Where do we think the RFL should plant their next tree.
Now that it seems the Crusaders are to continue in SL, perhaps they should drop a stadium in Edinburgh ?

Italy, simply because it makes no sense whatsoever. Not a Rugby League Nation, no Rugby League Tradition and has a National side made up of players who can point to it on a map.

Oh, hang on that last part already applies to every international team except Australia, England and New Zealand.

If my Italian suggested venture fails then I would suggest the non-playing RL nation closest to where the dart thrown at the world map lands.

Italy was a RL nation. In 1959 there was a small number of clubs including Treviso, that started to develop Rugby League. The venture wan't supported very well and they eventually switched to playing rugby Union and their country are now represented in the 6 nations!!
An opportunity missed at a time when an expansion programme was a real possibility but the vision wasn't!!

Widnes clearly!

Israel right on the on the border , they could use that infamous park n ride & pot luck scheme they have in place

The thing I despair at is why the RFL seem so insistent on expanding the game outside of England at all. When Nigel Wood was interviewed last week he even spoke of Estonia for goodness sake!! PNG, Samoa and the like are all rugby league playing nations, with a rugby league history to boot. I don't see the NRL pushing to include teams from any of those nations in their competition. Why? Because they like to nurture the competition they have, not create a world of blind panic and hysteria.

The English national team is light years behind Australia and New Zealand and the gulf in class is growing year on year. Why do the RFL not recognise this and move to bring their own house in order before expanding the game into other territories. If as is reported, their purpose for pushing the game into Wales relates to SKY and their need to shift satellite dishes, how can this apply to Catalans, when they don't even have SKY? Who is forcing them down this path? Sadly I fear it is solely down to the likes of Lewis and Wood and their own misguided vision for the game. Their focus seems blinkered by the likes of teams such as Crusaders. When will they understand that the rugby league strong holds in England are the future, English grass roots are the future, not the outer back of beyond?

The game shouldn't discard the M62 heartland, it should respect it and what it brings to the game.

Either get rid of current RFL board or ask several clubs to move away from RFL if you ask me.

too late they have already started, Cas next, then Bradford, Hull KR and a Lancashire team in that order to go bit by bit over the next few years, Newcastle, a Scottish team, Toulouse and they haven't given up hope in south Wales yet to come into SL in their places

Problem is that Sky and the RFL think this is progress but if this were to happen people will stop watching this sport.

why do we get the feeling we need to expand the game, i just dont get it, the game was fine as it was for my mine before franchising came along, we did beat the aussies back then now and again, dont think we will ever beat them again the way we are running RL over here at the moment

We should have ensured that Sheffield became the dominant partner in the Hudd-Sheff merger (or preferably not have the merger at all) and spread the game naturally and not keep trying to lay plants in the desert.

Expansion has always been on the RL agenda. Always. Look at some of the names of clubs across England (and Wales) that have played rugby league in the past. Merthyr Tydfil and Ebbw Vale, to name two of the half dozen Welsh clubs that used to be members of the Northern Union.
The difference between then and now is that the RFL actually have a few bob in their pockets thanks to TV money and sponsorship to be able to pursue this with more vigour.