In more of a long term view, the region from Barcelona to Toulouse across to Monaco (Catalan/Occitanian regions) would be an interesting option; plenty of stadiums of various sizes, and maybe try to further ingrain RL into the catalan regions either side of the border.

and RL would completely pee off the Spanish and French establishment and burn a lot of bridges permanently.

Why would holding a World Cup around there make them care any less? I'm not saying form a team representing there (again) or even particularly acknowledging any communities in particular, just that those regions are just the nearby regions to where there is already a rugby base in France... they have free border movement so Spain wouldn't be totally off limits to a France based tournament to travel to, and easier to get to than say, Paris or Lille or whatever.

Hell, Catalan have already been to Barca.

There is no point holding a Rugby League World Cup primarily in NZ when there is only one NRL club in NZ, and when the population of NZ is only 4 million, most of whom follow rugby union.

About 11 million people live in the rugby league dominant states of Australia and there is also an NRL team in Melbourne (pop. 4 million). All the big commercial sponsors are in Australia. Eden Park in Auckland has a max capacity of 36,000, while Sydney Football (Allianz) Stadium has a capacity of 45,500, Suncorp in Brisbane 52, 000 and ANZ in Sydney 85,000. So it makes no sense to hold most games in NZ.

There is no point in holding a World Cup primarily in France when there is only one French club in Super League. Even if there are two French SL clubs it is not enough. You need at least four French cities, including Paris, with SL clubs, before you can even think of holding a WC primarily in France.

Holding a game in Monaco is a good shout, the glamour and the intrigue of holding a game there would get people from England to make the trip across i'm sure. Might even get the attention of a Billionaire who wants to buy a sports team for his spare time while we are there too!

Must have been like the Delhi to Mumbai express at the 9's then with 9,000 fans on the roof both days



NZ will get a semi-final....it makes sense for Brisbane to get the final unless Sydney agrees to fill the big house.

Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch will get Kiwi pool games, with Dunedin and Auckland getting a quarter final each. Other pool games will be in Hamilton, Rotarua and maybe north shore stadium.....as most of the RL fans are up that end of the north Island

There really wouldn't be the level of interest needed to have all 31 games here.....but if they (the RLIF) do this right, a group of NZ, Samoa, Tonga and maybe a European team would see packed stadiums here.....

There will be a bidding process to hold games again.

In the last World Cup in Aus, Queensland got more than their share because they bid money to hold games, and other states didn't. I Know NSW pollies weren't happy when games were allocated and it's probable that they will bid for more games next time around, and also Melbourne now has more fans and better venues for the code, and they fancy themselves as the sporting capitol of the world and usually bid for any event going.

The administration of the game has also moved to the RL commission since the last Australian based WC, and they have a lot of cash and a wider view of their role in the game that means they can actually commit big dollars to publicise the tournament.

The 2008 WC was done on the smell of an oily rag, with very, very little money spent on publicity and virtually nothing on things like qualifying games and assistance for competing sides to do pre tournament training etc. The new commission will put in a lot more effort and money to do it much better this time around. There will be more teams and they will be better prepared, and because of the new grounds at the Gold coast, Newcastle and Melbourne the minor games will get better crowds at better venues.

Could be the inaugural year of the West Coast pirates in perth as well, couple of RLWC games at nib would sell out if the Pirates are launched in the same year.

Wouldn't mind seeing the final at the ANZ, 83,000 in a football stadium would be great.

Not a fan of the ovals but whatever brings in the cash.

Could be should be would be......but ain't gonna happen!

Don't know about that......agree with that.