IMG drop major War of the Roses hint as brutal France admission made

The War of the Roses concept continues to look as though it could be revived in 2025: after IMG bosses admitted England’s mid-season international against France is not delivering what they had hoped.

Yorkshire and Lancashire have not played each other for over 20 years at senior men’s level. However, the concept has gained major traction in recent days after England coach Shaun Wane personally endorsed its return in 2025: even going as far as to suggest his assistants, Lee Briers and Andy Last, as potential coaches of the county sides.

IMG supremo Matt Dwyer did stop short of confirming the event would return for definite next year – insisting that the idea is ‘a bit behind’ where it has got to in terms of speculation.

But perhaps tellingly, Dwyer did drop a clear hint that they are open to trying something different in the designated mid-season representative window after conceding England’s annual game against France is failing to deliver as things stand.

Dwyer said: “We see the international game as incredibly important and the reality geographically is we’re in the Northern Hemisphere so we can’t play Australia every week.

“We need our Northern Hemisphere competitors to be growing here as well. But I think from our point of view we want as many peaks in our calendar as possible. The mid-season international is probably not providing the sort of peak that we’re looking for.

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“Whether the right peak there is something like Lancashire and Yorkshire is the thing we’re all going through and Rugby League Commercial are going through to establish.

“We’re all very supportive of international rugby league but that mid-season international, is it providing the peak we’re after? You’d have to question that just off attendances as an example.”

When asked specifically about War of the Roses coming back onto the calendar, Dwyer pointed to interest from fans as a potential reason to revive it, but insisted work still needed to be done to decide if it was the best course of action.

“I think word of this being considered caught wind and we’ve run with it, we’re probably a bit further behind where the media has taken it, if that makes sense,” he said.

“We as a sport, not just IMG, are looking for the right peaks through the season and how do we keep people interested at various parts of the season and this is one of the options being looked at.

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“If you remember right back at the beginning we had the survey many of the fans filled out and a lot of focus groups and there was some interest in this as a concept.

“As we all know, it’s been here in the past and it happens in other parts of the game. Is it something broadcasters would get around? Would players? And that’s the sort of research we’re doing now to see if that makes sense.

“If you don’t have those boxes ticked you’re not going to have a successful event if that makes sense. It’s not enough for the fans to say we want this because the players have to be happy to play it and you’ve got to get the broadcasters to want it on the TV and to back it.

“That’s really where that concept is at, at the moment.

“You look at something like State of Origin in Australia, the players are bending over backwards to play, and there’s no pulling out like football with friendlies, nodody does that with Origin because the players want to play and the fans, they’re not necessarily sell-outs but the broadcast figures are huge and the broadcasters are right behind it.

“That’s what creates a successful event. So that’s where we’re at, to see if this is a concept that works, along with other concepts.”

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