Here's a counter argument, but don't the majority on here and in English RL generally bemoan the Antipodean view that Internationals v England/GB are worthless, a poor second to State of Origin and isn't the poo pooing of playing France tantamount to the same thing?
This lack of a cohesive international calendar is often cited as one reason that our sport is held back commercially and not taken seriously by the main stream, that and the parochial set up and demographic of SL. Abandoning it completely certainly wont fix this, but supporting the 'smaller' nations might help, admittedly the wheels of progress are slow and the same arguments have been around for far too long.
We shouldn't forget 'our' collective history and the fact that Rugby League aided and abetted by the French Unionists was banned by the Vichy Government in France. I take comfort that we are the rebellious, anti Establishment Code, whilst admitting that this will only take you so far and ultimately limit opportunity...as 'the house always wins'.
In the first instance, I get that people would presumably want to see a competitive, exciting game of rugby rather than a blow out and that's about our squad selection and management, as we too need a pathway at international level for our group of players. We are rightly worried about the depth of our playing pool does our resistance and reluctance to engage in this match send out any signals to sports minded youngsters? I'd say definitely and not in a good way.
There seems to be a sea change in how the South Sea Islanders view their international 'scene' these days. I always got the idea that NZ was the team of choice if there was one, the status quo can be challenged.
IMO the fault here is not the fixture but the marketing and accessibility to view it oh and our collective negativity.
