It's been OK, and gone to form so far, the knockout stages look to be very interesting, and there's at least 6 strong teams in it. When was the last time we could say that about an RL international competition?

I doubt many clubs over here would want their players going off to the UK for that long, playing that many games etc & with the current level of player welfare & organised conditions for players i doubt many of the players would accept that when they have to come back & go again for a whole season

It wouldn't work anyway these days as both comps play the same time of year, the English clubs and players (those not selected for tests) would also be in shut down mode.

France should get a couple of tests against them though imo.

I think there needs to be more regular international competition between T1 and T2 nations. England and France are the only two European nations that don't have issues with elgibility, so let's take both nations other to Aus to play T2 nations in Australia, as we did vs Samoa this year - England are too good for France for them playing each other to be of any use (either playing or commercially), a large percentage of our squad is already in Sydney (and this is only likely to get bigger because of commercial failings here), nations like PNG, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga can raise competitive sides and, because of the high immigrant populations in Australia from those nations, you should be able to get a crowd and make it work commercially.

Ideally, there needs to be a window carved out (possibly during ANZAC or Origin weeks) where England and France can fly to Oz (because the NRL won't release its talent mid-season to come to Europe) and take on Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and PNG. Some sort of annual triple-header in Sydney / Newcastle / Brisbane / Gold Coast (say France v PNG, Samoa v Tonga and England v Fiji, with the fixtures rotating on an annual basis), would be a step forward in my view. Longer term, if it can be a success, let's work to carve out a genuine mid-season window.

In the winter, we can keep our international calendar. I'd like to see a four year something like:

Y1: World Cup (in Australasia)
Y2: Roos tour of England including a warm-up game vs France and a home nation
Y3: GB Lions tour to Aus (including games vs PNG / Fiji) and a
Y4: Kiwi tour of England including a warm-up game vs France and a home nation
Y5: World Cup (in Europe)
Y6: Roos tour of England including a warm-up game vs France and a home nation
Y7: GB Lions tour to NZ (+ games vs Samoa & Tonga)
Y8: Kiwi tour of England including a warm-up game vs France and a home nation
Y9: World Cup (in North America)

and there lies the problem Aussie RL not interested in international RL and thats why union is leaving us for dead, the fact that NRL see international RL as 3rd rate and are only interested in NRL and Origin is why RL is struggling

You can't just blame the NRL. RU has loads of international teams that are competitive and have huge amounts of fans. It has been that way for years. GB/England RL have never sold out Wembley - not for two World Cup finals or a semi-final. Can you honestly imagine England RU not selling out an equivalent game? They could probably sell it out twice over. I don't doubt that the NRL can do more, but to lay all the blame at their door is ridiculous. UK RL fans can't even get behind an equivalent to SOO - at least the Aussies have made a success of that.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I'm disappointed when games between Australia/England/New Zealand don't sell out, but I understand why interest in a lot of the other matches would be quite low.

RL needs to stop making comparisons with RU. RU has long gone into the distance, at least in terms of the international game. What does that matter though? RL is small compared to RU. RU is tiny compared to football. They're all still great sports.

Yeah but union isn't leaving us for dead in Australia, its the other way around, so all good

Like many i have been disappointed with crowds so far, but it must be said that crowds were down the NRL last season as well so perhaps Rugby League is falling slightly out of favour in Australia at the moment

AFL up 6.7% 2017 compared to 2016...at 34,010.
NRL down 1.9%....same period at 14,915.

The NRL is big in terms of armchair fans, but the reality is that A-league football is only 3k behind them in terms of averages whilst Aussie Rules is the #1 winter sport across the nation.

wow great result for tonga!!!

also i feel for england... to reach the final now.

scotland got some credit back with the draw against samoa.... have to think what might have been if they had the other 3 disgraced players...

I've been to both games in Hamilton so far and both have been epic......combine them with the games in Christchurch and Auckland and the NZ average is 18,000.......it's the criminal element that are letting the side down in terms of attendances!
NZ would be a perfect stand alone host in future......or put one group in PNG and have 3 double headers there with the rest in NZ.......If the Okers can't be bothered then why bother with them?
Speaking to many Tongans, if they can get the cash together they will be flying or car pooling and driving/ferrying down to Ch Ch this weekend coming in their masses..it's a shame it's not in Mount Smart because they'd have filled it 4 times over!

I was at the Australia v Lebanon game last night and the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic. Just over 21k there and the noise from the Lebanese fans and their general enjoyment of the game was a lesson to the tier 1 teams. The result was never in doubt, but the Lebanese team despite lacking depth are well drilled and play with real heart. I was also at the England v Lebanon game and tbh England don’t demonstrate that same passion. If they did they wouldn’t go to sleep for 20 mins each time they play the Aussies and might stand a chance of beating them.

Despite critics on here, I think this World Cup has been one of the best, despite questionable venue selection by the organisers and questionable referee selection, with stand out performances from Tonga, Fiji, PNG and Lebanon. Can’t see anyone toppling the Aussies at they are just too well drilled, but in the day who knows.

I think Scotland got such a good result because of the three players missing two bad results and three bad eggs get sent home suddenly a good result can't be a coincidence

I think a lot of people would agree with that.