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.

Worst attacking display I've seen in a long time . What a waste of a great opportunity. We stood far too flat and no running on or off the ball. I think budgie got one pass all game. Atmosphere totally flat .

Yeah I was thinking this, half of the tickets sold were to people from London who haven't been to league before so wouldn't really know what it was all about and wouldn't be able to get fully involved and with hardly any games to go to people in general wont really know how to act at internationals.

Today has probably done untold damage to the game.

Woeful spectacle.

In hull, huddersfield or wigan you shrug your shoulders. But in the capital at the olympic stadium?

Appalling.

As a long time follower of our sport I enjoyed a very good English & NZ defense & a tight game, but you are right that the casual viewer today would be underwhelmed to say the least. this would not be such a big problem if this was one of six or seven international games this year but it is 3 games in two years it tests the faithfull let alone new fans. We need to rebuild a tradition of international games but unless the Aussies loose thier love afair with their club & origin games we are stuffed.

Maybe there's not as much atmosphere because people are genuinely nervous about the outcome of the game, and more interested in seeing how it unfolds?

Games against the Aussies in recent years, even at home, we've gone into as massive underdogs so any bit of good play on the field has been cheered to the rafters. Now, in particular against the Kiwis, it's almost like Man City or Chelsea fans. There's an expectation that England will do well, and a nervousness about things when they don't start well as they haven't in both games so far.

Sorry but that is way wide of the mark, the vast majority of people attending from the Southern regions will have being before AND a decent % actually played the game to one level or another.
The simple fact is that the game was devoid of attacking rugby and was a turgid affair, the fans had nothing much to shout about no matter which part of the country you were from.

The lack of an atmosphere was completely down the dire game that was on the pitch. When England did something good and everyone started clapping and shouting, then it sounded good. But that might of been around 5 minutes out of the 80, appalling game to watch live. Something has to change next week or they will get beaten again.

I think it really was a missed opportunity. Plenty of non RL support there today. Cotton Traders, Tweed jackets, Eng RU shirts, Club RU shirts and we could only show them that. But they were there! Good job otherwise it would have looked a very poor attendance.