Re: english state of origin : Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:36 pm  

jpk3lly wrote:

Think the concept just needs time to bed in, origin took a while to get support in Australia and look at it now. I appreciate that it was a poor game and weather was horrendous but given time I think it will come good and people will start to follow it. Like the 5 nations idea too, but having the England knights compete in that to stop it being just an England whitewash every year.
I also think it would be cool for England to do a tour of southern hemisphere one year and play 5 matches against PNG, NZ, NSW, Queensland and Australia.

Sadly, I can't see it.

I liked the concept when it came out, and would have gone last year but I'm just sick of going to Headingley.I went last night and hated it. The atmosphere was non-existent, the Exiles clearly didn't give a damn, the match was truly dreadful and utterly pointless.

I hate criticisng it, as I can see what the RFL are trying to do is for England's benefit, and if they sat back and did nothing, we'd all be slaughtering them for allowing the Aus/NZ dominance of international RL to continue without any effort from us to stop it. We weren't getting much of a test off France so I can see why they altered it, but do we honestly believe that non-event benefitted England's chances in the World Cup next year?

All it did was convince me to not attend another game like that. I went to Wembley and to Elland Road to watch England but I'm not going to watch anything like that again. If the powers that be wanted the Exiles concept to catch on and improve, then they shouldn't have allowed McNamara to pick the same failures we've seen at International level time and time again, and picked a squad with exciting talent that could have learned from the experience, and found a way to encourage the exiles to look like it at least sort of mattered to them.

Re: english state of origin : Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:59 pm  

Guerrier wrote:

Sadly, I can't see it.

I liked the concept when it came out, and would have gone last year but I'm just sick of going to Headingley.I went last night and hated it. The atmosphere was non-existent, the Exiles clearly didn't give a damn, the match was truly dreadful and utterly pointless.

I hate criticisng it, as I can see what the RFL are trying to do is for England's benefit, and if they sat back and did nothing, we'd all be slaughtering them for allowing the Aus/NZ dominance of international RL to continue without any effort from us to stop it. We weren't getting much of a test off France so I can see why they altered it, but do we honestly believe that non-event benefitted England's chances in the World Cup next year?[/quote]
The atmosphere was weird at the first game also, but the game was better quality. Not quite sure what it will take to get that rivalry built up, but it's not going to happen over night. There needs to be a Sam Tomkins like player for the Exiles. Someone that gets under everyone's skin and wants to see lose. I think to say it was pointless however is wrong. There was definitely a point. Had we played France, would it have highlighted so many of the poor selections as the Exiles did? At the end of the day, out of two games, we've been beaten once and we've won once. There's been a maximum of 8 points difference. When was the last time a team other than Aus and NZ have been within 8 points of us?

Guerrier wrote:

All it did was convince me to not attend another game like that. I went to Wembley and to Elland Road to watch England but I'm not going to watch anything like that again. If the powers that be wanted the Exiles concept to catch on and improve, then they shouldn't have allowed McNamara to pick the same failures we've seen at International level time and time again, and picked a squad with exciting talent that could have learned from the experience, and found a way to encourage the exiles to look like it at least sort of mattered to them.

This has highlighted the RFL's current ineptitude in building an event. You can't just put on a game and expect people to turn up. The build up was just trying to compare it to Origin in Aus and was always going to make people say what it wasn't (negative) instead of concentrating on what it was: a stiffer opposition for England than anyone else in the NH could provide (positive).

Re: english state of origin : Mon Jun 18, 2012 4:49 am  

In terms of Englands prep for WC they should be touring at the end of this year to gell the team. Couple of games in PNG, couple in NZ. Would gell them together and give them some tough competition ahead of the WC.