[urlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/14059590.stm[/url

I think Lee Briers hits the nail on the head with his comments.

With a division between England and all but one of the other international teams annually when the 4 Nations happen it is no wonder if given the choice of playing for England players choose to perform at the top level as much as possible.

Bring back GB I say and play a tri nations against Australia and New Zealand every two years in a tri nations tournament and have our own European style tournament every two years.

This is the only way, I feel, we can pull the European International standard up by it's boot straps and give the lesser nations some regular/semi regular quality top level competition.

The GB team will be virtually an England team barring one or two anyway to start off with so would be near enough what we have at present but the players would be more willing to pledge to their countries. After all we all want a decent international scene to attempt to close the gap with union in that respect.

Firstly it's always a good idea to check how many characters you have typed in the subject line before continuing.

Secondly the answer to your question is no.

Thanks for your input, sod off back under your rock in knobsville now please.

so......between 2001 & 2007 when GB contested 2 ashes tours,2 kiwi tours & 3 tri nations comps....wales went from pushing the aussies close in the 2000 world cup semi final....to failing altogether to make the 2008 world cup.


since 2008,when we started to compete as the home nations,wales have gone from rock bottom to european cup winners and joining the big boys in the 4nations..


so.......under which regime have wales benefited most??.....does take a genius to work it out!


yes its a shame that wales might lose some young welsh lads to england....but thats down to the eligibility laws and fixture schedule ...fix them don't appease them by ignoring the issues by bringing back GB

GB for me, I miss the full tours and have had some awesome times watching clubs against tourists, never forget the FC v Aussie game in 82, the buggers nearly had them.

How different would the GB team be from a fully fit England team? Can't think of many tbh.

GB for me as well.

Its more the competition for me, I would rather have a 3 test series between Aussie/Kiwi and GB than a 4 nations where we know the finalists before it commences. You cannot beat the atmosphere at a third ashes test when its 1-1, magic.

But if you had GB back, there still wouldn't be tours. Tours are a thing of the past. They'd still be Tri Nations or Four Nations.

Exactly.

For me, Great Britain stirs far more emotion than England RL. I realise there have been English teams in the past but they don't have the history or prestige a GB team has - those magic moments, key matches, amazing players - they form a huge part of RL history itself. I just can't get as excited about those white shirts with various attempts to splash St George's Cross across them.

The Ashes Tests (and tours) were THE pinnacle as far as I was concerned. Keep your Four Nations, World Cup and even SoO - the Ashes was the competition every British fan wanted to see and every British player wanted to participate in. Past Ashes tests were almost the stuff of legend. I will never forget the nerves tingling at Wembley, OT and ER waiting for the teams to emerge.

As for Wales - well, they're going to get destroyed. Let's not pretend they're a strong side, they beat a very weak French side to qualify and now face cricket scores. In 1995 Wales pushed England very close in a World Cup semi-final and had players of quality throughout. Several of those Welsh players also played for GB. They also tested Aus in a very competitive game in 2000. But let's be realistic - until many, many more clubs at all levels of RL are established in Wales staffed with Welsh players they will always be a rollercoaster side.

Our own European style tournament? Who would play?! It would be GB vs France in a walkover. Some tournament.


You've just removed three of the "lesser nations" from competition by having them merge with England to form GB (which is just England under a different name). You've essentially just killed off three nations. How will that pull up the boot straps and improve competition? There won't be any competition for France to play!


Bar one or two? Can't think of one player outside England that would get in.
The players would be more willing to pledge to their countries? I don't understand this at all. They either pledge to Wales, where they'd get a game; pledge to England, where they might not get a game; or pledge to GB which is exactly the same situation as pledging for England.

Bringing back GB will kill off Wales, Scotland and Ireland. If you want to do that, just support England. GB can have the odd tour every four years like in union if they wish, but I totally disagree about merging them back. It won't benefit anyone and the only people that want it claim all this "tradition" and "history" b*llocks without realising that representative rugby league in this country was England before GB anyways, so it works against them.

England all the way. The benefits outweigh the negatives by far, and prestige will be back as soon as England win something (could take a while though). You can't expect miracles after only 4 years.

do we?

since 2004.....GB/ENG have been in 2 finals...NZ 3....and australia all of em of course.......the only certainty is australia will make the final...