My other half lives near Soton and mentioned that people were talking about it down there (she was at the match, made a convert of her). Hope it wasn't a one-off office!

I think its down to having Promotion and Relegation

I think its down to the fact that you've recommend international games to all your friends

Probably , but I still think it's down to Promotion and Relegation

Rumour from earlier today is that there's now over 50k tickets sold for Wembley.

The ' rumour ' on Friday was that the LSV had sold out

Comparisons to RU internationals are dumb at the moment because they are just as much 'events' as sporting contests.

Until international RL becomes established as an event, we need England to be competitive. The game this weekend is hugely important for the near future, as is the rest of this 4N. We really can't afford England to get completely blown away by Australia again.

In that last sentence you said what my response was going to be.

I think that in ten years time it isn't out of the realms of possibility that we could have a 4N's comp with three Double Headers and a final being played twice at Wembley, once at Millenium and once at OT in front of sell out crowds. The only way we can do that though is to start building the crowds now. Wembley this year is part of building towards that, thats about building towards 2013. The decision to play at Leigh is also part the Wembley decision and a strategic one to build the international game.

As has been said there is no point playing that match with that crowd in a 25k stadium; not enough people would turn up, effecting the experience, damaging the reputation of the clash and costing a lot more money. LSV is cheap and small, meanign tickets are cheap, meaning more will be sold and it will be close to sell out, so having a good atmosphere. It also means the RFL can place more emphasis on Wembley. We haven't been there for an international for a very long time, that is the priority. The figures that Jonny put up shows we don't have a history of big crowds against Wales. In fact what it shows is that we don't have a recent history against Wales because we haven't played them that often. Wales' lack of any recent or long term history and their lack of professional domestic teams mean they have little in the way of a following or players.

France on the other hand have a long history of playing RL. They have an established league. When we played them in the 4N's in 2009 we'd played against them in mid-season tests and Europeans comps. By that point Catalans were an estblished team, having finished third and eighth in SL and having made the CC final. Despite all this and playing in the 15231 capacity Keepmoat stadium, 11529 turned up. The attendance against Wales was just under that, despite the lack of history and, admittedly, despite the lack of marketing, this match hasn't been marketed, Wembley has.

When you put the Wales match into context you see it was a massive success and the right decision.

The national team is the best we've had since the class of 2003/04 and its young. We have the potential to win this comp and win the WC. This season's comp has been all about cheap tickets, this isn't going to change, if anything tickets will get cheaper, especially for the WC. And, the marketing has been good this year, have a look through these boards and you can see how much effort has been put in this year. If we are to make the international game a success it won't be because the RFL have marketed well to the North, it will because they market the matches well outside the M62. That is the only way we will achieve 80k crowds and will be the next step from the foundations that have been laid down this year.

Start small and grow it gradually. Booking larger stadiums for low key matches is never going to work. Build support gradually and you build the interest as well. I know you have a thing about Twickenham United, but personally I'm glad we're growing from the roots up. They have tried to buy success for the past ten years and while they may seem to be in a position of power now it is only a matter of time before something pops and it all starts to crumble (as League fans we should all be able to see the signs).

Take a bow

This weekends game will top 50K for sure IMO.

Compare that just to just 2 seasons ago when england australia didn't even sell out the JJb on a saturday afternoon.

The international game is makign big strides, at a fast rate and we should all be very positive about the future.

Saturday was a sign of progress, a healthy crowd for International Rugby League. But Leigh is awful to get to, getting from South Wales to Manchester, fine, getting from Manchester to a bus stop near Wigan ...... very difficult on a saturday afternoon and it seems many of the people around me who came from Warrington also had the same problems. Its not a great place to get to if you don't know the area, but for you guys up there I can see it being well suited for this match.

RU internationals especially here are marketed by the fans themselves in the shirts they wear .Its very much all about the event mentality, people prize it so much they want to take it with them all the time.Thats what the RFL need to do with this.

A day does not go by where I do not see a few Welsh RU shirts on the streets of the city, even the odd far more so than club shirts. On Saturday for once I was able to see what the new England shirt looks like up close and despite it being English I quite liked it and surprised I don't see fans wearing it far more when I've been up north watching matches like you see for Wales RU here.


Oh and Wales has a great RL history, especially with England. You seem to have forgotten we are the OLDEST RL INTERNATIONAL SIDE IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE!

Maybe RL clubs should be allocated International tickets to sell with targets. Sales of international tickets could form part of the SL franchise criteria - now that would be an incentive for SL fans and aspiring non-SL club fans to buy into International RL!

This should be happening already and not just to SL and Championship clubs. Do not sell your allocation next time around you have reduced allocation or no allocation at all.

Must have been hell to travel from warrington to leigh,walk to bus station at warrington catch bus get off at leigh bus station,hope they packed butties to keep up there strength on that journey.

For the train change at manchester get off at atherton catch 582 to leigh bus station,how hard is that?


Back to the international game growing,good god how hard can it be to have regular international fixtures year after year? the union mob manage it year after year,but no you lot would sooner have hull v wakey or salford v bradford on our tvs year after year.

I mean its that hard to organise a fixture list that as a world cup,several teams touring then a six nations comp and then tours after that,tell you what, they must be very clever people then union organisers to do that,as laural and hardy at the rfl headquarters struggle to find a couple of games a year

Stupid idea

As of Saturday afternoon, according to Robbie Paul, we'd sold 34, 000. 50 is the target...