Well said that man. Yesterday was my first trip to Cardiff and I was thoroughly impressed with the entire set up, great being able to get served quickly in the pubs then take a quick two minute stroll into the ground. Fantastic with the roof on, nothing like what I was expecting.

Not sure when we will next see RL in Cardiff, but I sure hope it is soon.

Great day out yesterday, you can't beat Cardiff in terms of pre game atmosphere with the ground right in the centre of town. There seemed to be a lot of non-heartlands folk there, I think its a big opportunity for the RFL to build on this and try host a game there each year be it an international / challenge cup final / grand final (although I know the last two are highly unlikely)!

This why it's so important to grow the international game, make a big event out of internationals and host them in places like cardiff and wembley because it brings the game to a whole other audience who wouldn't otherwise be bothered about a cc or gf involving the likes of warrington, hull st helens et al.

I have never heard as many southern accents at an rl game as the england aus one at wembley in 2011.

Agreed, international games gives all the fans something to cheer on (their home nation) and helps them feel attached to them as opposed to two northern teams they're unlikely to have much affiliation to. Playing at the likes of Cardiff & Wembley gives more of a "wow" factor and importance to the games too as opposed to always using the likes of Wigan, Hull & Huddersfield's grounds for internationals, for which the "Non traditionals" would be more likely to attend imo.

I agree that internationals are the way forward. The difficulty is what international.

Playing Australia or New Zealand is a draw as it's a competitive game.

We need to boost the French and Welsh national sides. At Cardiff for a Wales England international is something you could do every year to grow the game. But getting 40k to watch it is difficult due to imbalance in the sides.

Maybe a Celtic v England combining Irish and Scottish players ie brough would help, but then do you lose the fan loyalty to Wales.

It's a tough call to grow the international game when we can't get Australia here every year.

a conspiracy theorist would say that Leeds are in the RFL's camp, while other clubs such as my own are in the rebel camp and maybe aren't promoting events as good as they should be as a result.

Blimey, that's a mad conspiracy

We need a more structured international diary - it's that simple IMO.

Home Nations need to play more games, not just 3/4 matches shoehorned in at the end of a season. The only way sides like Wales & France will get better is if they play more regularly & against decent opposition (like England). On the back of more games & better players the support should follow, filtering all the way down to grassroots.

I think we need to dedicate a two week period around March time to International RL in the Northern Hemisphere. It doesn't have to be a makeshift 'tournament', just test matches, marketed as 'the Spring Internationals' or something like that. Keep it annual & make sure all the sides are playing each other and hopefully we'll see the sport grow.

Throw in a mid-season annual test against France around June, and structure Oct/Nov around a four year cycle.

I suspect it comes back to the basic understanding - some club owners don't give a about the game beyond their own clubs.

It seems where we lead, Union follow in that regard now too!

Clubs need to learn that national teams playing on free to air television will always bring more attention to the sport than anything they can do.

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Not just the clubs but the fans need to star giving a toss too...
Also, all the players that have chosen to play for Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France need to stick with their teams and make themselves available for future tournaments.
We need a 5 nations tournament, (using England or the England Knights)
A World Cup every 4 years
A proper tour every 2 years
A proper 'Origin concept'
And finally, less teams in Super League so the players are playing less club games and in better shape for the internationals.

Wide open mate. Try and stop accepting mediocrity perhaps?

I'm a troll because my words don't tickle your ears? hahaha

So after four games we are as follows.

Game 1 & 2 Eng v Aus / Wales v Italy : 45052 (74500)
Game 3 PNG v France : 7500 (10150)
Game 4 NZ v Samoa : 14965 (15200)

Total so far : 67517 (99850)
Percentage of seats taken up : 67.6%

I am lead to believe numerous tickets were sold for the opening ceremony and Warrington tonight and were never used.

Not too bad if you ask me, lets hope this continues and the percentage figure can reach 80+.