Re: O/T Choose your Exiles : Sat Apr 09, 2011 12:03 am  

Dominance wrote:

I don't see it as a stupid idea. It's an interesting concept with fans involvement. It's innovative and lets see how it goes. England Vs France has been a regular fixture for the last few years and has not been competitive. This is a take on an Origin style match. It will give the England squad a much needed test. We all want to beat the Aussies (and Kiwi's!) and playing France and Wales every year doesn't give us the tests we need to prepare us for the Tri-nations. The Exiles will be a very strong squad and I'm interested to see how it goes.

Why does origin in Aus work so well?
Because any player playing crap in the 3 games does not get picked for Aus.
Will the same be said here?
I bet it wont.
We need to lift the intensity of our players. We do not need to lift those of those who have left Aus/New Zealand/France and come over here for a pay day.

Re: O/T Choose your Exiles : Sat Apr 09, 2011 7:28 am  

We've tried mid-season games against France and they've failed miserably. Firstly beacuse of the one sided nature of the games and secondly because the French have shown no signs of improvement, they even lost at home to Wales.

The Roses matches didn't take off because of lack of interest.

We're not left with many other options to be honest. Either we go with the New Zealand All Blacks style Possible vs Probables game or an NHL Ice Hockey style All Star game which is effectively the what the RFL have gone with.

One thing I'd be pretty certain about is that whoever are picked for the Exiles will be well up for getting one over one the pommie national team, which should make for an intriguing game.

I for one will be buying an Exiles shirt anyway, because if this game does bomb, and there's enough negativity on the VT to suggest it could, that shirt will be a nice one off rare shirt to increase in value over time. I might even go to the game, I fancy a Friday night on the lash in Headingley.