Home Nations discussion

Rugby league in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland that isn't necessarily to do with Super League.

 

Rugby League Ashes could return to the international calendar as soon as 2015


Great Britain v Australia Ashes clashes could soon be back on the agenda

The rugby league Ashes could be back on the international calendar as soon as 2015.
Since 2005 visits by Great Britain to the southern hemisphere have been replaced by Four Nations tournaments.
However, it now appears there could be an opening in the fixture-list in two years' time to revive the once-popular concept.
The Four Nations Series is currently scheduled for 2014 and 2016, with the World Cup taking place in 2013 and 2017.
That leaves a gap in 2015 and RFL chief executive Nigel Wood says it will be on the agenda for the International Federation meeting, which will be held next week ahead of the Anzac Test between Australia and New Zealand in Canberra.
"We're in a constant dialogue with our international partners and hopefully we'll be in a position to announce something shortly," said Wood, who was speaking at a 2013 World Cup seminar at Old Trafford and is planning to attend the meeting in Australia.

 

Opens up the possible return of Great Britain.

 

England should be playing as Great Britain anyway. Should do whatever they can to make the side stronger.

 

Honestly how many non-English players would actually get selected? Not many.

 

None really. I always figured they just persisted with Great Britain so we could select Brian Carney.

But admittedly there are a few promising Welsh players coming through. I don't know whether they would eventually be good enough but Gil Dudson, Ben Flower and Rhodri Lloyd are all genuine Welshmen and are very promising.

 

It doesn't really make it any stronger though. Most of the good players who play for Scotland, Ireland and Wales are just Englishmen who weren't good enough to make the England squad. You might get a little bit more depth but the top ~25 for England and Great Britain are almost always the same.

 

Not right now but there have been in the past and there could be in the future.

 

There haven't really been any in the past though.

These are the players who have represented Great Britian since 2000 but have played for a Home Nation other than England: Lee Gilmour played for Scotland in a World Cup; Iestyn Harris played extensively for Wales; Keiron Cunningham played for Wales too; Richard Horne played for Scotland; Garth Carvell played 2 games for Wales; Gary Connolly played a solitary game for Ireland and played the rest for England; Paul Anderson played 2 games for Scotland; Barrie McDermott played for Ireland; Brian Carney played for Ireland; Chris Joynt played for Ireland and England; Terry O'Connor played for Ireland in a World Cup; James Lowes played 1 game for Ireland; and Ryan Sheridan played for Ireland. Worth mentioning that out of that group the only player who wasn't born, raised and trained in England was Brian Carney.

So in the last version of the Great Britain Lions the only players that were available that would not have been under England were Gilmour, Horne, Harris, Cunningham, Carvell and Anderson. Of those only Harris and Cunningham actually added anything to the team, the rest were fringe players or poor selections. With that in mind I don't think there is much basis for claiming that Great Britain makes a stronger team than England. At most it contributes one extra player and most of the team there is no distinguishable difference.

Wales has been doing quite a good job of building rugby league up from grassroots and is actually developing local players. Swallowing up Wales so Ben Flower or Rhys Pugsley can get one game off the bench somewhere down the track serves no purpose. In fact it would be detrimental to the development of rugby league outside the heartland. I don't mind Great Britain playing once in a while but it should be very rare. Especially since the team is almost always just the England team with a different name and jersey.

 

That may be true but I don't actually see that as a positive. I really loathe players trying to qualify through heritage after it becomes apparent that they can't make their first choice team. Players like Chase and Heighington can fuck off as far as I'm concerned.

1. Sam Tomkins
2. Tom Briscoe
3. Kallum Watkins
4. ...
5. Ryan Hall
6. Gareth Widdop
7. Kevin Sinfield
8. James Graham
9. James Roby
10. Sam Burgess
11. Gareth Ellis
12. Ben Westwood
13. Sean O'Loughlin

14. Rob Burrow
15. Chris Hill
16. Gareth Hock
17. ...

There is plenty of depth in terms of poor centres such as Atkins, Cudjoe, Yeaman and Bridge. In the end Reed should probably take the spot. I would hope that by October George Burgess will be in the team but otherwise Crabtree or Mossop would do fine.