Quote ="Wellsy13"I wouldn't like to see them play the Warriors. International tours should play international teams and build up representative ">rugby.'" There's a place for both. Tour games can be more competitive, generate more revenue, be logistically easier to plan and run, and be more meaningful to established RL communities than certain test matches, e.g. Big 3 tests against certain emerging nations.

Quote ="Wellsy13"I wouldn't like to see them play the Warriors. International tours should play international teams and build up representative ">rugby.'" There's a place for both. Tour games can be more competitive, generate more revenue, be logistically easier to plan and run, and be more meaningful to established RL communities than certain test matches, e.g. Big 3 tests against certain emerging nations.

Quote ="Jonesy"Wellsy, I cant do it like you do where you quote every sentence that suits you and come up with half a ">reply.'" I don't quote every sentence that "suits me". I quote every sentence that I disagree with (which was most of them). Which ones do you think "didn't suit me". Ironically, the thing you're having a go at me for here (which isn't true) is exactly what you've done in this reply (i.e. ignore my reply to your comment that a crowd of 31k for a 4N Final being "a poor effort"icon_wink.gif. Again, contradicting yourself. Quote ="Jonesy"I will say this Thorman played 11 games for Parramatta 5 years ago. Mathers was an up and coming superstar in SL and played 4-5 games for the Titans Tansey was the most bizarre signing of all but did ok for the Newtown Jets with a couple of games in the NRL. What is the common theme of the players mentioned above? They were paid pretty well match payments and no Australians had heard of them. In Contrast... Some old busted ar*e Aussie or never has been Aussie comes to SL in massive numbers and its the second coming of Christ by the fans. How many Aussies or Kiwis in SL this year again?'" That was my point. You didn't "cherry pick" the best of English players like you said. You picked up some duds as well. How many of the dud Aussies that come over here do you think the English public have heard of and are paid loads? They are called "cheap options" for a reason. You can pretend that we think they're all superstars all you like. The fact is, most fans ridicule their signings. It happens both ways. Quote ="Jonesy"Ellis is on less than he would get in England, Burgess could be anything depending on Crowes ">involvement.'" So they could be paying him big bucks then for all you know? Rusty even came over to England to convince him to sign, and you Aussies are wetting yourselves at how good he is. Again, works both ways. Quote ="Jonesy"How much did YOU pay for Berro? in his twilight years 31 now, or Fitz at 33 hardly in their prime are they?'" Me personally? Nothing other than the contribution I make to the club with my season pass and merchandise purchases! Berro wasn't in the twilight of his career when we signed him, unless you think a 27 year old is "past it". As I said before, he was a current Aussie international, and the current MOM holder at the GF. He was in his prime. Fitz was signed on a one year deal to aid in the development of the players around him with his work ethic (much like when we signed Kearney, which got us a Challenge Cup). Again, a World Cup finalist when we signed him. Maybe not his prime, but a continued level of excellence and a world class player, and still proves to be (which is why we resigned him). Rumours were that Roosters wanted him back. What would you have said then? Remember, you took back a 33 year old Jason Smith and kept him for 3 further years in your competition full of apparently only young up and coming Australians... Quote ="Jonesy"I will let this thread die here from my part ">Wellsy.'" Because you've had enough of getting found out and embarrassing yourself? icon_lol.gif" alt="icon_lol.gif" title="Laughing" /> Quote ="Jonesy"They say Knowlsley Road is closing soon, have you been in all four sides of that ground? if not you will need to go there soon for the last game and move around a ">bit.'" I haven't. But it's nice to know that you read my threads on TotalRL.com icon_biggrin.gif" alt="icon_biggrin.gif" title="Very Happy" /> Don't try and deflect attention too much from your amazing points. It's one of the classic signs of a poor argument icon_lol.gif" alt="icon_lol.gif" title="Laughing" /> Quote ="Jonesy"Take care pal. J'" Oh no, don't go. What will the world do without another Aussie "know it all" getting shown up? We'll just have to wait for the next one. Shouldn't be too long...

