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It's true though, the amount of mentions I've heard about the 2013 world cup is staggering. If it weren't for this so called 'golden decade', I doubt we'd have heard a thing.

Hopefully this 'golden decade' thing will also get the terrestrial broadcasters excited and involved too.

I agree with most of the blog, the fact that the RFL announcement being on the same day as the RFU one helping the publicity (more luck than judgment it would seem). The only thing I disagree with being holding it at wembly, personally think it would be a disaster and alienate the majority of the rugby league supporting public. If they wanted a better stadia, then use Old Trafford or Eastlands.

Yeah: I remember how the refused to attend the 1995 World Cup at Wembley.

Or in '92. Or the Challenge Cup Final.

If Dianac Ross is goalkicking again, I for one will be refusing...

the rfl should definitely just put such a massive effort into filling one london stadium, wembley, emirates or somewhere, even if they make a loss on the game, just getting a massive london attendance would be so good for the game, through the mother of all promotions.

I'd have the opening ceremony at Wembley against Australia for sure. You could even maybe have New Zealand and the other Super Pool team in London as well on the same on the evening to capture the floating support from Wembley.

Example: England vs Australia, 2:30pm at Wembley; followed by New Zealand vs PNG, 7:30pm at Craven Cottage?

You could then have Aus vs New Zealand as the next group game, and keep that in London. Two weeks in London would be much more attractive to Aus and NZ fans travelling over here than say Hull/Wigan/etc.

Terrible idea regarding England. England should play all their games 'up North' Thats where pommie RL fans are from.

And what makes you think visiting Kiwi or Aussie supporters don't want to travel round the UK?? It's different for those of us who have been over a while....we KNOW there is not much to see....but those travelling over for the footy don't want to hang round London for weeks

Looks like there won't be a Super Pool with 12 teams so the dilema is whether to start the tournament with a match against a minow at a stadium the size of Wembley (I would guess with no Super pool, it will be seeded and keep Oz, NZ and England apart)

The other option is to put the semi or final in a big London stadium and pray that England make it

Why does having 12 teams mean there can't be a Super Pool?
Super Pool of 4, and two other Pools of 4. Simplez.

Richard Lewis in an interview on Boots 'n' All last night mentioned there probably wouldn't be a Super Pool (I would guess he would know)

I like your idea but I don't see that as the best option.

I would play all the games in the heartlands with Wales playing their games in cardiff as that was a success last time. Have some of the really small games in cumbria or in yorkshire at the smaller grounds as hopefull cas and wakey will have new stadia. I think England should play all their games at Ellend road and bring matches between Aus and NZ to places like Wigan or Hull as locals would go to watch the game.

The main thing is to have Magic weekend style ticket pricing, then it will be a success and make a profit. The only games we would have to put money in our pocket for big time is for Ellend road and have the final at Old Trafford. It was a really good crowd last time at OT considering it was aus and NZ so if England got there it would be fulll and a massive event to be shown live on BBC which brings me on to another point.

I love what sky have done for us but it is important that we get more matches especially englands on the BBC, its the best way to improve the profile of the game.

The format should be a group of Aus, NZ and England playing each other twice with the loser of the group having to qualify via a play-off game against one of the top teams of the rest of them. This should then go to a 1/4 final so if we have 12 teams, have 4 groups of three with the bottom two from each group having to go into a play-off to make up up the 1/4 final stage but the top one goes straight through.

Group A
Austrailia
England
New Zealand

Group B
PNG
Samoa
Tonga

Group C
Scotland
Wales
Ireland

Group D
Fiji
France
(final nation will be decided it qualifying obviously, just not sure who)

This ensures Englands games are all big games and big crowds and also Wales, Scotland and Ireland are more likely to get bigger gates against each other. The group with France in could all be played in south of france with one game in Barcelona. All the catalans fans would go to the games and make it a success and also Toulouse would have an impact on this. Putting Tonga and Samoa in the same group could attract some big crowds compared to what they got in australia if we market it right. That could be the group played in cumbria.

We need to get the whole country behind it like when the ashes are on or andy murray is in the tennis, these are sports that also take a back seat behind football but if we could generate that excitement on live TV it would be a great success and then we could start to move the game around more.

For England to play Aus/NZ twice it would take at least 3 weekends including mid-week games in between. Then to have a 2nd round, followed by the quarters, semis and final, your tournament would either last a pretty long time or would have too many games in such a short space of time with no time for recovery.

Also, I'm not sure how the logic of having a France game in Spain works. The success of the Catalans game in Barcelona worked because Barcelona is Catalunya and so they supported it as well. You wouldn't get the Spanish supporting France.

Not to mention it is the UK that won the rights, so the games will be in the UK.

Well then maybe just play once against each team.

The france group should be played in france at least to maximise the profile of the tournament over there.

But they aren't the host nation. There weren't any games played in New Zealand at the last WC. We should stick to one nation.

I thought you were joking when I read about playing all the games in the "heartlands" and especially all England's matches at Elland Road. By the time I got to the end of the post I realised you were serious! Apart from the fact that Elland Rd is the most soulless place on earth to play rugby league how does playing all the matches in the north of England square with "getting the whole country behind us" ?

We need to be bold and confident. Market the games well and play at least one at Wembley and several others in non heartland areas.

I know what your saying but the france matches would be far more succesful this way.

We did that for the last one and look what happened. I am confident that the world cup would be a success played in the heartlands.

Heres a revelation.

The whole country won't be behind you.

RL is not that popular if you live any further south than Runcorn.

So play the games where the majority will be behind you.

Plces like Wigan, Leeds or Hull

Saying majority gives the impression that you don't think ALL games should be played in the heartlands. Therefore, you are basically saying the same as everyone else.

The problem before wasn't that we played games outside the heartlands. It was that we played too many outside the heartlands.

The thing is though, you have contradicted yourself by saying play the France games in France (and apparently Spain), which last time I checked isn't in Yorkshire or Lancashire.

Exactly.

For what it's worth, I would actually play one game at Elland Road. We need a game in Leeds, and Headingley isn't exactly the best of international arenas (one stand falling to pieces, another with no roof, and another with wooden seats and stanchions in the way). I'd still prefer a SP format so we can guarantee bigger games at the start of the tournament in big stadiums FWIW.

If it wasn't clear in my post I meant the majority of PEOPLE in the heartlands would be behind England.

The majority of people in the rest of the country couldnt give a fat rats about Rugby League.

Isn't that the same for every country apart from PNG?

The majority of the world couldn't give a stuff about RL. Should we all just give up then?