All year the forums and trade press have been full of calls for GB to return. I think if Nigel Wood confirmed GB would tour Australia in 2014 it would put that particular debate to bed and allow attention to move to the World Cup where it belongs.

I understand your point about wanting a 'real' Irish team, but I think we need to try and find a balance, otherwise it will be a squad of amateurs which won't attract the spectators or allow the team to be competitive.

A bit late coming back to this debate.

Lebanon didn't qualify.

What am I looking forward to? In no particular order - watching one of my favourite sports in some of the world's iconic stadia, making a day out of it with my friends (many who wouldn't ordinarily watch RL but as it's a World Cup will be tempted out) in Cardiff, London and Manchester, going to Limerick to watch the Ireland - Oz match. Being able to see the best players in world.

The World Cup is a big opportunity for RL to (re)build some momentum and get some national media attention. The organisation of it has been excellent so far - from the qualifying tournament to the build up (launch of the trophy tour etc.)

As for the comment about Australia lifting the cup in an empty stadium - well firstly NZ are the reigning World Champions. Secondly - if everyone has your attitude then it will become a self fulfilling prophesy.

However, I think a lot of this comes from the debacle in 2000 and not what is happening for this tournament.

My final point would be - the World Cup is a celebration of the sport we all like or love - why wouldn't you be interested in it? Is it the most competitive sporting competition in the world? No it isn't and I've seen nothing that says it is trying to pretend to be that. It will however have 14 teams all fully committed and giving everything (for some such as the US just getting here is an achievement) and we can enjoy watching the greatest players our sport has to offer.
Just to pick up on your Final comment - do you actually like Rugby League or just support Warrington? As if you are the former, I would have thought any RL fan worth his salt would want to go to Old Trafford to watch either Oz vs Nz or Eng vs Oz (and I agree it is likely to be those teams.)

Excellent post. Last year I made the three hour train journey back to Warrington from uni to watch Australia v NZ, and throughout the week building up I was like an excitable child. As it turned out it wasn't the best game I saw that year, however it was absolutely fantastic to see Darren Lockyer start his final series on our hallowed turf. It is worth noting that 12,491 people watched that game at the Halliwell Jones, and that in 2009 31,042 people watched Australia v New Zealand in the last such final to take place in this country. Surely based on these statistics we can fill Old Trafford regardless of the finalists, considering we have had well over a year to market the event.

I have to say I really do pity the individual who has derided the game in his last few posts, no doubt he is of the breed of fans that believe any game of rugby league which doesn't involve Warrington, Wigan, Saints or Leeds isn't worth watching. You really don't know what you are missing out on!

I think everyone can put up with the inevitable mismatches in the group stages, but all the quarter-finals and the semi involving Australia are likely to be very one-sided as well. Which gives rather large credibility issues, unfortunately. Though it is at least more difficult to predict the last 8 than it is in RU.
Not sure I understand the logic of playing the Cook Islands vs USA game in Bristol, either

Nevertheless, the last World Cup was very enjoyable (England aside) and I'm looking forward to the next one - at least PNG haven't been completely stitched up this time round.

Quote: worthing wire "I think everyone can put up with the inevitable mismatches in the group stages, but all the quarter-finals and the semi involving Australia are likely to be very one-sided as well. Which gives rather large credibility issues, unfortunately. Though it is at least more difficult to predict the last 8 than it is in RU. Not sure I understand the logic of playing the Cook Islands vs USA game in Bristol, either I think Bristol could be one of the success stories of the World Cup, by all accounts they put together a very good bid and at a grass roots level the game is doing well there. The RLWC has put together a schools educational package and will be delivering it around the city etc so as one of just two 'non heartlands' group games I think it should do well. Look at the 11,000 in Lens on Saturday, they hadn't the foggiest what was going on but loved it! I think the host towns having secured the bids now really have to put their weight behind the contest and create a sense of civic pride around hosting a world cup game. On 30 October 2013 we need USA v Cook Islands to be 'the place to be'. Here is a local news report from when they were announced as a host www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0OmyHMfv5s

Quote: worthing wire "I think everyone can put up with the inevitable mismatches in the group stages, but all the quarter-finals and the semi involving Australia are likely to be very one-sided as well. Which gives rather large credibility issues, unfortunately. Though it is at least more difficult to predict the last 8 than it is in RU. Not sure I understand the logic of playing the Cook Islands vs USA game in Bristol, either I think Bristol could be one of the success stories of the World Cup, by all accounts they put together a very good bid and at a grass roots level the game is doing well there. The RLWC has put together a schools educational package and will be delivering it around the city etc so as one of just two 'non heartlands' group games I think it should do well. Look at the 11,000 in Lens on Saturday, they hadn't the foggiest what was going on but loved it! I think the host towns having secured the bids now really have to put their weight behind the contest and create a sense of civic pride around hosting a world cup game. On 30 October 2013 we need USA v Cook Islands to be 'the place to be'. Here is a local news report from when they were announced as a host www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0OmyHMfv5s

Isn't it hard to avoid the fact that more people watched international RL (GB) in the 1990's than they do now? That must go down as a fail.