Quote ="Jonesy"Wellsy, I cant do it like you do where you quote every sentence that suits you and come up with half a ">reply.'" I don't quote every sentence that "suits me". I quote every sentence that I disagree with (which was most of them). Which ones do you think "didn't suit me". Ironically, the thing you're having a go at me for here (which isn't true) is exactly what you've done in this reply (i.e. ignore my reply to your comment that a crowd of 31k for a 4N Final being "a poor effort"icon_wink.gif. Again, contradicting yourself. Quote ="Jonesy"I will say this Thorman played 11 games for Parramatta 5 years ago. Mathers was an up and coming superstar in SL and played 4-5 games for the Titans Tansey was the most bizarre signing of all but did ok for the Newtown Jets with a couple of games in the NRL. What is the common theme of the players mentioned above? They were paid pretty well match payments and no Australians had heard of them. In Contrast... Some old busted ar*e Aussie or never has been Aussie comes to SL in massive numbers and its the second coming of Christ by the fans. How many Aussies or Kiwis in SL this year again?'" That was my point. You didn't "cherry pick" the best of English players like you said. You picked up some duds as well. How many of the dud Aussies that come over here do you think the English public have heard of and are paid loads? They are called "cheap options" for a reason. You can pretend that we think they're all superstars all you like. The fact is, most fans ridicule their signings. It happens both ways. Quote ="Jonesy"Ellis is on less than he would get in England, Burgess could be anything depending on Crowes ">involvement.'" So they could be paying him big bucks then for all you know? Rusty even came over to England to convince him to sign, and you Aussies are wetting yourselves at how good he is. Again, works both ways. Quote ="Jonesy"How much did YOU pay for Berro? in his twilight years 31 now, or Fitz at 33 hardly in their prime are they?'" Me personally? Nothing other than the contribution I make to the club with my season pass and merchandise purchases! Berro wasn't in the twilight of his career when we signed him, unless you think a 27 year old is "past it". As I said before, he was a current Aussie international, and the current MOM holder at the GF. He was in his prime. Fitz was signed on a one year deal to aid in the development of the players around him with his work ethic (much like when we signed Kearney, which got us a Challenge Cup). Again, a World Cup finalist when we signed him. Maybe not his prime, but a continued level of excellence and a world class player, and still proves to be (which is why we resigned him). Rumours were that Roosters wanted him back. What would you have said then? Remember, you took back a 33 year old Jason Smith and kept him for 3 further years in your competition full of apparently only young up and coming Australians... Quote ="Jonesy"I will let this thread die here from my part ">Wellsy.'" Because you've had enough of getting found out and embarrassing yourself? icon_lol.gif" alt="icon_lol.gif" title="Laughing" /> Quote ="Jonesy"They say Knowlsley Road is closing soon, have you been in all four sides of that ground? if not you will need to go there soon for the last game and move around a ">bit.'" I haven't. But it's nice to know that you read my threads on TotalRL.com icon_biggrin.gif" alt="icon_biggrin.gif" title="Very Happy" /> Don't try and deflect attention too much from your amazing points. It's one of the classic signs of a poor argument icon_lol.gif" alt="icon_lol.gif" title="Laughing" /> Quote ="Jonesy"Take care pal. J'" Oh no, don't go. What will the world do without another Aussie "know it all" getting shown up? We'll just have to wait for the next one. Shouldn't be too long...

roughyedspud, Quote ="The Observer"How many Welsh/Scottish need to be in the team until it can be called GB? What number, and what percentage of the team should they make up? What about players from the midlands, the south, London? As I said, it never seem to matter that there were no Welsh, Scottish players in the GB team for decades before, so it hasn't suddenly ">changed.'" Haven't seen an answer to your pre-requisite for the GB team. Since full time professionalism began in 1996, Great Britain has played 44 major international matches (42 tests, 2 games against the NZ Maori). On only 16 of the 44 games (36% of games) did Great Britain NOT field a team full of England players (2007 Lion Maurie Faasavalu counts as English by residency): * 2 tests with Welshman Rowland Phillips (1996 vs PNG and NZ Maori) * 14 tests with Irishman Brian Carney (2003-2006 vs Australia and NZ) Indeed, nearly all the English players have been Northerners. Even before 1996 & SL, GB has been dominated by Northerners. The second test in 1994 featured 2 Welshmen (Bateman and Davies), the other tests were all English. In the eyes of the RL public, the Northern dominated makeup of GB and England teams has never undermined the legitimacy of them being national teams. That's for 330+ Great Britain tests and 129+ England tests.

roughyedspud, Quote ="The Observer"How many Welsh/Scottish need to be in the team until it can be called GB? What number, and what percentage of the team should they make up? What about players from the midlands, the south, London? As I said, it never seem to matter that there were no Welsh, Scottish players in the GB team for decades before, so it hasn't suddenly ">changed.'" Haven't seen an answer to your pre-requisite for the GB team. Since full time professionalism began in 1996, Great Britain has played 44 major international matches (42 tests, 2 games against the NZ Maori). On only 16 of the 44 games (36% of games) did Great Britain NOT field a team full of England players (2007 Lion Maurie Faasavalu counts as English by residency): * 2 tests with Welshman Rowland Phillips (1996 vs PNG and NZ Maori) * 14 tests with Irishman Brian Carney (2003-2006 vs Australia and NZ) Indeed, nearly all the English players have been Northerners. Even before 1996 & SL, GB has been dominated by Northerners. The second test in 1994 featured 2 Welshmen (Bateman and Davies), the other tests were all English. In the eyes of the RL public, the Northern dominated makeup of GB and England teams has never undermined the legitimacy of them being national teams. That's for 330+ Great Britain tests and 129+ England tests.

northern england is'nt a separate country now is it..







and how many welsh & scots is enough to merit a return of GB....1 or 2 is enough as long as they are good enough to warrant selection and not just there to make GB valid...





and if its take 20-25 years for london to start producing talent...scotland & wales won't be far from that timescale either...so like i said...see you in 2035 for a GB tour..lol

oh....and as for the FA forming a GB team for the olympics in 2012.....thats cos the welsh,scottish & northern irish told our FA where to go...meaning the FA had to put a england team forward or else GB would have a team in it's own olympics...it was a no brainer really