Revival of the European championship

[NRLandSL]

I believe a mid season championship between England, Wales and France should be brought back. Each team play’s each other once, 3 games plus a post season final in October before other tests. Of course the results would be likely obvious they would be valuable fixtures that would keep England playing regularly and give France and Wales good competition, also rugby league is need of mid season internationals.
 

International rugby league is beggining to look a post season muck around more than anything. Anzac test and other fixtures must be brought back in Australia too.

[OriginalMrC]

The problem with this is England would put 50 points on France and France would put 50 points on Wales every single time. It has to be a meaningful competition to make it worthwhile. 

[NRLandSL]

Wales vs England would still be a very one sided affair. But a full strength wales lineup isn’t too bad and could probably only lose by 40-50 or so. 

1-Billy Walkley  
2-Rhys Williams   
3-Luis Roberts
4-Elliot Kear
5-Joe Coope-Franklin/Josh Lynch
6-Caleb Aekins
7-Josh Ralph
8-Gil Dudson
9-Denive Balmforth
10-Sam Hughes
11-Harry Hayes
12-Rhodri Lloyd/ Tyson Frizell ?
13-Connor Davies

14-Matty Fozard   
15-Luke Thomas
16-Huw Worthington
17-Chester Butler

Full strength their squad has a lot of first grade players and talent. Also some quality up and coming welsh youngsters Charlie Glover, 19 recently debuted for Salford. Ben Lane from St Helens, Hayden Barton from the Roosters, Junior Westwood from Warrington, Sam Grice from Castleford. And a lot of over exciting youth, The future of Wales looks strong.

Edited October 27 by NRLandSL

[Click]

2 minutes ago, NRLandSL said:

Wales vs England would still be a very one sided affair. But a full strength wales lineup isn’t too bad and could probably only lose by 40-50 or so. 

1-Billy Walkley  
2-Rhys Williams   
3-Luis Roberts
4-Elliot Kear
5-Joe Coope-Franklin/Josh Lynch
6-Caleb Aekins
7-Josh Ralph
8-Gil Dudson
9-Denive Balmforth
10-Sam Hughes
11-Harry Hayes
12-Rhodri Lloyd/ Tyson Frizell ?
13-Connor Davies

14-Matty Fozard   
15-Luke Thomas
16-Huw Worthington
17-Chester Butler

Full strength their squad has a lot of first grade players and talent. Also some quality up and coming welsh youngsters Charlie Glover, 19 recently debuted for Salford. Ben Lane from St Helens, Hayden Barton from the Roosters, Junior Westwood from Warrington, Sam Grice from Castleford. And a lot of over exciting youth, The future of Wales looks strong.

That feels like an oxymoron ...

[NRLandSL]

2 minutes ago, Click said:

That feels like an oxymoron ...

No 40 points is not a bad result at all comparing a team of some of the worlds best to a side equivalent to a top championship team.

[Damien]

6 minutes ago, NRLandSL said:

Wales vs England would still be a very one sided affair. But a full strength wales lineup isn’t too bad and could probably only lose by 40-50 or so. 

1-Billy Walkley  
2-Rhys Williams   
3-Luis Roberts
4-Elliot Kear
5-Joe Coope-Franklin/Josh Lynch
6-Caleb Aekins
7-Josh Ralph
8-Gil Dudson
9-Denive Balmforth
10-Sam Hughes
11-Harry Hayes
12-Rhodri Lloyd/ Tyson Frizell ?
13-Connor Davies

14-Matty Fozard   
15-Luke Thomas
16-Huw Worthington
17-Chester Butler

Full strength their squad has a lot of first grade players and talent. Also some quality up and coming welsh youngsters Charlie Glover, 19 recently debuted for Salford. Ben Lane from St Helens, Hayden Barton from the Roosters, Junior Westwood from Warrington, Sam Grice from Castleford. And a lot of over exciting youth, The future of Wales looks strong.

That's a squad of barely recognisable lower league players and players like Dudson and Williams who are 34 and Kear who is 35. If that isn't too bad I'd hate to see bad.

[NRLandSL]

7 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

The problem with this is England would put 50 points on France and France would put 50 points on Wales every single time. It has to be a meaningful competition to make it worthwhile. 

I can only see the gap between England and France shrinking with more fixtures. France’s national team is starting to look pretty good and some of there youngsters are very exciting. Such as Aispuro-Bichet, Martin and Griffier. I’d say England by 4 or so tries is where France are at now. Definitely not 50. The game last year was a poor performance but other than that France has lost by 20, 24 and 32 in there other fixtures.

I can see France pushing England to the end in the next few years.

[welshmagpie]

12 minutes ago, NRLandSL said:

Wales vs England would still be a very one sided affair. But a full strength wales lineup isn’t too bad and could probably only lose by 40-50 or so. 

1-Billy Walkley  
2-Rhys Williams   
3-Luis Roberts
4-Elliot Kear
5-Joe Coope-Franklin/Josh Lynch
6-Caleb Aekins
7-Josh Ralph
8-Gil Dudson
9-Denive Balmforth
10-Sam Hughes
11-Harry Hayes
12-Rhodri Lloyd/ Tyson Frizell ?
13-Connor Davies

14-Matty Fozard   
15-Luke Thomas
16-Huw Worthington
17-Chester Butler

Full strength their squad has a lot of first grade players and talent. Also some quality up and coming welsh youngsters Charlie Glover, 19 recently debuted for Salford. Ben Lane from St Helens, Hayden Barton from the Roosters, Junior Westwood from Warrington, Sam Grice from Castleford. And a lot of over exciting youth, The future of Wales looks strong.

Chester Butler has retired mate. 

