Oh yea its been so tough for Queensland these last 5 years hasnt it. How about we stop the Origin series because right now its hard to see when NSW will win a series.



How the hell are we going to grow international RL if we dont continue and hopefully expand these kinds of tournaments? Do some just not want an International game or something?

Exactly.



Last 5 State of Origin series results:

QLD wins - 11 (5 series wins)

NSW wins - 4 (0 series wins)



Last 5 Aus/NZ major tournament results:

Aus wins - 4 + 1 by GP (2 series wins)

NZ wins - 3 (2 series wins including World Champions)

Draws - 1



Even if you include the heavily Australian-biased ANZAC test (basically a meaningless friendly held every year in Australia, and (since the SL War) the only year it wasn't held in Aus it was won by NZ) it still stacks up closer.



Last three Aus/NZ finals - NZ 2 - 1* Aus (*which was a draw after 80mins).



Think these Aussies need to realise that their little inter-state rivalry isn't as big a contest as they think it is. The Kiwis would smash both of them.

I agree.



Hull v Hull is probably bigger.





<s>

Your comebacks are getting worse by the day...

Last time I looked, Prisoner of Mother of England = POME............but hey, you Australians Know best.

SHould the 4 Nations be scrapped? No next question please.



So reading through this thread, would the question be because of Cronulla not winning a premiership since 1967 should they be kicked out of the NRL?

yes Cronulla should be dumped to NSW cup where they belong. next question.

We did play NZ in October 2007 in Wellington. I hope we play them at home and away in October 2012, to complete a 3 test series.







Firstly, England should already have built up the hype over three years of 4Ns & June test. English fans already know the team exists. RL people already know a World Cup will be held in 2013. There'll be a June test in 2012 and 2013 to help build hype anyway. Secondly, as for building the hype of Scotland, Wales and Ireland - how will an England series do that? it won't! How will a GB tour negatively affect the Celts? It won't. The Celts will only get a repeat of this year's European Championship, 3 games, regardless of whether England or GB toured.



A Kangaroo test series against GB in the UK in 2011 would have been great, say with a tour game against the Super League Champions, maybe against the Challenge Cup winning club as well. As it stands, a Great Britain tour of NZ would work well. I'd see the following games working:



13th October: European Cup Week 1, Roses Origin Game 1

20th October: European Cup Week 2, Roses Origin Game 2, Trans Tasman Test 2

27th October: European Cup Week 3, Trans Tasman Test 3 (England players fly to Southern Hemisphere, get a week off)

31st October: Warriors vs GB - Mt Smart, Auckland (mid-week, Wednesday night)

3rd November: NZ Maori vs GB - Rotorua/Hamilton/Whangarei

10th November: NZ-GB 1st test - Christchurch/Dunedin

17th November: NZ-GB 2nd test - Wellington

24th November: NZ-GB 3rd test - Eden Park, Auckland

GB won't be touring so all that was a waste of time mate......looks good though...we could give it a crack in 2025

An international side versus a club team on tour would be much more appealing to a lot of people than the WCC. I used to watch the WCC with excitement, but ultimately, it doesn't mean very much to most Australians. An expanded WCC certainly would not. Also, it would undermine the finals series and Grand Finals of both nations - unless it was run roughly like soccer's WCC, which uses the champions only from each country. We'd need to add the Catalans, Crusaders and Warriors just to fill out numbers, and if those teams hadn't performed well in NRL/SL, it could undermine the concept.



Rugby Union successfully stages Lions tours, where the Lions play midweek tour games against clubs in front of good crowds. The Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks have all played tour games in recent years against British or Irish clubs, in front of excellent crowds. The Wallabies played and defeated:

* [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4QlYsPdykYGloucester 17-5 at Kingsholm Ground Crowd; 16,500 (capacity)[/url. Tuesday November 3rd, 2009.

* [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7LvrlbvMwUCardiff Blues 31-3 at Cardiff City Soccer Stadium. Crowd 14,622 (capacity is 26,82icon_cool.gif[/url. Tuesday November 24, 2009. This year, the Wallabies will play Irish provincial team Munster and English Premiers Leicester Tigers.



South Africa payed and lost to

* Leicester Tigers at a sold-out Welford Road Stadium, crowd 24,000. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOIZ9EZO2N0Leicester won 22-17[/url (the video shows how passionate the Leicester club fans during the game and when they won). Friday November 6th, 2009.

* Saracens at Wembley, crowd 46,281 (capacity 90,000). [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldOKPaLnQJw&feature=relatedSaracens won 24-23[/url (the other video doesn't have the crowd noise, but features a performance review by Andy Farrell, ironically)



New Zealand's All Blacks played Munster to a capacity 26,500 crowd at a redeveloped Thomond Park, Tuesday November 18, the mid week ABs winning narrowly. Tell me the electric atmosphere of this game wouldn't be good for RL:

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8hzfrTPo6E&feature=relatedMunster vs All Blacks - Electric Atmosphere, Hakas and Tries[/url

union players have the energy to play tour games against club sides because they spend 80% of the game laying on the ground...

A few of the Manly guy's that went on the 2009 WCC tour absolutley loved it, conversing with the locals in Leeds.It's up to the Australiasian club's to make a big deal out off it like Manly and the Roosters did.



From memory 40 Manly fans went over there to the UK and the next one I'd think will get close to 100. I'm hoping to be 1 of them