England eye own 'Origin'

[Foordy]

England are looking for ways to replicate Australia's high-intensity State of Origin series to boost their competitiveness on the international rugby league stage.

They are considering fixtures against a team of England-based Australian and New Zealand players, in a Barbarians-style concept.

Ahead of Sunday night's Four Nations must-win encounter with Australia in Melbourne, England coach Steve McNamara acknowledged his side's inability to compete for the full 80 minutes.

They had a poor start in their opening match against New Zealand and couldn't peg back an 18-0 lead, losing 24-10.

In last year's Four Nations final against Australia they led early but the Kangaroos steamrolled them in the second half.

McNamara said that despite some of his players playing 36 games a year they didn't have as much experience in high-intensity football.

"Part of our problems, our issues, is that we don't get that intensity too many times as a group," McNamara said.

"I think the concept (of playing England-based Australian and New Zealand players) is very good and I think it could create an intense game, or two games or three games.

"We just haven't got anything that rivals Origin.

"I look at that with a little bit of envy because I see all the international players for Australia playing in those games and they're not only getting the week-in week-out intensity of the NRL but it goes up to a different stage in the Origin.

"It's a fantastic concept and gives your players an advantage when it comes to players being compared at the highest level.

"We don't want to copy what you do in Australia but we need to find something to give our players the opportunity at a higher level more regularly."

McNamara said playing the Kangaroos on Sunday at AAMI Park held no fear for his young team.

"We've got to beat Australia in Australia's backyard but it's been done before and we'll certainly be ready for it," he said.

"The players are very excited about the challenge.

"As a country we've got some long-term plans in place to be ready for the 2013 World Cup but we'd love to pick something off before we get to this stage."

But he acknowledged they faced a mammoth task to win the Four Nations, now needing to either beat Australia twice, or beat Australia and then New Zealand in the final.

"If we're going to win this competition, we're going to have to beat these teams twice which in the past has been the issue.

"Beating them once has not been the issue but twice in the tournament has been the issue so we've got the first one first and hopefully we'll get a crack at the second one."

McNamara is likely to bring in another new face against Australia, with Tony Clubb, whose only previous international experience came in a Tri Nations warm-up game against Wales two years ago, or Leroy Cudjoe vying to replace injured centre Michael Shenton.

Among the other options being considered is a reshuffle of the back division, with Sam Tomkins going to fullback, Gareth Widdop to centre and Luke Robinson starting at halfback.

However, McNamara will keep changes to a minimum after being encouraged by his team's second-half performance against New Zealand.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/engl ... 5943649235

I think this concept could work well in the UK, but IMO something would have to give from the comp over there because they play 27 matches plus finals in their main comp and i beleive they have a secondary cup comp as well.

 

[Porthoz]

If the frogs (French) somehow could manage to form a competitive team, the rivalry with England could make a worthy "Origin" type competition.

 

[Foordy]

Personally, i think their comp allows too many foreign players into the teams with means there are less places for English players in the ESL teams giving England a smaller pool of players to choose from. IMO, if the England side want to become better they need to severely reduce the number of spots for non-English players.

 

[SamThaidaysMo]

If the frogs (French) somehow could manage to form a competitive team, the rivalry with England could make a worthy "Origin" type competition.

Wales just beat France in the 4 Nations, meaning Wales will compete in next years 4 Nations. Huge for Wales RL, which is doing a good job in raising the profile of the game there (follow the lead please Scotland). But it doesnt lend much to the origin concept.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Who cares,

 

[dukey]

Splitting Great Britain into the individual nations should have created this opportunity already. There should be an England-Scotland-Ireland-Wales series around Origin time. That would not only let the English team gel, but would also work in the favour of the smaller nations, giving them game time and exposure.

 

[SamThaidaysMo]

Splitting Great Britain into the individual nations should have created this opportunity already. There should be an England-Scotland-Ireland-Wales series around Origin time. That would not only let the English team gel, but would also work in the favour of the smaller nations, giving them game time and exposure.

Just like the old 5 nations in Union (Until Italy joined to make it 6). I'd like to see it, the other British teams and Ireland need to be playing regularly.

 

[Bannermania]

At first I thought this thread was about some dude named England who had poor grammar and thought he owned the rights to State of Origin.

Think about it.

 

[Nashy]

Splitting Great Britain into the individual nations should have created this opportunity already. There should be an England-Scotland-Ireland-Wales series around Origin time. That would not only let the English team gel, but would also work in the favour of the smaller nations, giving them game time and exposure.

Their "origin" players would be out of ESL for half the season with the amount of matches you'd need.

 

[Flutterby]

At first I thought this thread was about some dude named England who had poor grammar and thought he owned the rights to State of Origin.

Think about it.

[icon_non [icon_non [icon_non [icon_non [icon_non

Terrible just terrible (and I didn't even have to think about it) [icon_razz1

 

[dukey]

Splitting Great Britain into the individual nations should have created this opportunity already. There should be an England-Scotland-Ireland-Wales series around Origin time. That would not only let the English team gel, but would also work in the favour of the smaller nations, giving them game time and exposure.

Their "origin" players would be out of ESL for half the season with the amount of matches you'd need.

ah, you could be creative with it.
Do something like Scotland v Ireland, Wales v France one weekend, winners play each other the next weekend, winner of that plays England. The national identity of all those countries revolves around hating the English. I'm sure they could sell the series in the Celtic and French markets based on that. And the games would potentially be very firey.

 

[Bannermania]

At first I thought this thread was about some dude named England who had poor grammar and thought he owned the rights to State of Origin.

Think about it.

[icon_non [icon_non [icon_non [icon_non [icon_non

Terrible just terrible (and I didn't even have to think about it) [icon_razz1

*straightens tie*

Goodnight!

 

[SamThaidaysMo]

While there are a large amount of us that think that all it takes to be truly Scottish or Welsh is to hate the English, there is more to our national identities than one rivalry. Anyone thats another subject.
I'm not so sure the games would be that fiery, many of the Scottish team are English born and qualify through the Grandad
rule, they were born and raised in England as Englishman. Cant see them being that patriotic towards Scotland. Given time maybe, once the game grows in Scotland and there are more homegrown players. Hopefully the game keeps growing up there and we get a Super League team eventually.

 

[dukey]

While there are a large amount of us that think that all it takes to be truly Scottish or Welsh is to hate the English, there is more to our national identities than one rivalry. Anyone thats another subject.
I'm not so sure the games would be that fiery, many of the Scottish team are English born and qualify through the Grandad
rule, they were born and raised in England as Englishman. Cant see them being that patriotic towards Scotland. Given time maybe, once the game grows in Scotland and there are more homegrown players. Hopefully the game keeps growing up there and we get a Super League team eventually.

Having the national side consistently playing neighbouring countries would definitely grow the game.