What I'm getting at is, their should be a 2 tier system at International level to develop and bring through young talent without throwing them into Test Series or Tournaments playing with players they've never played with and against some of the best Athletes in the game.

In the last academy touring squad to Australia, Joe Burgess, Ben Currie and George Williams were present.



In the 2013 England Knights team Zak Hardaker, Tom Burgess, Josh Hodson, Brett Ferres and Elliott Whitehead all played.



The problem IMO is that we don't play enough International RL to bring players through, but that's partly due to the apathy of the average (I'm only interested in my club) RL supporter.

More to do with lack of teams. No one is really interested in us playing France or Wales or Samoa. They're only interested in playing New Zealand or the Aussies because the others just aren't good enough to get bothered about.



I've said it before, you can't have a serious and fuller international schedule when you really only have three teams in it at top level.

Which is why those are the kind of games that the England Knights or a similar second tier England side should be playing, while the England elite side are taking on the Aussies and Kiwis. Maybe pitch them as double headers, Knights v Wales as the warm-up, England v New Zealand/Australia as the main course.



Gets the next generation of young players used to the international setup, being away in camp, learning new structures alongside players from other clubs.

I agree, but somehow we have to get speccies through the gates to fund it, and that is a major problem.



On a positive note I've just been told that there are only about 5K tickets left for Saturday, and only around 3K for the game at Wigan. Anything close to two sellouts would be great news.

It's more important & better for the game to sell out the Olympic Stadium.

The problem as ever is cost when the end of the season is the most expensive time for those supporters of the top teams with the expense of cup semis & the final, followed almost immediately by the cost of the play-offs & the Grand Final.

Unsurprisingly the same 19 announced for the 2nd test.



The 17 who played plus Westwood and Cudjoe.

Test rugby seems to be undergoing some sort of renaissance. Following on from the WC, crowds are undoubtedly higher than most wold have expected. Perhaps hopes of a legacy weren't misplaced.



It needs to be built on; as Rogues says, international development is to some extent governed by numbers prepared to pay to watch what's on offer. The idea of a series for tomorrow's players is sound. To me, it offers a deal more than the recent game the seniors played against France.

I wouldn't say it's undergoing a renaissance. I just think the people running the game are starting to realise that creating big events is what gets people interested in attending these kind of games. having test matches at places like Leigh just sends out the wrong image to the wider public.

Also, having test match RL back on free to air has helped too IMO.

A think the attendances also show how well and strong the New Zealand team have done over the last few years.



GB/Eng vs Aus was always the big one over here, and whilst facing New Zealand was also big it fell behind playing Aus in the pecking order. But this fixture particularly off the back of the games in 2013 & 2014 between the two has increased the appetite to see them face off again.



It will be interesting to see what grounds/capacity get Eng vs Aus and Eng vs New Zealand in the next Four Nations in England.

That's a renaissance in my book