How on earth do people think we can encourage other countries to play rugby league if we don't give them opportunities like this? If we did it your way league would never have made it outside of the heartlands.

You really should post on here more often.

Maybe if everyone with your depressing views got off their armchair and went to some games people would take a bit more notice? I don't know why you focus so much on the marketing and interest and media so much when the fact is there will be high quality games on the field of play just like 2008 when teams like Fiji and Ireland were great to watch. As a Rugby League fan, you are the one who will be missing out here. The opener at Cardiff will be a great match I can assure you of that. I'm pretty sure if you went to a game between 2 even sides you would go home happy to have been there and contributed to the World Cup. Sometimes I just don't understand Rugby League fans. The RFL put on a tournament like this which will include the elite players from Super League and the NRL and some fans don't get behind it. Madness.

These two ‘fabricated’ teams that are playing in Bristol are the Cook Islands and the USA

The Cook Islands have competed in international rugby league competitions since 1986 and have played 49 competitive games in various tournaments including the Emerging Nations, the Pacific Cup and the 2000 World Cup

The USA national team dates back to 1954 and has toured Australia seven times, England three times and Russia twice. They boast 6 players with over 25 international appearances and 27 who have played over 10 matches

It is very clear that these are not fabricated teams but International Rugby League teams with over 84 years of history between them

The match itself is not pathetic and is likely to be one of the highlights of the career of all the players taking part and will be part of a festival of Rugby League that the vast majority of the sports fans are looking forward to immensely (also, I have no idea who will win)

Every single one of us has a right to their own opinion and it is clear what your opinion of the RLWC is. However, you don’t have to post on these topics if you have no interest in it and I would personally prefer it if you were to shut the f*ck up and let people who genuinely care about our sport look forward to a great competition without wishing it to fail

I will reiterate my previous comment – you make me ashamed to be a Rugby League fan

Normally I find your overly negative outlook to be fairly amusing. In this case, it's just complete and utter disrespectful stupidity. Somebody has already asked you what you would do differently in terms of marketing and you have failed to reply, it seems fairly obvious that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about or why you are complaining other than because it's in your nature. And the fact that you have already decided that you won't be watching 18 months in advance seemingly as some sort of protest against things that haven't happened yet is so backwards in its logic that it's not even worth trying to think about. If you don't like the sport of RL then don't watch, I don't think anyone could care less what you do. But I don't understand why you felt the need to come on here talking abosolute utter garbage for seemingly no reason.

As someone who supports the international game over and above the club game - and that includes expensive trips down under in 2006, 2008 and 2010 - I'll be attending as many fixtures as I can possibly get to as opposed to just following England.

I mention that last bit in particular because I still recall a touring party of around 100 supporters from the UK during the RL World Cup in 2008 who I bumped into in Parramatta. They were shopping for RL goodies in a famous RL store there. I was there because I was also attending the Ireland V Samoa game at Parramatta Stadium in just a couple of hours time so naturally, I assumed they were all attending that game as well. But no, hardly any of them were interested at all and they weren't going. Even the RL store owner was offering them all free tickets to the game if they spent just $10 in the store (which most of them did spend at least anyway) and he looked as bemused as me when they all turned down the free tickets. We asked why they weren't interested... Oh, it's not England playing! The World Cup tournament held no interest for them, they were just following England.

And that's where the problem lies in our sport - insular attitudes such as above, even among those who had travelled such a distance and at such expense. They couldn't detach themselves from their one-club or one-team supporting mindset. That's why I fear the attendances for a lot of the fixtures not involving England could well be very disappointing unless ticket prices are reasonable - and by reasonable, I'd suggest between £10 and £15 and no more than that.

I'm not too keen on the Welsh double header at all - England V Australia in Cardiff is absurd. However, I think it's been arranged that way in order to avoid the embarrassment of a sp crowd for the Wales V Italy game.

