RUGBY league has traditionally had very strong roots in Cumbria - but sadly that part of the world tends to be the forgotten outpost.

The county that has provided Saints with quality players over the years - Dick Huddart, John Tembey, Bob Blackwood, Peter Gorley, Big Jon Neill, Tony Kay and Les Quirk through to latter day Grand Final winners Ade Gardner, Kyle Amor, Greg Richards, and now Morgan Knowles — needs special attention.

And if that part of the world got that bit of extra focus and some financial backing the sport of rugby league as a whole would benefit.

But does it need a flagship brand?

Cumbria has always been a stronghold and last week former Salford owner Marwan Koukash suggested a different approach to the sport in the northernmost county.

Speaking on television debate show RL Backchat, he said: “There is a lot of potential there.

“If I were to get involved in Cumbria or that part of the world, I would start from scratch.”

Of course there are a couple of major stumbling blocks.

The three towns of Barrow, Whitehaven and Workington may not be the most populous, but they are all very proud of their own identities. How would we like it if we were told to merge with Widnes?

That, plus the geographical disparity between Barrow and the others, is why merger talks have never come to fruition.

But given that the trio, despite the hard work they are putting in, are not going to get to a higher level without a radical solution, could a plan that uses the three as support to a Cumbria super club be a solution?

Workington and Barrow both had fine teams in the 1950s – with both getting to Wembley three times in that decade and both lifted the cup once each.

Even in the 70s – Workington with a pack featuring the Gorley brothers, Eddie Bowman and Billy Pattinson and with the pugnacious Boxer Walker sniping off the back of them with his blond locks flowing, Town were still a tough side, making four consecutive Lancashire Cup Final appearances, famously winning one against Wigan.

They have been Cumbria’s sole representative in Super League, winning just two matches in the inaugural season and being relegated.

It is a tough slog on the west coast, and plenty have tried to revive their fortunes - ex-Saint Leon Pryce is now trying to do that.

Barrow - on the other hand – had a real crack at trying to get up with the big boys, but their 2009 Northern Rail Cup Final defeat by Widnes in Blackpool meant that tick in the box went to Vikings.

Whether they would have been allowed up even if they had won is pretty debateable.

The Shipbuilders last won a trophy in 1983, when they beat Widnes in the Lancashire Cup Final.

And for a good part of the early 80s they played an attractive brand of football at Craven Park – helped by St Helens lads like Steve Tickle and Ian Ball.

Maybe part of the answer to the Cumbrian conundrum lies in the experience of Carlisle, who buoyed by the initial success of Fulham, were plonked into Division Two in 1981 with a team full of Yorkshiremen led by Allan Agar and Mick Morgan.

They got decent crowds, too, in relation to the city’s population – but it was just a pity that the team unravelled once they got into the top flight.

It is also worth remembering that four years before Saints posted their record 112-0 score on the border side, that in 1982 a Carlisle team with Dean Bell and Clayton Friend in the ranks held Saints to a 7-7 draw in the Lancashire Cup semi final at Knowsley Road.

Would a Cumbria super club away from the existing three bases, not necessarily Carlisle, be neutral enough to pull in support and players from the traditional towns?

Or would that simply take the sport away from its real roots?

In the short term, to keep Cumbria as a county at the forefront why can't the touring Kiwis play the county side in Workington as a prelude to the three-match test series?

One thing we should avoid is simply engaging whataboutery in this debate.

For the past 20 years or so this tendency has been used by some heartlands followers when making an argument against expanding the game beyond the three traditional counties.

It's not a binary choice between nurturing the sport in the grassroots heartlands or promoting it to a wider audience.

The two go hand in hand and so flaunting the historic failures if Kent Invicta or Celtic Crusaders and using that to explain why the game is also floundering in some of the game's former power bases is a dud argument.