I'm hoping to get out there for the QF, SF & Final. Difficult to see where England will be playing, so might have to gamble on Melbourne & Auckland, then back to Brisbane. Squeeze in a trip to Sydney along the way, and a stop over each way. That's the rough plan at the moment.

Yeah that's pretty much how ive worked it out. Finish second in group which means we play top of C in Melbourne which I guess will be PNG (wales and Ireland other teams in that group if I predict the qualifying right) and then winner of that game goes to Auckland.

One part says fixed venues for quarter finals, the other says it will be decided once the groups are finished, could be interesting deciding which ones to attend, going to both semis could be tough!

The choice of venues is a bad joke.

The only two games in Sydney are Australia vs Lebanon and England vs Lebanon, because of the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese in Sydney.

France vs Lebanon is in Canberra, where there are few French or Lebanese.

Darwin is a complete waste of time since it will never be a rugby league centre given its tiny population.

The final should have been in Sydney at ANZ Stadium, not in Brisbane.

Lebanon better have Robert Farah, Timothy Mannah, Reece Robinson, Travis Robinson and Joshua Mansour available -- even if they all have to learn the Lebanee national anthem -- otherwise they will get hammered by over 50 points.

And there he is moaning...

You know, Cairns and Townsville are approximately the same size population wise to Darwin and Townsville has the best team in the world. A couple NRL games have been played at that ground in Darwin and almost got 10,000. Considering the ground only holds 12,000 that is good going.

If the final was at the ANZ that it would be a third empty and look daft on TV whereas Brisbane will be full and look better and create a better atmosphere which is more important here. The idea here is to be realistic with venue size not be daft and have half empty millennium and Wembley stadiums like 2013.

Priority at the moment with international game is to expand and take the game to new places which is why PNG were included as hosts and why places like Darwin, Perth and Christchurch are hosts. Also why the Americas Cup is going on right now to develop nations there.

Lebanon qualified legitimately so why does it matter if they get slaughtered? Are we going to handpick nations and not have any qualifying so that the more traditional bigger nations are the only ones in the cup? Yeah that would help international growth wont it.

Ps. France are rubbish.

Breathe...

Surely, if we could fill Old Trafford for the final, then the Aussies could fill ANZ stadium.

We got the stadiums pretty much bang on in 2013. It was a cracking World Cup. We just need a proper, set, inclusive international calendar for the other 3 years in between World Cup's now.

NRL claim NSW state government's unwillingness to pay for events is the reason for lack of games in Sydney.

What a massive snub from Destination NSW. Disgusted.

I worked it out that England will play a QF in Wellington and SF in Auckland if they finish second in the pool, not a QF in Melbourne?

However the Draw now has removed the placeholder group finish names so its anyone's guess.

As someone mentioned - Perth to NZ is a heck of a way. If I'm right, and England finish second as anticipated, it is a six-day turnaround from the France game in Perth to the QF in Wellington.


BTW, with the amount of footy going over to Perth, its hard not to see an NRL club there in the near future.

The organisers seem to be taking a huge gamble on Lebanon being competitive.
Two games at a 44k seat stadium against England and Australia could either be the showcase games of the group rounds - or a massive flop if Lebanon aren't up to making a decent show of it.
The organisers should probably make sure Lebanon have the best coaches and facilities etc.
Most of their players are Sydney based. I believe even the Lebanon based ones are already in Sydney, playing and training.
Farrah should lead them, and hopefully they have the best prepared team of the competition.

Hasn't Sydney been largely apathetic towards the international game anyway? From what I gather, Sydney crowds in particular seem to loose interest at anything that isn't Origin.

The last ANZAC tests in NSW seem to suggest that anyway:
2016 - Newcastle - 27,724
2014 - Sydney Football Stadium - 25,429
2008 - Sydney Cricket Ground - 34,571
2004 - Newcastle - 21,537

Not including the 2008 game (which IIRC, was marketed as some sort of Centenary game?), every game held outside NSW since regular ANZAC tests were reintroduced in 2004 exceeded those crowds:
2015 - Brisbane - 32,681
2013 - Canberra - 25,628
2011 - Gold Coast - 26,301
2010 - Melbourne - 29,442
2009 - Brisbane - 37,152
2007 - Brisbane - 35,241
2006 - Brisbane - 44,191
2005 - Brisbane - 40,371

Queensland are willing to pay to host the final NSW are not, it's not all about trying to get the highest attendance you can. The Suncorp still fits plenty in at around 50000.