Ashes Series

[philipw]

Confirmed as cancelled unfortunately 

https://www.rugby-league.com/article/56816/rfl--arlc-confirm-cancellation-of-rugby-league-ashes-series

https://www.rugby-league.com/covid_19_coronavirus_ticketing_faqs#ashes

[Bedford Roughyed]

Very sad news, but expected.  Internationals are vital to the game (promotionally) in the UK.  

[Dunbar]

Disappointing but no great surprise given the circumstances.

[Hela Wigmen]

They’ll do anything to get out of playing us, those bloody anti-International kangaroos. 

[DavidM]

Sad , I think this would have been really good . They’ve got some gun young players it would have been good to see and we’ve got some talented players and I reckon on home soil we’d have give it a good shot under Wane . But events dear boy ... events 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Real shame, was really looking forward to it. NHS Cup then against Wales. Let's get some internationals on!

[DavidM]

5 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Real shame, was really looking forward to it. NHS Cup then against Wales. Let's get some internationals on!

It’s just about getting gametime I guess but any game against home nations or France don’t get the juices flowing at all 

[Cumbrian Fanatic]

Been expecting this for a while but I'm still gutted, I was looking forward to the Bolton test and especially the one at Tottenham, hopefully if it goes ahead in 2022 they'll still have a game there.

[Man of Kent]

Glad that there is an option of using the money paid for Ashes tickets as credit towards World Cup tickets. Good move.

[RP London]

12 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Glad that there is an option of using the money paid for Ashes tickets as credit towards World Cup tickets. Good move.

hadnt seen that. i will definitely use that option. London theatres did the similar, had booked a trip for my wife's birthday, they have given us a 110% voucher to use within 18 months. was happy to take that as the theatres will need cashflow (these werent cheap tickets either) be nice to have an incentive not to ask for the full cash though ()

[Cumbrian Fanatic]

16 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Glad that there is an option of using the money paid for Ashes tickets as credit towards World Cup tickets. Good move.

They did this with the Challenge Cup final tickets too, they do seem to be giving folk as many options as possible.

[Eddie]

As long as this doesn’t mean we play NZ again.
 

Obviously it would be vastly inferior to an Ashes series but given the circumstances I’d be happy with an away test in France and maybe Wales away (in Wrexham) too. 

[Rupert Prince]

42 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Real shame, was really looking forward to it. NHS Cup then against Wales. Let's get some internationals on!

Some sort of Origin game.  Fiddle with regulations if needed.  It's never worked in the past and might never work again, but frankly needs must.  We must try.

[DavidM]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

As long as this doesn’t mean we play NZ again.
 

Obviously it would be vastly inferior to an Ashes series but given the circumstances I’d be happy with an away test in France and maybe Wales away (in Wrexham) too. 

You’d prefer NZ to France or Wales though surely . Or a Pacific islands team 

[Eddie]

2 minutes ago, DavidM said:

You’d prefer NZ to France or Wales though surely . Or a Pacific islands team 

Tonga would be my preference, NZ no not this soon after the last tests against them I’d prefer to play someone else. I assume any opposition this autumn will have to come from Europe anyway. 

[DavidM]

Just now, Eddie said:

Tonga would be my preference, NZ no not this soon after the last tests against them I’d prefer to play someone else. I assume any opposition this autumn will have to come from Europe anyway. 

Indeed with the travel situation unclear ... I was gonna say with it being up in the air 

[17 stone giant]

1 hour ago, Rupert Prince said:

Some sort of Origin game.  Fiddle with regulations if needed.  It's never worked in the past and might never work again, but frankly needs must.  We must try.

What do you have in mind?

Lancashire v Yorkshire?

West v East?

North v South?

Something else?

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, Rupert Prince said:

Some sort of Origin game.  Fiddle with regulations if needed.  It's never worked in the past and might never work again, but frankly needs must.  We must try.

If a concerted effort was made to set up an annual County of Origin game it might be quite good, but not as a one off to replace an Ashes series. I’d rather see England play France. 

[Leyther_Matt]

Sad but inevitable, I suppose. 

I’ve requested a cash refund as I was buying tickets for a group of us so makes things easier to just give them their money back, but everything I had budgeted for attending all three of the games in the autumn has been carried over to the World Cup  

[Hela Wigmen]

All dependent on a few things.

The “Proposal One” - the November finish one, allows for an International game or two at the end of the season. “Proposal Two” and “Proposal Three” probably don’t allow for an International game unless the Challenge Cup is shelved and we use a couple of those weekend slots.

Origin is replacing the weekends we should have played Australia and normally during Origin, there is an International weekend scheduled for the likes of New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, PNG, Fiji etc and I’m not sure if that will happen during those weeks too. I can’t see such International travel being allowed either, so you can rule those out. 

Looking closer to home, France are probably the second best side in Europe. Their twenty-four man squad listed on Wikipedia for their ‘21 World Cup qualifiers consists of eleven players who are either plying their trade in the Championship or in Elite 1. The Championship may be no more for 2020 and I’m not sure what Elite 1 is up to but I imagine that is heavily income based, so that may not resume any time soon.

Looking at Ireland, from their qualifiers at the back end of last year, of their twenty-one man squad, thirteen of them were from outside of Super League. Looking at Wales’ squad, by my calculations, only five were from Super League squads and Scotland’s squad from the end of 2019 was a similar number, too. 

I’m not sure how we play any of them when they rely on players from outside of Super League so heavily. 

Does that mean that we play an Exiles team made up of Super League players? It’s not an idea I’m keen on but as a one off during this year, I wouldn’t be too upset. 

[Dunbar]

2 hours ago, RP London said:

hadnt seen that. i will definitely use that option. London theatres did the similar, had booked a trip for my wife's birthday, they have given us a 110% voucher to use within 18 months. was happy to take that as the theatres will need cashflow (these werent cheap tickets either) be nice to have an incentive not to ask for the full cash though ()

I read that too quickly and I thought you said you had booked theatre tickets for your wife's 18th birthday!

[RP London]

2 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I read that too quickly and I thought you said you had booked theatre tickets for your wife's 18th birthday!

not quite