It has been confirmed that England will be taking on Tonga in a test series at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Serious About Rugby League then revealed that there are plans for England to meet Samoa in 2024 before the World Cup in 2025.
On this Wales coach John Kear has had his say on BBC Five Live:
“We need to acknowledge that we need to go under as well, the England team need to go down under because Samoa or Tonga over here is different to Samoa or Tonga in the southern hemisphere.
“I think that needs to be part of these young players development if we’re to seek a World Cup win for here in the northern hemisphere.”
Kevin Brown then added: “It’d be great if we can get a tri-series over there with Tonga and Samoa if Australia and New Zealand didn’t want to participate.”
It was then said by BBC’s Dave Wood that Australia are set to tour England in 2026:
“At the moment it’s scheduled for Samoa to come here next year and then it’s obviously scheduled for the World Cup the year after that, but then it’s scheduled for Australia to come here.”
However, he believes it would be better if England went down under:
“That’s fantastic in terms of what English fans will get to see on our own doorsteps but it’s been an awful long time since we went down under.
“Given all the political ramifications at the moment it would seem simpler if we as England or Great Britain just went down under and slotted into the Aussie time frame, rather than getting one of those teams down under to come up north.”
John Kear is certainly in favour of this saying: “You won’t find me arguing against that, I think it would be fantastic and it would be great for the players. I know amongst the Australian coaches there is a respect for the English players, it’s a sought after avenue of players as we’ve seen with Kai Pearce-Paul and Will Pryce.
“I think there’s an element of respect among playing and coaching groups, we’ve just got to sell it to the fans and the media down there and I think it would be a success.”
Kevin Brown also echoed this view: “We need to get over there as much as possible, they’ll have better teams over there and the crowd is different. There is a massive appetite.
“England is a big name when in Australia. They don’t really like us and that’s good, you want to go over there and have a bit of adversity against you.”
But what about these claims about Australia touring England?
Well Serious About Rugby League approached the RFL for comment and they acknowledged that it would be great if this happened but there have been no serious conversations about the matter.