I think it's one of the few things that soccerball beats us at. and it's simple, you have to leave club differences behind.

Unless an england soccerball player does something like getting sent off, the supporters are behind all their players in my opinion. Anyone who isn't a United supporter generally hates Rooney but are happy to pin their hopes on him when he pulls on an England shirt.

(a lot not all)non Wigan supporting RL fans hate sam tomkins for example, and they still will when he pull on the england shirt over the next month.

There is no unity in the fans, get that sorted and its more than half the battle won

Agree with your point about football fans generally putting club rivalry to one side and getting behind the national team but that doesn’t really reflect in the atmosphere at those games. Compared to club games, the Wembley atmosphere when England play is deadly dull with just a few choruses of God Save the Queen every now and again

Regarding the original question – it’s all about the team being competitive. I know it’s something of a catch 22 situation but I guarantee that if we are leading the Aussies by 6 points with 5 minutes to go at Wembley, you won’t need to worry about the atmosphere

The final in 2009 had a good atmosphere IIRC. A bit of biff early on.

Well said. I think most sports beat us at this. We should want to succeed as a nation and if we are too cheer on a team, we should cheer every player including ones we may dislike

Exactly the point! For example, i hated Sean Long with a passion when he pulled on a saints jersey, but when i watched him in a GB shirt i'd get cheer him as much as i would any other player! I can understand people may dislike Tomkins for whatever reason they so choose but at least show abit of support for him in the england shirt, at the end of the day he's out there playing for our country! I cant say i'm overly keen on Chase playing for england, mainly because he's not english, but i certainly wont boo him when he's playing for us!

No away fans I'll bet, go to any super league game where there are 10000 plus home fans and less than a hundred away and the atmosphere will be poor

Saturday afternoon kickoff, in my experience atmosphere is always better on a Friday evening than a weekend afternoon.

In general the type of fan that goes to England games aren't the singing type, it would be easy to amend the songs for any club to cheer on the team but it doesn't happen. But go to any club game and there will be people who disagree with the players out on the park and the way they play, don't see why it should be any different for an England game, pay your money you take your choice.

Have a few chants going. Something simple like the Great Escape, Inger-Land, England 'til I die, We love you England we do, etc

Real simple chants that everyone knows and can get behind. Basically the least connected atmosphere (for obvious reasons) are Great Britain or England games; everyone seems embarassed to start a song, and if there dead simple then maybe a bit of atmos might take hold.

Good point really. Having no away fans is probably one of the main factors.



Good idea but would people get involved

A big punch up on the field usually gets the crowd going, best leave that to the players tho!

We should invite that band (the one during the England v France game last week) over from France and get them to play English war songs.

More people need to turn up and the standard of test matches overall needs to improve. Get the product right on the field and the atmosphere will take care of its self.

I thought the 09 final was a great atmosphere. But in general they aren't great, usually because we're getting battered. As Bullseye said, a punch up usually gets the crowd going and also some unity and enthusiasm from the players.

On Sam Tomkins i don't think (and hope) he doesn#t get booed. I think the exiles game was a strange atmosphere as it wasn't really a proper test, allwoing the idiots to boo. Now we're playng OZ & NZ it will have more a test feel to it and hopefully Tomkins won't get booed.

Funnily enough, I enjoyed their music last week!

How about maybe actually beating the countries that matter and winning something important ?

That might help