THERE appears to be no appetite among the players, coaches or supporters for an English equivalent of Australia’s State of Origin.

And for me that is a huge shame.

It is not that anyone in their wildest dreams expects England to ever replicate the blood and thunder encounters between Queensland and New South Wales that have been a high point of the game Down Under since 1980.

It is difficult to imagine Headingley and Langtree Park packed to the rafters for a War of the Roses encounter.

And harder still to contemplate Saints fans, stood shoulder to shoulder with Wiganers, Warringtonians and Leythers on packed on the terrace together, waving the red rose flag to drown out the cries of “Yarkshire, Yarkshire, Yarkshire”.

The County Championship was always a feature of the British game – with the three way contest between Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria being a low key, poorly attended midweek fixture on the league calendar for decades.

The game’s rulers have had a couple of goes at trying to ratchet up some inter-county feeling – and in the 80s they pitched Alex Murphy and Peter Fox, the two biggest coaching characters from either side of the Pennines, against each other in the hope of stirring the pot.

It never really took off, but under Super League the rebranded Origin was born – again with limited spectator appeal.

The difficulties are obvious. Club loyalties are strong among the fans, and even override international success.

On top of that clubs are the ones that pay the players, their prized assets, so you can see from their point a view that some strands of representative rugby are greeted with indifference.

The last thing clubs and elite players want is ‘another game’ sandwiched in between an already hectic programme.

But surely this is the same in Australia?

Steve Prescott’s last game of professional rugby league was Lancashire’s game against Yorkshire – a game in which he sustained the broken kneecap injury that led to the ending of his pro career.

In his autobiography – One in a Million – Steve explains his real pride in following in his dad Eric’s footsteps in winning a county cap.

And surely that is what it is all about – a reward for career progress.

Every level of junior rugby has representative honours at county level, so why not at the elite level?

If England’s coaches want assistance in making their final selections ahead of big internationals, surely there can be no better representative game than an inter-county game?

Does it matter that there are not 10,000 people there. If low attendance was the sole criteria for judging competitions then we would have scrapped play-off games and Challenge Cup semis by now,too.

Now that short-lived Exiles gimmick has bitten the dust, players need something to aspire to beyond a training camp – and for me the most natural one is the one based on domestic geography.

And while we are at it, surely it is also time to give Cumbrians more chances to represent the county of their birth now that the game has seen another blossoming of talent.