The Exiles and the 30th of March

So, I think by now everyone has twigged that the eerie looking E badge Below is for the Exiles, a team of UK based foreigners coming together to take on the England team early in June.  Others have said it could be the England knights teams badge, but if it is, its not very ... 'Englandy'.

A potential stumbling block for the exiles is the selection criteria squad.  It would be unfair if all of one teams players were used.  One idea is that only one man per SL team could be picked in order to make sure it is fair and even flirted with the idea of letting fans pick.  I think that would be a great idea to get fans involved and could put additional pressure on the exiles.  I hope an international freindly like this that can be done every year.  It will give us a great benchmark to see how we would fair against the full squads of Aussies and New zealanders, but may take some of the edge off the England squad, and the reason why this has been put in place.  Especially if we get badly beaten.  

There had been some rumours (mostly from Championship fans) that this ‘E’ was going to be a new franchise team, coinciding with the super league license review which is due to be announced on the 30^th of the Month.  On this day we will find out which team(s) are going to be coming up, and going down to the championship.  If the RFL were to overlook all of the currently touted Championship teams and start a new franchise elsewhere there would be uproar, so I find this very unlikely.  Besides that, I can think of many place names that start with an E.  

For what it’s worth, I think that Widnes will get the spot, and I have no qualms with that at all.  They have a cracking stadium, good coaches, youth development and infrastructure.  They will still be seething from missing out on the space last time around, and it would be tough for them to take another setback like that.  

 

Unfortunately, I feel the comically named ‘Big Fellas Stadium’ In Featherstone is probably holding Fev back more than the fact that they are in close vicinity to other clubs.  Hopefully they will be able to rectify this and crack on building their new stadium and continue with their great performances in the league and cup over the last few of years.  On the other hand, a team like Barrow may be better for the expansion of RL, which I have spoken about below, and am a strong advocate of.  

Guess we will find out soon enough.