I'm watching the WC final between Australia and Great Britain which I recorded zonks ago, I haven't watched these tapes for donkeys and still in good bloody condition I might add

.I have so many tapes of internationals "1988 to 2008" games if a anyone's interested....GB just lost this game but it was so close and exciting till the final whistle,renouf's try was so soft, had that not happened it would've of been 6 all with extra time,then anything could've happened.Just a top game played infront of 70,000 fans @ Wembley where are they today?and why not take games back to Wembley maybe the guys running it back then had more balls

,aaaaah the good old days.



Good to have these tapes during the off season.

I went to that game but i was only 8 so dont remember much.

I'm not sure what it was like back then, but these days its expensive to be a RL fan.

Entry prices are going up, sky sports to watch other teams games, there's the CC final, the World Club Challenge, the Magic Weekend, a weekend in France when your team goes over there, Northern Rail cup, NL grand finals, SL grand finals. On top of that you have the end of season internationals.

Fuel, hotels, beer etc there's just too much these days.

Pre SL mate, united sport then.

Now we have SL fans who support a club only and other fans of clubs disillusioned with the game not in SL.

The 20 odd k are those who are either committed to the current strategy or simply feel they have a duty to support what RL used to be about. I fall in the latter.

SL stuffed everything up!

I'd love to watch '04 Tri-Nations Final again if you've got it.

I'm sure loads of people would love to see them, but be very careful that the people who own the copyright don't come gunning for you if you put them on YouTube or something!

I don't know a great deal about the history of club rugby in Aus. Just wondering when it went full-time professional? Roughly the same time as us (start of SL)? Were there pioneering clubs over there who did it earlier than the rest, like Wigan and Leeds here?

I think Wigan and Leeds went full time pro at the same point as the rest of the UK clubs.

They may have had individuals who were full time, but I don't think the entire teams were - though I'm quite probably wrong!

Stuff youtube mate,this is for my enjoyment.

I have about a gazillion tapes.i'll look for it..

My first and (so far) only trip to Wembley.



I was 7 at the time. I remember my Mum & Dad dragging me around London all day before the game. My Dad then took us to Wembley so that he could 'get a programme for his mate from work'. During the game, I was fascinated more by the crowd than the game. Happy Days.

How many is a gazillion

I went to this, only been to 1 international since at COM, International game seems so dull now. Went to Wembley in 1990 as well for the first test, another cracking game.

we only git Sky in the latter part of 1992 so unfortunaley our collection does not include the full games from the tour of 1992. Would be great if anyone has these Tests on dvd per chance?

We played internationals regularly back then, against France, NZ and Aus and it was considered a big part of the game.

Plus it was the days when not too much RL made it to TV as well, so for the most part if you wanted to watch a game, you had to go see it live.

Totally different culture.

Oh, and they were on a Saturday afternoon when virtually anyone could get to it no matter where it was.

Evening kick offs kill the game at all levels.

I drove a mini bus full down for the final at wembley back then...now super league time I could only muster 4 people to travel to wigan and then one cried off at the last minute......seems it was much more popular than todays tosh thats served up....... Flatcapper 1...... popcorn munching super league fans 0

Couldn't agree more..

Used to go to most of the late 80s /early 90s international that were on a Saturday / Sunday afternoon by bus /train making it a full day out ..happy days

I'm a non driver so evening kick offs ,as in the four nations (Aus game excepted), in the main are a no no ... using public transport at night is a right pain in the derriere

To be honest, we get to see the Aussies and Kiwis more frequently now as it used to be an incoming tour by each every four years - maybe that's part pf the problem. Seeing them every year or so makes it less of an event than the old tours.

TV shouldn't be the issue. If we take the 1990 Ashes series as an example, there were 54,000 at Wembley for game one and 44,000 (capacity) at Old Trafford for game two and 40,000 (capacity) at Elland Road for game three - all these games were show live nationally on terrestrial TV.

Part of me thinks that the old style tours drew better crowds to the tests becasue the overall tour with club and county games gave more time to build awareness and interest amongst fans; but on the other hand, I'm sure most fans are fully aware of the Four Nations, but just don't bother going.

I'd agree with the previous poster about internationals seeming a bit dull. The atmosphere at most internationals in the last 12 years has been much flatter than previous and the players don't generally seem to be as up for it as they used to be.

2004 game at the JJB when GB beat Oz, id love to see that game again, had it on video but got lost somewhere along the way!

Agreed. Familiarity breeds contempt. Every two years we'd have either the Kiwis or Kangaroos over. It was more of an event then.

In his biography Andrew Johns says the same. Many Aussie players would rather go back to that kind of programme as it'd make tours rarer and there'd be more enthusiasm for them.

The rest of the time we could play the French or PNG or maybe Tonga or Samoa. It's develop the game more, mean we'd see some fresh faces and we'd value it more when the Kiwis and Roos turned up.

Afternoon kick offs are a must too.

Playing mid season helped, and BARLA cancelling all fixtures did too

Took a coach from Hull (collecting people the length of the M62 on route) and stayed at Canary Wharf for the weekend, it had just opened and we paid next to nothing. Great weekend, southerners didn’t know what had hit them.

We also had a bloody good chance of beating them in 1990

A Mal Meninga obstruction away from winning the Ashes...

Wigan went full time in 1992 or thereabouts but they did have a couple of full timers (Hanley for example) before that. Didn't think Leeds went full time till the superleague era. Could be wrong on that one but their performances seem to back me up.