Yes, many of the teams are made-up teams - Wales, Scotland and Ireland will consist of lots of Englishmen - Samoa, Tonga and Cook Islands will consist of lots of Kiwis - and Italy, USA, Fiji and PNG will consist of lots of Australians but so what? Far more preferable to some fabricated nonsense fixtures against a team of exiles which masquerades as international RL.

I hope the tournament is a success. We desperately need it to be.

Agree on all of the above, apart from the bit about Saddo ever being amusing.

Repetitive is the word i'd use.

None. International RL is a farce. If you thought 2000 was a money loser welcome to this one.

As a Rugby League fan of some 26 years or so, international Rugby League makes up some of my most vivid memories – the highs of GB beating Australia (Melbourne and Sydney in particular) to the lows of defeat (Elland Road anyone!) and then watching some of the emerging nations competing in the various regional and World Cups

It is not international Rugby League that’s a farce – it is the attitude of many of its so called fans who are simply too stupid or blinkered to see the huge opportunity that the World Cup next year offers our sport if only the whole Rugby League community were to get behind it

The frustrating and ironic thing is that the ‘club only’ supporters cannot see how international success and the profile it brings would benefit every club and every team in the country

Every so called fan of our sport on these pages who hope for the competition to be a failure just so that their opinions can be vindicated, hang your head in shame. You are a disgrace and wasted on such a fantastic sport

So just the one tournament that ruined 60 years of International RL for you then?

Well said fella.

Half an hour to knock the game, Saddened. You're slipping.
Of course the crowds will be low if so called fans have decided they'll be staying at home 615 days before the tournament kicks off.
I see your ignorance when it comes to club level rugby league extends to the international game. The venues are unappealing? Millenium Stadium, Galpharm, KC Stadium, Langtree Park, Thomond Park, Halliwell Jones, Parc des Esports, Gilbert Brutus, Headingley, City of Salford Stadium. Really?
If Saints get drawn against Swinton in the cup quarters, would you intentionally turn your back because you think it's a foregone conclusion? What would happen to crowds in sport if supporters only turned up when they exècted a close game?
Unfortunately your type are all too common in rugby league. It's that short-sighted 'my town is the centre of the universe' backwardness that rears its head whenever there's an international tournament. You state that the 2013 World Cup will be embarrassing and that the RFL are incapable of selling the game. What chance have they got when the people they will be targeting have decided they don't want anything to do with it before the first email has been sent or advert put in the press? It's not the RFL that's embarrassing, it's people like yourself.

The crowds will be poor if the games are poorly marketed and publicised, it would be a welcome change to see good crowds in a well organised and publicised tournament

There are those who will go no matter where and when the games are held, I was at the last world cup and there are those who will go much further to see the international game in the flesh. No need to market to them as they are definitely going (the RFL probably gave all these people £10 tickets for Wembley last year when they would have paid double that and more) No need to market to those who have already decided to go either. The key is those in the middle, how many can we convince to see an international rugby league game, possibly for the first time in a long time, possibly for the first time ever. Where did the crowds go that went to internationals in the nineties, has the destructive nature of super league, franchising and one club mentality killed that off for good?

The problems this world cup has have already started, the exposure that the national grand final coverage (that had no competition from other sports that weekend) and Wembley 2011 (in London and live on the BBC) should have been the starting point of a crescendo all the way to the tournament. Unfortunately the RFL spent most of the promotion time and money for Wembley kick starting an Exiles concept (that I see as damaging and degrading to the international game) and then when the game and tournament were over we didn't know when or where England's next game would be (or any significant international in this country) who would be playing or when the international game would be returning to Wembley.

Now we have a year with no internationals until October and none of those set to impact on the wider sporting conciousness in the country, effectively two whole years between the end of one tournament to the world cup and the RFL making noises about expanding the WCC, again something that will likely damage the real international game.

I am excited about the world cup, i think it could have been better structured, i hope that it will be a success and will try and go to as many games as I can but I am worried that 2000 could happen all over again