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.

What's the obsession with holding these games outside the traditional areas?

One game in a blue moon does feck all to promote 'the game' in London, Manchester or Timbuktu. Feck all. FFS, most of the population of Manchester doesn't even know the Grand Final is at OT and it's held there every year among (allegedly) great fanfare.

I'm all for expansion and promotion, but when games like (for example), NZ v GB (2005) are held at Loftus Road all it does is deny traditional fans the opportunity to attend unless prepared to fork out yet more money. I look forward to the internationals massively and it's crap to see them being transplanted to some football haven in the name of promotion. No-one in London knows or particularly cares that the game is on and we end up with a half-d effort and a half-d crowd, the whole thing looking half-d on Sky, when we could have a full house packed with passionate and vocal RL fans getting behind England. And God knows we need all the help we can get.

We have good stadiums in Wigan, Hull, Warrington and Hudds for pool games - except of course Aus v NZ in London where plenty of Antipodeans will attend, albeit normally in their RU shirts - so I'm fairly happy with those fixtures. Except Elland Road? Why, just why? It. Is. Crap.

that doesnt stop them choosing to play games at Huddersfield and Elland Road, and it doesnt stop Charlton playing there every other week





so what.

1) if they are interested they will travel for a couple of hours to watch the game - its not that much further when they have travelled all the way from Aus already.
2) we should be able to fill a ground with English people for a game of that calibre - especially if part of a double header with an England game.

The majority of Charlton fans live in Charlton mate