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.

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.

err...yes. They play it at Twickenham all the time, getting their biggest crowds there.

Put it this way, it's like Rugby League holding a game at Old Trafford. There are tonnes of teams close by enough to travel without making a whole day of it, but none in the exact postcode.

Ye thats why the RU are staging a test match at OT in june

Pretty much sums it up.

And damn hard to get a big crowd into and out of via public transport and forget about parking.



A Premiership side will not allow a game to be played on the pitch if it really doesn't have to



Yes, and take it away from the major population of Aussies and Kiwis living here

why does it say that england v france and australia v new zealand are going to be played on weekend 24/25 oct when both games are being played on sat 24th oct

Because it is a provisional line up and not the finished thing, expect one to be played Saturday and one Sunday if Sky requests it.