You think Wales might shock a few people and meet Australia in the final?

Cant see it myself... I'm still going for an Australia v NZ one.

Hence why it should be played at the Stoop.

As for the venues being suggested...

Millennium Stadium for an England "home" game... why?! Awful idea. England vs Aus or NZ at Millennium Stadium would be a disaster IMO. It wouldn't get a bigger crowd than it would if it was actually played in England, so why make life difficult for the sake of making life difficult?!

I do think the Millennium Stadium should be used for a game. The idea of a double header with NZ/Aus and Eng/Wal could be a goer. The first usually gets about 10-15k in London, and the latter probably the same, so if you can get a 30k crowd in then that would be an achievement IMO. Personally, I'd try and avoid double-headers though.

I'd like us to be a bit more ambitious this year though. Those suggesting places like Leigh and Warrington are asking for sub-10k crowds. Unless you can fill it with locals, there is no point in having it there because no-one wants to travel there. No-one wants to travel to Hull, but we can fill it with mainly locals so it's not too bad. And it does my head in that DW always gets the Australia game. They've hosted the Aussies every time they've been up here. They can sod off next year and let someone else have a go. Maybe somewhere like Sheffield or even try a London venue. Somewhere that's a bit bigger and that people actually want to visit. People are getting fed up with the same safe options being taken, hence the poor crowd at DW last year. And how many bad crowds does Huddersfield have to get before it gets dropped? 19-20k is all they ever get.

I'd go with:

Week 1:
England vs New Zealand - KC Stadium, Hull (should sell out for an opener against the World Champions, 25k).
Wales vs Australia - Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (Wales' 4N opener should get a decent crowd against the #1 ranked team in the world. Lots of build up and hype should see at least 18k like they got against NZ in the RLWC2000 there).

Week 2:
England vs Wales - DW Stadium, Wigan (close to Wales, not a tiny uninspiring ground like Wire/Widnes/Leigh, could aim for a big away Welsh following and fill that stand behind the posts, about 22k).
Australia vs New Zealand - Loftus Road, London (bigger than The Stoop and good crowd there last time there, about 16k).

Week 3:
England vs Australia - Bramall Lane, Sheffield (they're interested in hosting us, it's a bit bigger than the usual 25k grounds so shows growth in ambition, and it's a bigger place in general. A bit of novelty. 28k)
Wales vs New Zealand - Racecourse Ground, Wrexham (obvious reasons, 10k unless they open the other stand).

Week 4:
Final - Elland Road, Leeds (middle of heartlands and only ground in the area big enough, 25-35k depending on who gets into it).

If my image has loaded, Bazza this is the Millenium Stadium, see how it is the other way round to the one you are trying to tell everyone it is with your image. Magic

No, the former national stadium is on the right. The Millennium Stadium isn't even on that picture.



Now you can apologise to Leyther Matt...

England v Wales - Halliwell Jones
Australia v New Zealand - The Stoop

Wales v Australia - Cardiff Community Stadium
England v NZ - KC Stadium

Wales v NZ - Racecourse Ground
England v Australia - DW Stadium

Final - Elland Road

Thanks for that, was beginning to wonder if I'd ended up in a parallel universe and Wales somehow used to play in a tiny stadium up until the start of the century.

shows about as much faith as the ARL in Sydney!

Okay, here's another crack;

Wales vs England - Headingley
Australia vs New Zealand - The Stoop

Wales vs Australia - Racecourse Ground
New Zealand vs England - KC Stadium

Wales vs New Zealand - Racecourse Ground
England vs Australia - Galpharm Stadium

Final - Anfield

EDIT got Aus/Wales and Aus/Eng mixed up

surely you'd want the two welsh games in wales and the three england games in england to maximise ticket sales? Eng v Wales in England will draw a bigger crowd than Eng v Wales in wales and I'd have thought Wales v Oz in Wales would draw more than in Leeds?

Sorry, they were the wrong way round

ah, makes sense now

A bit like my venues, which you crticised?

Think this is about right.

Wales vs New Zealand - Racecourse Ground
England vs Australia - Galpharm Stadium

Australia vs New Zealand - The Stoop
Wales vs England - Widnes/Warrington/Wigan

Wales vs Australia - South Wales sub 25K stadium
New Zealand vs England - KC Stadium

Final
third place play off
Double header
City of Manchester Stadium (we can ask)/ Elland road