Brits Fail Name Game

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday November 1, 2005

SPORT TALK WITH MICHAEL GADD

GREAT Britain's rugby league team is confusing but it won't be long before it doesn't exist.

In 2008, the Great Britain team will be retired and players will represent England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland at Test level. This falls in line with other sports. England is among the world's best in cricket and rugby union, although the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the nation's official but rarely used title) is combined for British Lions tours.

The league team began as the Northern Union XIII, was nicknamed the "Lions" in 1922 and in 1948 the team became known as Great Britain for an Ashes Series against Australia. In the 1990s, just to confuse us, they called themselves Great Britain and Ireland the jersey bore the name British Isles XIII. This didn't last long. In 2004, Ireland was dropped from the name but they were happy to keep Knights-bound Cork-born winger Brian Carney (pictured) in the side.

On the flipside, the West Indies cricket team, although colonised by the Brits, now includes 10 independent Caribbean countries and two British dependencies who compete solo in most other sports. I like the fact that we are just the Aussies and are a good shot at sorting both teams out this week.

© 2005 Newcastle Herald

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