[NRLandSL]

4 minutes ago, Damien said:

That's a squad of barely recognisable lower league players and players like Dudson and Williams who are 34 and Kear who is 35. If that isn't too bad I'd hate to see bad.

13 players in that squad with SL/NRL appearances. 7 currently playing NRL/SL. Hughes is great front rower for the Bulldogs, regular in the 17. Hayes has played 9 games for the bulldogs.

Dudson is a SL regular, Roberts and Balmforth have had great break out seasons in SL this year. Aekins and Ralph are two of the best second grade players in the world. Lynch is at Warrington. And a lot of other exciting youth, wouldn’t be surprised to see Walkley in SL in the future.

[48C North Stand]

I would add a team of 'Exiles' to that trio to add some competition. Shut down the top three tiers of RL for a month in June or July and give the whole thing some big marketing push and it might stand a chance of success. 

[Damien]

15 minutes ago, Click said:

That feels like an oxymoron ...

Isn't it just. Just another random list of players that have retired, are close to retirement and players that are no where near top tier international level.  That isn't competition for England, or England Knights or probably 3 more England teams after that.

[sam4731]

16 minutes ago, NRLandSL said:

No 40 points is not a bad result at all comparing a team of some of the worlds best to a side equivalent to a top championship team.

Once you get up to a 40 point margin, it generally becomes about how many points a team chooses to score. To be ruthless or to take their foot off the gas.

[OriginalMrC]

1 hour ago, NRLandSL said:

I can only see the gap between England and France shrinking with more fixtures. France’s national team is starting to look pretty good and some of there youngsters are very exciting. Such as Aispuro-Bichet, Martin and Griffier. I’d say England by 4 or so tries is where France are at now. Definitely not 50. The game last year was a poor performance but other than that France has lost by 20, 24 and 32 in there other fixtures.

I can see France pushing England to the end in the next few years.

You are joking aren't you?! A full strength England team is easily 50 points better than France. The gap might shrink with a second French team in SL (if that ever happens) but currently France are way off the quality of England. Wales are equally far behind France.

[Damien]

8 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

You are joking aren't you?! A full strength England team is easily 50 points better than France. The gap might shrink with a second French team in SL (if that ever happens) but currently France are way off the quality of England. Wales are equally far behind France.

Bingo. It's not a lack of games problem, it's a too small a player pool and lack of full time professional players to choose from problem.

[Just Browny]

You'd be better pitting an England u19s team against the Wales team listed above; I'd still make England favourites.

[JM2010]

I’d prefer what was mentioned on another thread. End of season Euros with the winners playing England in a mid season test. Tiered groups of 4 for the Euros with p and r. 
England to continue playing the SH nations at the end of the season.
Other nations also play each other in a mid season test such as Wales vs Ireland, Scotland vs Serbia, could even have a Jamaica vs Nigeria. 
 

Edited October 27 by JM2010

[Charlie]

We need to play more international it’s that simple who’s arsed if there’s so beating there is in every sport. But rugby league fans have the most small minds in any sport which is why it never grows

[Bongo1]

Division 1 - England, France, Celtic Nations 

Division 2 - Serbia, Ukraine, Holland, etc.....

Wednesday night games during season.

Bottom of Division 1 plays top of Div 2 in promotion/relegation match 

[Phil W]

37 minutes ago, Bongo1 said:

Division 1 - England, France, Celtic Nations 

Division 2 - Serbia, Ukraine, Holland, etc.....

Wednesday night games during season.

Bottom of Division 1 plays top of Div 2 in promotion/relegation match 

I know the Nations League hasn't exactly taken off in football but something like the above for Europe would be good. You could have every playing country involved. Having watched Scotland v Ireland today you'd need buy in from heritage players.

[Goole91]

Please stop. Who would want to watch England pump two other teams? Couple thousand maybe. Would it make money? No. Is it a goer, no 

[NRLandSL]

2 minutes ago, Goole91 said:

Please stop. Who would want to watch England pump two other teams? Couple thousand maybe. Would it make money? No. Is it a goer, no 

That’s the spirit. Might as well bin of England as a whole. Super league all stars instead. 

The international game has to start somewhere. It might not be pretty at the start but we must invest into the future if we ever want international rugby league to be competitive and the pinnacle of the sport.

[NRLandSL]

8 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:

You are joking aren't you?! A full strength England team is easily 50 points better than France. The gap might shrink with a second French team in SL (if that ever happens) but currently France are way off the quality of England. Wales are equally far behind France.

England are better than France. They’re not 50 points better than them though. France’s side is a full 17 of quality SL players, people forget that. An average score between the team would be around 4-5 tries gap IMO.

Edited October 27 by NRLandSL

[NRLandSL]

9 hours ago, Damien said:

Isn't it just. Just another random list of players that have retired, are close to retirement and players that are no where near top tier international level.  That isn't competition for England, or England Knights or probably 3 more England teams after that.

Just because you do not have knowledge about rugby league players does not mean the list is of “random players”. My Apologies I did not hear the news that 29 year old Chester Butler retired 6 days ago. What your saying proves to me you have 0 clue what your talking about.

[Barley Mow]

8 minutes ago, NRLandSL said:

That’s the spirit. Might as well bin of England as a whole. Super league all stars instead. 

The international game has to start somewhere. It might not be pretty at the start but we must invest into the future if we ever want international rugby league to be competitive and the pinnacle of the sport.

What do you mean by 'the international game has to start somewhere?' 

We've had internationals since 1907.

[NRLandSL]

7 hours ago, Just Browny said:

You'd be better pitting an England u19s team against the Wales team listed above; I'd still make England favourites.

Just not the case is it. I appreciate your pessimism but your giving over the top with this one.