When they (or any other English team) can do it in Australia against a match fit and fully prepared NRL team, I'll be impressed. As it stands, the whole concept is ridiculously weighted in our favour.

That's because the Ausies won't and I mean they refuse to stage it therefore the SL team can't be blamed if the NRL team comes over half cooked. If the Ausies are poorly prepared that's their fault for not being professional enough, the game doesn't start on the refs whistle it starts weeks earlier with proper conditioning and preparation. History shows that in this competition the English teams/clubs are more professional than their Ausie counterparts.

If the Ausies don't like the way it's set up then the message to them is that they should stop whining when they lose and do something about it otherwise suck it up, you lost!

id be impressed if Hull ever got anywhere near a WCC first

Didn't Wigan do just that?

I may be wrong but didn*t Leeds say they would have gone down under to play the match?

Is this not the perfect excuse to tweak the format?

No international tournament this year, so send the 2012 GF winners to Aus to play their champions in late October.

There is no international rugby league series / tournament this year?

If true, you can see why we are treated as such a joke by certain sections of the media.

There is no internationals being played by the Southern Hemisphere as they want a 'break' according to the NRL. We England will be having matches and we should 100% not have the wcc at the end of this year.

As sson as the NRL clubs learn how much $ they have to guarantee they back right away. Manly could hardly get any fans to a semi on the other side of Sydney so no wonder they weren't confident of hosting a WCC!

As said don't blame the Sl clubs for being more professional and better prepared.

cracking game

The Aussies are in pre-season. Perhaps they should bring their whole season forward to accommodate this one game. Or maybe they should play 2-3 warm up matches before it, risking injury to their players and disrupting their preparation for the NRL season.

Until the odds are even, this 'trophy' will always be meaningless. That's not a dig at Leeds, or any other club, but anyone who believes that the SL sides' dominance of this 'competition' is a true reflection of the relative strength of our club sides needs their head testing.