Re: England wants Origin : Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:26 am  

just been looking through the history books (wikipedia)......and england v ON games regulary drew twice as many fans to games than the corresponding lancs v yorks game those years....

particular during the 50's when the Other nationalities where included in the european cup....and crowds of 17-20k were'nt uncommon

Re: England wants Origin : Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:32 am  

Why not have a England vs Wales test series?

Re: England wants Origin : Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:36 am  

cos it'll be onesided like a series against france would be

Re: England wants Origin : Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:38 am  

roughyedspud wrote:

just been looking through the history books (wikipedia)......and england v ON games regulary drew twice as many fans to games than the corresponding lancs v yorks game those years....

particular during the 50's when the Other nationalities where included in the european cup....and crowds of 17-20k were'nt uncommon

During the 1950's????!!!




Welcome to 2010 champ!


It may surprise you that crowds were higher then because it was in the days before you could just wander into your room, switch your LCD telly or your computer on and have access to more sports than you care to think about.


Other breaking news.

Kids seldom play in the street with hoops anymore, Ford now do cars in other colours than black and the Beatles disbanded in 1970

Re: England wants Origin : Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:39 am  

Wales vs France?

Re: England wants Origin : Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:57 am  

and in the 50's bazza sydney used to get massive crowds for tests too..

Re: England wants Origin : Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:34 pm  

GB played an Other Nationalities side in the 80s. It was entertaining but not very intense.

BTW, the suggestion about having Aussies/Kiwis in SL qualify for England on residency has merit (although very few would take it up I suspect). As does scouring the NRL for sub-Origin players who qualify on parentage etc (like Heighington). Its not like you'd get hundreds, but a couple of extra bodies available for England (particularly in the backs) couldn't hurt.

Re: England wants Origin : Wed Oct 27, 2010 6:32 am  

Other Nats was a massive team during the 1930s - 1960s period.

The team was arguably the best in the world at the end of 1951 after defeating France at the Boulevard in front of an all ticket 18,000 crowd. The so called Battle of the Boulevard and an all-time great international.

Brian Bevan's try scoring exploits for ON were legendary.

Re: England wants Origin : Wed Oct 27, 2010 6:50 am  

Dux wrote:

In principle I like the idea. The only issue I'd foresee is what motivation the players in this team would have, given that they wouldn't really be representing anyone or anything, and would have been assembled basically as a novelty.

Mind you, it works in RU. If we could get the games to be played with some intensity (which we've never managed with Lancs v Yorks) then the fans would take to it.

I know a Welsh international RU player who admits he is more proud of playing for the Barbarians than Wales

Re: England wants Origin : Wed Oct 27, 2010 12:05 pm  

Paxo wrote:

I know a Welsh international RU player who admits he is more proud of playing for the Barbarians than Wales

Do tell.