So far we know that of the three teams that will be coming from Down Under for the WCC:

1. One will be the NRL Grand Final winner

2. At least one of them (South Sydney) ended up as at least a top 4 team in the NRL because it ran third in the regular premiership, and is now guaranteed to be in the final 4 teams in the playoffs.

3. At least one of them (Brisbane) ended up as an 8th placed team and did not progress. So it is not really in the highest category of teams (top three) that Super League will be offering.

This means that if South Sydney wins the NRL Grand Final, then the NRL will have to find another team to make up the NRL's three WCC competitors. Hopefully it will be one of the final 4 contenders.

So far the playoff candidates (with their playoff rankings) are down to: South Sydney Rabbitohs (3rd), Sydney Roosters (1st), North Queensland Cowboys (5th), Penrith Panthers (4th) Manly Sea Eagles (2nd) and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (7th).

The worst possible outcome of the NRL competition would be for Canterbury Bankstown to win the Grand Final. That would mean that the teams that ran 3rd, 7th and 8th would be contesting the WCC. It would be a bit of an insult to the Super League and the entire contest. (The main attraction of Canterbury would be the reappearance of James Graham, to light up all the St Helens fans). The best possible outcome would be if the Sydney Roosters win the Grand Final (even though Sonny Bill Williams would not be playing, but Blake Ferguson probably would). That would mean that the 1st, 3rd, and 8th ranked NRL teams were contesting the WCC.

The Brisbane game could be interesting, especially since Brisbane's new acquisition Anthony Milford would probably be playing. But Brisbane will not present a sufficiently strong representation of the top flight of the NRL to the British public. It will be taking the place of a superior NRL team.

I think that a much better choice would have been to insist that the two finalists of both competitions play their equivalents from the other, and that the New Zealand team (Warriors) plays the French team (Catalans) as the third game, kicking off the series on the Friday night. The two Grand Final runners up should play each other on the Saturday night, while the two Grand Final winners should play each other on the Sunday afternoon. As it stands the latter game is the only certainty for the 2015 series.

Hopefully we will still get 20,000 plus crowds for each lead up game, and 30,000 plus for the main game on the Sunday.

There should have been some qualification process for the NRL clubs but it does seem to be a tentative approach to expansion. They're just testing the waters for how successful it could be so allowing the NRL teams to simply opt in. There was talk that NZ Warriors could be the 3rd team if Souths win the GF, which would be a bit of a joke considering they didn't even make the playoffs.

As far as attendances go, it'll depend where they're held. I'd just play them at the SL teams home ground. You'd get near full houses at any of the top 6 apart from Hudds IMO.

It's the GF winner and the two most popular clubs in Australia... It's not an insult that a team coming 8th in one of the tightest sporting comps in the world is playing a match.

Supposing Saints dont win the grand final, I would like us to play Brisbane! Regardless of where they finished, 2001 and 2007 were fantastic games, and the return of Bennett just adds to that. Let it hail

I say lets get it on and if it is a success it will maybe have more teams in OZ wanting to take part

The 2 Aussie clubs that are not coming over to play for the WCC trophy are going to be taking these games very lightly as pre- season trials and the UK will just act as a get away before the season starts.I feel this could be very underwhelming, we were just starting to get the Aussie clubs to take the WCC game a bit more serious and i feel we should have just stuck with that played on a rotational basis ( UK/OZ) , it worked fine.

Until we start really competing and beating Australia at international level they will never take our club game seriously enough to care.

The new format is a joke and to a degree the old format also.
The WCC should be the top GF winning teams and should be played 2 weeks after the last GF before them players that are to transfer to other clubs leave. Then we will have a true World Club Champion .

It should also be played on a rotational system , southern hemisphere then the northern hemisphere the following year.

And yes , will di have Internationals to play , but if they are serious about the WCC they will make it fit. Otherwise scrap it!! My opinion only!

The Australian press seem to be quite enthusiastic about the format though fans of teams other than Brisbane are upset that they are included due to finishing 8th. I can see why they are included though tbh as they garner a fair bit of interest over here.
Just let's hope that Rl fan aren't going to baulk at spending more than £5 for a ticket..tight @rses

Exactly.

Even if it was a 6 team series. People would find something to moan about.

If Real Madrid turned up at Liverpool for a pre-season friendly, you would not get this moaning, just a lot of fans turning up to watch some top teams go at each other.

It's not the product that it could be, but it's still a step forwards

I can't wait to watch saints play a NRL team. I should hope many other fans are too. Why wouldn't you want to watch that? Fancy friendly or not?!

This is one of the tangible positives we have got out of our season as we have no chance at the GF.

Because this WCC series will provide the first rugby league contests of the 2015 season, and thus English and Welsh fans will have been rugby league deprived for nearly 4 months, there is no reason why there should not be big crowds (20,000 plus) in attendance at all three games if held in the M62 corridor.

Personally I would like to see the main game between the two grand final winners held at Wembley, if it is available on the Sunday afternoon. But I doubt that the RFL has the courage and foresight to spend the money on advertising that would make such a marquee event a success.

Having it at the Olympic Park would be have been an option for a double header if they'd have done the format differently, however RU are going to be there for 2015..our sports organisers are so far behind you could weep..

I just realised that the decision to pre-book Brisbane and South Sydney as well as the GF winner makes it very difficult to have both the NRL Grand Final winner and the NRL Grand Final runner up playing in the WCC tournament.

That can happen if South Sydney makes it to the Grand Final and loses -- i.e. is the runner up -- which would mean that the GF winner will be either Penrith, Manly or Canterbury, none of whom will be as big draw cards as Sydney Roosters (unless Canterbury has by then signed Brett Stewart and Brett Morris, which they are trying to do, and James Graham plays).

That can also happen if South Sydney makes it to the GF and wins, and the NRL chooses the runner up as the new third team, which would be one of Penrith, Manly and Canterbury.

In both those cases, if South Sydney makes the GF, then the NRL can send the top two NRL teams (i.e. the grand finalists) plus Brisbane.

However if South Sydney does not make it to the GF, then the NRL can only send the GF winner as the third team, and the runner up in the GF will not go to England.