It's been that way for years. I remember an Ashes test at the DW and some Dewsbury fans spent the whole game abusing Andy Farrell. Very odd.

Needed free flags!

Its like many have already said our game is club based. Touring international games are just overblown friendlies because they are not a regular occurrence for fans to look forward to year in year out. We are very amateur with this kind of stuff and the media of any importance have no attraction to the game.
If there comes a time when most of the England team are playing in the NRL I can see the atmosphere becoming more alienated.

I agree with what another poster said, i think the fact there is no real dislike or needle in games against NZ as opposed to Australia who we see as a real rival and every englishman wants to beat, the atmosphere seems a bit more flat comparison.

There's more than a little truth in it. 2013 world cup final when the stadium announcer called out New Zealand there was mild applause and for Australia massive booing. Quite upset a Aussie in front of us

In the 80s & 90s when touring teams played against club sides, my dad & I would go along to the games, regardless of whether it was our team or not, and support them against the "tourists". Hence we'd then support whomever was playing for GB in the test matches too.

Don't know why supporters attitudes have changed in sport and why people have become so parochial.

Atmosphere poor here again today

Yep, looks a great crowd though

Problem is :

1 terrible game

2 we actually quite like the kiwis. It's hard to get really passionate without that genuine edge of dislike which the Aussies provide.

Dull boring game Nrl style grind. But very poor crowd just no atmosphere at all

Trust me, there was bugger all to get excited about, that's got to the worst England performance (in attack) I've seen in decades. Were we trying to not lose rather than win, fookin disgusting performance. Waste of money, good job it's not far to get home for me!

It was dead quiet. Literally the odd murmur.

But we won't build atmospheres for England until we have frequent games at the same places so that we all know what the score is year after year and so we feel like we have a team to support at a home or a select few homes often. Not a few times every two years.