opportunity for those eligible for Wales, Ireland and Scotland to play at the top level in a GB shirt, leaving them to also represent their home nation

The tour wasn't great but that's nothing to do with the shirt we played in, it would have been the same had we played as England 

this seemingly contempt for GB by Bennet is ridiculous and this mindset harms the GB concept

this hasn't done untold damage I find those thoughts extreem, sadly the awareness for international game isn't as high as the club game

four nations doesn't allow full series or world cups

playing as a home nations or European comp as England wouldn't be competitive enough and the clubs and players who play SL wouldn't be engaged 

 

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38 minutes ago, Dave T said:

In the first game of this tour, the Video Ref called them England.

Rank amateur stuff.

To be fair when we first went to England everyone kept saying GB, now I realise this is sad as it shows we have lost consciousness of the GB concept 

what damage has this done to the casual viewer from other nations? 

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