April 20th 2013.....29 of the 34 players on show were Australian Born............there is an article on the RLWC2013 site that claims America with 10, will have the most "home grown" players outside of PNG/NZ/France and England.

Only problem with this is that currently, they can opt to play for more than one country even after they've made an initial appearance. Hayne can still play for Fiji if he doesn't get picked for the Kangaroos.....it is farcical.

Does that mean the Aussies have a load of islanders playing?

Erm... Australia and Wales will have a few more than 10, I can assure you.

It is good to see more people getting enthusiastic and hopefully as supporters club seasons are over they will start to purchase more tickets for the world cup. If we break a 300,000 aggregate attendance it will already be the most successful international RL tournament held in terms of attendance. Lets not settle for that though.

How did USA Soccer do during their first world cup in 2010? I can't remember but I doubt anybody cared. We get too hung up about this kind of thing.

beat England if i remember haha Dempsey scored...

i get everyone gets upset about players choosing which country they play for but i remember in the last world cup i couldn't of cared less hayne made fiji tick and it made the game exciting. it happens in every sport but we moan like most other things more than anyone else. not really heard a peep about the strong english cricket side being more foreign than sushi.

They haven't reunified yet but they are no longer feuding and USARL players were selected for the national side for the most recent match against Canada. The problematic people in the AMNRL have left so it looks like everyone is now on the same page.

Anyway, FWIW the USA soccer team's first World Cup was in 1930, and they finished 3rd. But I understand the point that the poster was trying to make.

Tbf it is only one person moaning, everyone else is looking forward to a great World Cup tournament.

Not moaning...just pointing out it's farcical and it doesn't happen to this extent in any other sport (ie the tonga v Samoa game with 86% of the participants not born in tonga or samoa) and Hayne still being able to play for 2 teams 7 weeks out is farcical!

As for England's cricket team being a melting pot of nationalities.....6 south Africans, 4 of whom qualify on residence and parenting rules, 2 who moved to the UK aged 12 and 14 respectively and an Irish bloke who qualifies because his grandparents were born in an English ruled Ireland. There is a massive difference between that bending of the rules and the blatant country hopping that is permitted in League.....29 of 34 players representing 2 island nations were actually born in Australia.

As it is, Scotland's gain is England's loss with regard to Brough....and I would rather see Hayne doing his thang in a Fijian shirt....and I too am looking forward to a competitive RLWC.

Yeah, and you've already made your point numerous times.

Just amazed the "it happens in other sports" bollox is constantly rolled out....... It doesn't!

So you are moaning, then.

For somebody in New Zealand you seem to completely lack any knowledge of the cultural and historical links between NZ, OZ, and the Island nations. You aren’t stupid so I can only presume you have had a bang on the head or you are trolling.

There has been a massive amount of people move from the Pac Isles to Australia and NZ and there are plenty who are proud of their history and heritage and proud to represent their nation and heritage even whilst living in, or even being born in a different country (though in some examples like the Cook Islands, NZ isn’t even really thought of as a different country). It should be obvious to anyone that there will be a large crossover between these nations. As there is with Ireland in soccer, whose latest squad had 8 british born players, and all but 2 played in England.

This isn’t bad, its not wrong, its part of the world and if anything should be something celebrated, You go tell Wes Naiqama he isn’t Fijian, Sam Tagataese he isnt Samoan, and Sika Manu he isnt Tongan, that they are all big frauds pulling on a shirt of convenience and ill find you a plastic surgeon capable of sorting out how they leave your face.

Not to mention half the England RU side.

HOW MANY HAVE BEEN SOLD? THAT IS WHY I SET THE THREAD UP TO FIND OUT HOW THINGS WERE PROGRESSING.

SURELY RELEASING ANY POSITIVE NEWS WILL HELP SELL MORE

COME ON RFL

OH YES - I AM DELIBERATELY SHOUTING

Can't wait to watch tonga v Samoa. Don't give a fig for what passports they are carrying, will be a cracking game for islander bragging rights played by committed talented players. Bring it on!

Tonga v Samoa fixture doesn't exist

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You'll be waiting a long time

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As close as you're going to get in 2013.

The RLWC has nothing to do with the RFL. It is being run and organised by the RLWC 13 team who report directly to the RLIF, not the RFL.

Just this week, they have stated that 90% of all lower and middle tier tickets are sold, so that is approx 37,000 out of 41,000.

Ref the top tier, by guestimate, 5,000ish look to have been sold so far. That said, they have adopted a policy of sell a row, then miss the next out. This will make the stands sold look pretty full on the TV. Behind the posts, is already looking pretty full with this policy.

With still over a month left, I reckon they'll hit 55,000 - 60,000.

thanks for the geographical breakdown.....it doesn't change the FACT that RL's eligibility rules are a farce. Hayne can opt to play for either Fiji or Australia....7 weeks out from the tournament.
England RU and England Cricket are rolled out as some form of defence, even the republic of Ireland in soccer.......none of these teams or countries ever had a situation where some teams attending a world cup are waiting to see who doesn't get picked for the favourites before seeing if they can name any of the fringe players....it's insane.

As for me being stupid......is that all you've got

Kevin Prince Boateng had to choose between Germany and Ghana prior to the last soccer WC. Anyway, you've already made your point numerous times, nobody is interested and if you don't have anything new to contribute then get off the thread.

The same could be said of you