For Wigan to be a chance of winning, they'll require the following...

1) At least 3 regular season SL games under their belt in preparation.
2) The game to be played at the DW Stadium.
3) Sydney Roosters to turn up in the UK a week before or preferably less.
4) Sydney Roosters missing a number of key players.

Otherwise, it could get very embarrassing for Wigan.

This particular WCC is probably a step to far for this wigan team but what ive seen of them this season,they have every chance of taking RL in this country to a completely different level from the saint of long,sculthorpe and cunningham etc and the leeds of the last 5 yrs or so

So do Sydney Roosters have any weaknesses?

I can't tell if you're fishing, or if you genuinely believe that but Wigan have a long way to go before that standard let alone raise it

All i can say is you two are in for a rude awakening next season and onwards.
Theyv'e just won the double when they were suppose to be rubbish.They are an extreamly young squad with a fitness level unknown of at this age in english RL that will only get better,(unless lenaghan sells them off).,With the exception of st helens im struggling to see who are going to stop them next season?

I'm not doubting wigans credentials to win over the coming season(s) (though I think they have more question marks then they did this year) BUT what makes me say they are no where near the standards of the two teams you mentioned is that both of them are so far ahead of everyone else at the time in different areas and I don't see any which area where Wigan blow everybody else out of the water.

Saints in 2006 were the definition of consistency, they lost 4 games all year and never more than 4 points (aka they were 4 tries away from the perfect season).

Leeds over the last 5 season have been the ultimate play off team, for so many years you said well they can't do it again and they did, and probably matched saints in 2006 with there playoff record.

Wigan have done fantastically well to develop their own and will certainly compete but still have a way to compete against the the very best in the sl era.

As Roosters fan and a Wigan fan I cant argue with this. I am looking forward to the game and it will be great having it here in Sydney, but if the Roosters play like they can then this game is going to be a very one sided one. The Roosters defence this season has been incredible. 6 NRL teams including Manly have failed to score against them this season.

I really want it to be a close game but I just can't see it. Regardless though, it will be a fantastic trip for the club and any fans who come down here.

A young hard working squad,yes.Cant see many world beaters in there though TBH and you have just sold your crown jewel and also lost a points machine in Richards.The signing of a fringe NRL forward does not cover these loses.Congrats on your double win, but im afraid hopes of a domination of SL are just a pipe dream.

If we had this years team playing the WCC I think we'd put in a decent account of ourselves but its going to be difficult minus Tomkins, Richards and Mossop to keep this game competative. We'll have either youngsters in the team like Burgess and Burke or our new 'project' signings like Sarginson and Clubb and whilst Wigan will work hard and improve them lads it will take longer then a couple of pre season games to get them up to speed.

Wigan will keep churning these young lads out and will keep improving their project signings like they have with Flower and Dudson and I'm confident we'll stay around the upper end of superleague but I think any English club is going to struggle to win a WCC going forward unless things change.

LOL

On paper it should be a clear win for the Roosters, but I think Wane will have Wigan pumped up and ready for it. I don't expect a win, but I certainly don't think Wigan will be embarrassed.

Taking the game to Sydney is a mistake.
They will be lucky to get the SFS half full.
The Roosters will virtually be the same again, Wigan will be minus some very good players.
The other anolmaly are the refs. If an Aussie ref, Ashley Klein apart, runs the game Wigan will get battered on the penalty count (like 12-2) and it could be a cricket score. That's happened before in Internationals and could very well happen again.
IL and SW need to think long and hard about this.
The game could lose money by being held in Sydney, it could be also be an awful night for Wigan and British Rugby League.
If Sonny Bill Williams is playing as well as the Roosters other stars then the DW will get over 20,000 in. It will make money.
We would have a SL ref who wouldn't spoil the game and get a great contest.
Only one venue makes any kind of sense to me and that's the DW.
(From someone who went to Brisbane in '94 too)

Why?


True it will be full.


Well if the players learn and play by the rules then they won't get penalised. It really is that simple!


Why, if Wigan win, and there is no reason they may not why is that bad for British Rugby League?

Well it isn't so they won't. Unless there is one of Mo & Ron Balls games on the DW will be empty

It's never the referees who spoil the game. It's the players who don't know the rules or try to ignore them or bend them. They get penalised when caught and get away with it when not caught. If the whistle is going 20 to the dozen who is at fault? The coaches?, the groundsman?

That will not be true.

SFS (i.e. Allianz Stadium) has a capacity of 45,500.

There will be 20,000 Sydney Roosters fans.
There will be 10,000 South Sydney fans supporting Wigan.
There will be 3,500 Manly fans supporting Wigan.
There will be 5,000 neutrals.

Total crowd: 38,500

We'll see!

Why would Manly/Souths fans go and support Wigan? I've found myself cheering for Leeds & Saints in some WCC games.

Souths and Easts (Sydney Roosters) fans have an intense more than 100 year old rivalry that borders on the pathological. Russell Crowe has gone out of his way, since he bought South Sydney Rabbitohs, to stir up this rivalry.

Manly fans are a bit of a sour grapes crowd -- though most of them are too lazy to travel across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, unless it is an occasion when their team is in the Grand Final.

I think that the prospect of the Sydney Roosters winning a second Grand Final in 2014 -- an unprecedented, for the NRL, "back to back" win -- thanks in part to Sonny Bill Williams, will enrage the fans of South Sydney and Manly in particular. They will want to see the "tall poppies" known as the Sydney Roosters, brought down a notch.

I expect to see the Burgess brothers, Greg Inglis and Russell Crowe, in the crowd at Allianz Stadium to support Wigan.

Following their four Grand Final defeats at the hands in the Leeds, I don’t remember seeing too many Saints players at the WCC cheering on the Rhino’s Australian opposition. Why on earth would Greg Inglis support an English team against an Australian one?

You clearly care about Rugby League and are a fan of the sport but you don’t half spout some nonsense at times

As for Wigan vs. Sydney, the Roosters will quite rightly be favourites (and strong favourites if it is played in Australia) but the great thing about sport is that it is not certain and plenty of English teams have won the WCC and not many of those did the double the year before

Plus every Brit living in Sydney. Even as a Leigh fan I support Wigan v the Aussies, went to the Wigan-St George game the other year, felt odd supporting Wigan in a Leigh top against my supported NRL team.

The silence from the smug NRL fans would be deafening if Wigan did it.

As much as I would love that to be true, I seriously doubt that will happen.

Besides Manly barely brought that to Allianz in the first round of the Play offs against the Roosters, so I hardly doubt that many would come to see a game that doesn't involve them. The WCC is a bigger event in the UK than here, and to alot of people its nothing more than a glorified friendly. I honestly think we would do very well to get 25,000 for this but might even struggle to get 20,000.

You really think most Brits living here care about RL or in particularly English Super League?

We'll see won't we?

Can't really be bothered with another pathetic VT argument that can't be proven either way.

There's a 93 page thread going on for that.

I didn't know RL in Australia only started in 1998.....

Your the one who made argument that every Brit living in Sydney would go. Well considering there are loads of us Brits living in Sydney, we would more than fill the stadium on our own, so yes we will see.