Ohhhh, I've just twigged I'll be living in Leeds at the time of the tournament.
'Appen I'll pop into Huddersfield (though I'm unsure why we insist on constantly playing NZ matches there? perhaps a safe option, rather than facing the possibility of not selling a stadium out against the ockers) and Elland Road. Might also venture into the fair city of Doncaster, too.

think its a decent enough list, would have preferred the England-Australia clash to be somewhere more ambitious like the COM, the Reebok though or even Anfield though.

surely with the 2 french games they will go for one game in Paris and one at Catalan.

paris & toulouse apparently

bit of a shame for the Catalan fans, thought they could have been 'rewarded' with a France-NZ clash at their ground

Wigan for a cert, likely Leeds and Donny and I dare say Huddersfield as well. Still in two minds about the game in June, having forked out to go to Toulouse in April. Best geet saving up

Which major football ground? what premiership soccer club in their right mind are going to allow their £M pitch to be used by RL?

If you are going to use places like Loftus Road (a dump with poor facilities) Brentford (poor transport) Charlton (again poor transport) they don't offer a great deal more that The Stoop either capacity wise, facilities wise or in terms of RL connections.

Wigan when it suits.

Perhaps that's why Hull hasn't been chosen to host a game.

At least they have a ground capable of holding a test match...

The Valley is 27,100 capacity which would have been a realistic target for an England -v- Aus game (more than it will get in Wigan), and is a perfectly suitable stadium for such a game.

Also Craven Cottage is a 22,200 capacity which would have been ok too.

Loftus Road and Griffin Park wouldnt be big enough, and as you say are complete dumps.

For the Aus v NZ game they could go all radical and have a double header at Eastlands along with England v France (the 2 games which are likely to get the lowest crowds).

I thought the discussion concerned Australia vs. New Zealand? If so, I think the Stoop is a very good choice, albeit a drop in capacity after they filled Loftus Road a few years back.


I think the idea is to capitilise on London's Antiopdean population, although I do agree they could have been a little more ambitious in their choice of venues and maybe tried Eastlands or even Blackburn for one of the games.

Its not even 12,00 if you kook on the ticket page on of the stands behind the sticks is closed.