What if?...

As the 2011 WC draws to an end I'd like to pose a question that has no doubt been asked many times over the years, but here goes anyway......What if we, (the British), could put aside centuries of irrelevent history and play as the lions only. A team made up of england, wales, scotland. Centrally contract a squad of players, (in the cricket molde, which is finally paying dividends), appoint a neutral overseas coach and gel a group of 40 ish players to fully represent these isles. Unlike the lions - or any other home nation for that matter - this team would play and train only as the lions, with an ingoing and out going fringe floating between club and country. I 100% believe this team set up would rule the rugby world for years to come and as an englishman, (all be it a northern one who's as tied to ra ra land as any celt), wouldn't mind if that team consisted of only 1 or 2 of my fellow 'countrymen' which, as things stand, would be the case.
Finally we could, as a nation - we are y'know! - take on all comers home and away!

C'mon, hengist and horsa were a long time ago!

we do every 4 years and look at the results we get!

No, i dont think that this side would dominate rugby as Gatts has said, they dont get the results when they do it every 4 years

Banter wouldn't be nearly as good

Your right there IronMike

Love the Six Nations far too much for that too happen...

nice idea apart from

1. what about Ireland
2. what would be the point of rugby interent forums

To be fair the results aren´t that good every 4 years because there is little preparation time together and to be a cohesive unit you need one side to dominate selection.

But having said that, a combined Lions team ruling the world for years to come. I´m not so sure about that.

I think they'd do very well to dominate if they were a team all year round. However I think it's a rubbish idea simply because it ruins the whole rivalry between nations.

Who would we play during the year though? I supposed the six nations would be replaced by a tri-nations tournament with Italy and France, but that wouldn't be nearly as exciting.

another problem would be Ireland. It would at least make sense to have a unified UK team, but that wouldn't include the Republic of Ireland, and I doubt that other countries would be particularly happy with the idea of two separate countries joining up as a permanent test side. Imagine if Australia and South Africa did it.

In addition, while I think that the 2009 Lions could have become the world's number one side potentially if they played together for a long time, if we made it a permanent idea then fewer players would get exposure to international rugby and the overall standards would drop a bit.