The bids can't have been good enough.

We don't know that though do we?

yes we do, as other bids were selected. it is inevitable that with any bid process, someone doesn't get selected - indeed, that's the whole point!

please lets not start another round of conspiracy theories!

Do we know whether Doncaster or Sheffield actually submitted bids to be host cities, either separately or as a joint regional offering?

I'm not sure whether they'd have been able to bid as a 'region' as such as everything seems to have been based on the local councils bidding on behalf of each venue?

So the first question those expressing their dismay at neither being involved might want to ask is whether their local council even went to the bother of putting a bid in.

The RFL wanted venues that could guarantee they would be full and for Bramall Lane to do that they would of needed a Semi-final or a key game such as England vs Australia, both of which the RFL wern't prepared to give to Sheffield.

No idea why Doncaster didn't get one. They have hosted 2 CC semi's and got a bigger attendance for an England vs France game on a friday night than the England vs Wales game at Leigh a few weeks ago.

Yes, the club and council worked closely together with the bid for Doncaster.

I am very urprised Doncaster didn't get agame, unless the RFL have got sSouth Yorkshire ear marked for a semi final?

Nope no games will take place in SY.

Funnily enough, a trawl on the interwebbythingy hasn't produced me one single complaint about venues from any of the participating nations. Odd that. Maybe they are channelling them all through headhunter?

There's little scope for crticising the RFL if at all. To me, it's all good. Why would, eg, PNG complain about playing France "at home" in front of a full house in a World Cup, rather than in front of 2,000 or so in a near-deserted northern ground? If I were a PNG player, I know which I'd choose.

The RFL have concentrated their current efforts in getting bidders to in turn concentrate their minds on a business plan as to how exactly they propose to fill their stadia as best they can, and they have a couple of years now to progress those plans and deliver. All good thinking.

The alternative of playing some fixtures in near-empty grounds is just plain daft. One thing the World Cup [idoes[/i need to do is make money. Another thing is to aim to showcase the game in a positive and progressive light. They have done this.

International RL has had a troubled past and things are far from rosy today. In many ways its a major achievement to be having a World Cup at all. I think the point about the venues somehow making the comp lose "integrity" is entirely bogus but even if there is a point there then I'd much rather that, than fledgling wider international competition die on its arrse through lack of imagination and ambition.