Quote from RFU 

I guess London Irish will have to rebrand then as there is barely an Irishman, sorry player in the team!

Haven't they got anything better to do than virtual signalling!

I can see the reasoning behind this change of name and broadly agree with it. It does, however, raise a little conundrum. If we are to preclude names that reflect historic tribes that are not representative of modern populations, what are we to call England and Scotland in the future?

The aspirational National Squads England Counties 18s, 20s and Senior Counties will not happen next season because the RFU won't fund them. What a complete shower of sh*t the RFU has become. 

Leicester Tigers were named using the local Regimental name, so who knows what that will throw into the mix, they took the name around 1885.

For goodness sakes. Why are they wasting money on PC rubbish like this? 

Exactly my view. 

It was very depressing to read the comments in the Telegraph article today.  I play Telegraph Bull**** bingo and had a full card this morning with all the usual phrases - Woke, Virtual Signalling, BLM etc. 

More sensible names like

This would be a great idea,it would also let tier 2 nations know where they are in terms of international rugby levels

Are you sure that the teams you have mentioned aren't running because of a lack of competitive rugby over the past 12 months which makes selecting players for those squads quite challenging?

Also, where have you got the news from that the Senior Counties won't run next season? All the news I've seen is quite to the contrary.

373 guessing that is aimed at me.

Ok squad of 25 (23 players 2 backup) all getting paid (match fee) lets make the maths easy and say a £1K each = 25K

Management & Coaching Team probably minimum of 5 plus, Analyst, Doctor(s) Physio(s) min of 5 again.

4 Nights minimum in a suitable 4 Star Hotel near Leicester or possibly 2 nights at Pennyhill Park or The Lensbury for say a party of 35, then 2 nights (day before and night of game) in Leicester. So food and accommodation circa £10.5K bill.

Hire of Ground from Leicester Tigers cost unknown but I would guess around £5K 

Sundries, including player insurance, medical standbys (Ambulance on station at Ground) add another £5K

So yes just under £50K......... been told the last England Counties U18 2 game series cost around £60K.

BTW the Counties Aspirational programmes have been told there is no funding NEXT SEASON not this season as the programme was like the rest of the game paused.

So money is so tight they RFU can't fund the Counties National Squads next year but can find a lot of cash to run the Saxons, oh sorry the "A" Team........ "and they ain't gettin' on no plane!"

They spent all the money on changing Saxons to A.

So the actual answer is that you don’t know but here’s some figures you’ve pulled out of thin air to prove a point. Okay. 

I’m not saying they would. The figures just seem a bit plucked out of the air, especially when half the jobs would be done by salaried staff anyway. 

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the costs of such a game were mitigated by the ad revenue for the inside line that they put on YouTube for this game. 

You mean the state school lads who earned their way into the Counties side through county and regional games as opposed to the posh school/academy gym monkeys who get an easy ride because they are selected from a very small pool. 

I'm with you on that Penda.  Chris Harris, born Cumbria played Northumbria Uni 3rd XV then Carlisle Tynedale Newcastle Gloucester Scotland British Lions. England should have picked him up but he wasn't 

On the posh schools radar. 

I get the feeling that any costs outgoing might just be covered by that, as opposed to an untelevised tour of Bulgaria...

You mean the state school lads who earned their way into the Counties side through county and regional games as opposed to the posh school/academy gym monkeys who get an easy ride because they are selected from a very small pool. 

I have experience of this. 

My son was overlooked at county trials at U13, U14, U15, U16 for those who went to private schools or who’s dads seemed to know all the right people. He was demoralised every year and I had to encourage him to keep going telling him he was obviously the best player in his position in the county and the selectors wouldn’t be able to leave him out for ever because each year it was getting more obvious. Unfortunately by missing out on county selection, he then missed out on the chance to train at that higher level and the specialist sessions run for the county players at the prem academies. 

Eventually at U18 he was selected for the county then division, then England counties U18, where he started and was awarded second best player of the week. Not bad for a lad who couldn’t get in an average county side the year before 🤔

I hope the selection these days doesn’t favour the private school kids, and coaches sons quite as much.

I think the England aspirational sides are a great thing to aim at, and in fact the only real option for a lot of players, and I hope they are all reformed as soon as possible. 

There are players playing in the Prem and Champ who played in the England Counties U18 sides a few years ago.