has any one got the list of venues to post on here?
i'm sure it's too early for dates etc.

The problem is it's international RL and there is no market for watching international RL live. Yes most league fans will be interested in watching the game on TV but they will not pay £10 or more to go and watch teams that aren't England or the Aussies. Deep down league fans know the teams are fake, Ireland will be full of English players and Aussies, the south sea island teams will have players that used to play for the Kiwis but didn't get picked any more. The captions in the programme will say "so and so is playing his second world cup for Samoa, he also picked up 6 caps for the Kiwis in between the world cups" and fans just cringe with embarrassment.

Watching Warrington or England play at the HJ is different because you actually care about the result, and fans would turn up to watch the Kangaroos or possibly the Kiwis as they will then see some greats of the game that they don't otherwise get to see in the flesh, so it is worth buying a ticket for them. But if it's two other teams of made up players then its OK for TV but not worth going to a match.

Still whilst I might be cynical about international RL I am pleased Warrington is hosting games, it's a World Cup in the UK, the Halliwell Jones has got two games, it is a vote of confidence that Warrington is on the rugby league map and our stadium is worthy of an international tournament.

I'll be attending both games as a Warrington fan. Like Sally said, there's no real widespread appetite to watch live international RL outside of the big 3 (Aus, NZ & England). I'll be going in the hope that decent attendances for both of the games at the HJ will be beneficial for Warrington RLFC.

Even we're full of Aussies.

Chase might be playing for the Kiwis in the World Cup. Wonder if Jack Reed has an outside chance of making the Kangaroos squad as well.

Has this question been asked/answered yet (other than "well thats the RFL for you"icon_wink.gif. if its the 2013 World Cup ENGLAND AND WALES....why are they playing a game in Ireland and a game in France. Couple of English/Welsh grounds might have missed out on a game there.

Unfortunately too many fans have the same attitude as you, and we will continue to get small crowds, average sponsors, lack of funds for international games and low levels of media coverage. All the while, fans will be sat in front of their PC's moaning that we don't get pages of coverage.

I went over to Oz for the 2008 WC, and went to games like Ireland v Fiji, France v Samoa as well as some of the 'bigger' games. The Ireland and France games were extremely enjoyable, and I'd recommend that anybody should go and get tickets when they become available.

As well as doing their bit for the game, attending fans will also get to see some bloody good games of Rugby League.

Not sure if you've seen the full details, but they have pretty much done what you have suggested.

Wales will play in Wales, France will play in France, there will be showpiece games in London and Cardiff, and then the majority will be in the 'heartlands'.

The only two real 'risks' announced so far, are Bristol and Limerick. If what people are saying here is true, then the target of 5k at Warrington is not too much to beat for the likes of Bristol or Limerick.

Limiting the Northern grounds to only 6 would have been riskier IMHO, as now we will have more councils etc. involved in promoting the games, rather than Warrington having to promote three or four games in one ground.

i cant believe they listened to him.

I can vouch for that

Aye, not sure the weather in Warrington will be as nice as Penrith John, but you never know!!!

Have you washed the dishes yet

And what, precisely, is my "attitude"? I have never complained about RL media coverage in my life. It's a bit lower than it should be, but there are more important things to worry about, frankly.

International rugby league is a farce - the vast majority of the teams are completely contrived, and as such, I can't see that many people, in these straitened economic times, being willing to shell out to watch games in which they have no vested interest. The games may be entertaining, but those involving the 'minnows' are not likely to be of a high standard.

Well done for you in going to some lesser games in the 08 World Cup - I'd have done the same had I travelled half-way round the world on such a holiday, no doubt.

No they aren't. If you are too ignorant to do some research then that's your problem. It's people like you that make international RL into a 'farce' though, by having this attitude the game you are supposed to support.

You go onto answer your own question. Your 'attitude' is the negative guff that many RL fans spout.

Rugby League fans really should copyright the use of the word 'farce'.

RU and Fotoball fans don't care about the things that you list. Hell, they aren't even bothered if something's interesting!

At least we have entertaining sport in RL, but for some reason people would rather sit at home and call it a farce.

Well there's about ten of us planning a trip to Limerick to watch the Ireland game and show our support for RL and to have a good long weekend as well.

The biggest problem with international RL is the nation swapping. It is that more than the 'grandparent rule' that is an issue. The 'grandparent rule' goes on in many sports as people point out, but you do not have that many dual code internationals.

Imagine in football if you had say John Aldridge winning a few caps for Republic of Ireland then switching to play for England in World Cup 1990 and then switching back to Republic of Ireland in the 1994 World Cup. Or in cricket Kevin Pietersen suddenly switching and deciding to play for South Africa.

Where RL is a farce is guys like Chris Bridge and Danny Brough using Ireland and Scotland to get international caps and then declaring themselves eligible for England. To give credit to Lee Briers he ruled himself out of England selection, I'm sure I saw him say something on Twitter that when he chose Wales he chose Wales and he would never switch.

This is also a big problem with the south sea Island teams and is what weakens them, you get players viewing Samoa or Tonga as a team to play for early in the career and then at the end when they aren't in the NZ or Australia teams. If all the players eligible for those island teams actually played for them and stuck to them they would be quite strong, pushing NZ. But there isn't enough international exposure for them, what they could do with is an annual Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and PNG tournament like the Four Nations but obviously funding is an issue.

I agree with all of that, and I understand people dislkining that rule, I do too.

What appears to happen in other sports though is that they do things that would also be described as 'farcical' if it were Rugby League. Fans don;t need to like all of these things, but there is no denying that watching a game of RL like Fiji vs Ireland, or PNG v Samoa, or Tonga v Scotland at the HJ Stadium will be a good standard of sport and give plenty of excitement, especially when compared to minnows in other sports.

In RU, whilst there is no nation hopping that I am aware of, England have featured players from NZ, SA and the Pacific Islands IIRC. This is the kind of thing which has seen much criticism when it happens in RL (although in my experience much of it from within). In the recent RUWC there were something like 60-odd New Zealand born players in the squads across the tournament, and even England and Aus had approx 7 overseas born players in their squads.

In Cricket, the England team has had plenty of overseas players representing them, and don't they have nation-hopping issues (i'm thinking of Ireland and England)?

In my humble opinion, for the 4-6wk duration of the tournament, people should put politics to one side, enjoy the RL, and get to as many games as they can afford and have a good time.

Maybe if we as fans started to do this, we would start to see the game grow and these issues wouldn't need to happen.

They do have a tournament - the Pacific Cup. It's not annual but was held in 2009 and the competing teams were the Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga. By beating the Cook Islands in the final, PNG won the right to take part in the 2010 Four Nations, much like Wales did for the 2011 Four Nations by winning the 2010 European Nations.

Ideally, these regional tournaments would be annual, with players forced to stick with their original countries.

Yes, of course, it's my fault that the likes of Scotland, Ireland and Wales contain next to no indigenous professional players.





You claimed that 5 figure crowds would be realistic targets for the games at the HJ. My point was that if the games there do not involve Australia, NZ or England then that target is ridiculously unrealistic given: a) the current economic climate, b) the history of crowd levels in recent RLWCs and c) the fact that several teams are not, and cannot be honestly conceived as, real, no matter how they're dressed up.

RU and football and indeed cricket have a World Cup tournament which more than two or three teams have a decent chance of winning. Let's not pretend RL is at this level of international competitiveness, because it just isn't.

It's the fault of people like you, who instead of supporting the game's development have sat there and continually criticised and played down everything that happens. How can you expect anyone to take international RL seriously, and thus for it to develop at international level, if people who claim to be fans of the game are so quick to attack it?

Roughly 50% of the Wales national football team were born in England, does that make them a 'farce'? You are aware that Ireland has over 20 RL clubs? I would point out the number of domestic players in the squads for the recent internationals, but since you're so ignorant that you probably didn't even know they took place, then I won't bother. It's ok though, you are quite welcome to sit at home moaning about 'indigenous' players and the rest of us will enjoy the World Cup.

If I was comparing it to Football and RU, then I would be saying we would get 40k+ crowds.

10k is not ludicrously unrealistic at all. 5k as a target is far, far too low.

Yes very good. I note you conveniently ignore that I actually stated indigenous professional players. You know, given that we're talking about a supposedly professional sport here.

Maybe you should do some research so that you actually have some idea what you are talking about before making yourself look any more ridiculous.