So? How does repeating that help? We all know that - hence lots of people are working hard trying to improve international RL and attract more people to watch. Does the fact there have been failures in the past mean we should all give up and pack in? Perhaps Warrington should have realised crowds at Wilderspool were lower than they used to be and give up trying and not bother moving to a new stadium?

If things don't work, you learn from them and try to do things differently next time. Don't just keep on whinging about it and give up.

Alot of that is down to the SL war which completely halted international rugby as well as the 2000 WC which led to a retrenching and we only got back to Wembley last year. I really see 2013 as a chance to get somewhere back to where we were.

Another major reason RL was bigger then is the Union converts - people tuned / attended to watch the likes of Jiffy. The side effect of that was the existing RL players such as Hanley, Offiah and Edwards also became famous off the back of them.

Well, I was slagged off by a lot of people on here last week, over my view that International Rugby League is a waste of time.

I watched the game on TV today, and it only confirmed my opinion.
I predicted to friends pre match that England would score 80 points, and was correct.
The commentators desperately tried to talk the Welsh up, but gave up after half time.
The crowd is listed at 4,014 according to the BBC website, but from what I could see there were more TV presenters and technicians there.

Why did the England team need go to South Africa for altitude training to prepare for that?
They would have still thrashed Wales if they had spent the last week on the lash.
International Rugby League tournaments are flawed, as there are only three teams of a decent standard.
When any team out of the top three plays a team from within, a thrashing ensues.

The money spent on the trip would have been better used in the community game.

In order for any sporting contest to be credible it needs competitive participants, and for the outside observer an element of doubt is usually a good draw.
Rugby League will not draw in outside interest with no contests and lop sided competitions like this, therefore in my opinion, they are a waste of time and money.
The same thing will happen with the World Cup next year, but on a bigger scale.

I really hoped the game would be played in front of a decent crowd and at least be competitive for an hour but yes, it was frankly embarassing in terms of atmosphere, result, attendance, skill levels (on both teams) and presentation by the beeb. At one point I thought Ray French had nodded off, and I wouldn't have blamed him if he had.

Wales, England and the domestic and international game in general gained nothing from that and lost a lot of credibility; the only winners were RU who couldn't have asked for better publicity and ITV1 who probably had people switching over in their droves to watch Star Wars (wish I had).

The world cup can still be a success but the RFL need to wake up and start employing people who can actually market the game.

Back to GB and Tri-Nations please.

how will GB be any better for the tri nations....? There are no Scottish Welsh or Irish players of any note that would get near a GB team, any that were have long since switched allegences anyway.

the only reason for bringing Back GB is if you are going back to a GB v Australia Ashes.

Summer Rugby killed off international Rugby stone dead i'm afraid.

If people think the world club challenge is a "real" event they should have seen a touring Australian National side play against a club side. That was a game they cared about and did not want to lose at any cost...... If I could change the game in any way I would change our Winters to nice sunny days and play winter rugby and then have Autumn internationals that mean something.

so I'm afraid we are stuck with some Realy rank average home nations games.

The thing what seems to get me is when it comes to international RL, everyone seems to be obsessed with what the Australians and the New Zealanders are thinking.

England can lose to Wales or France - People will say "Oh the Aussies and the Kiwi's will be shaking in their boots after that".

England slap Wales for 80 or France for 60 - People will say "Oh, the Aussies and the Kiwi's will be shaking in their boots after that".

England (or previous GB incarnations) can never seem to win when it comes to international RL. As Biscuit said, what is the point of bringing GB back, it's still technically England. They only called it GB & Ireland in the past because Carney was in the side.

I really don't understand this fascination with the Oceania sides. England can beat the Australians, they just need to have the mentality to do it in key matches. They have already showed they can beat the Kiwi's now and again, who to be honest are no great shakes really. Who honestly cares what Australia and New Zealand think. Let them play each other in one off tests.

International RL has never been strong, and there can be one sided thrashings all the time, but that's only because there are 3 teams in the world in the top bracket, and the rest are underneath.

The same thing happens in Rugby Union and football, but yet no-one blinks an eye because there are more than 3 top teams in the highest bracket of each sport, yet because there are more teams to go around, there are far more one sided games in these sports. But, people only ever whine about one sided games in international RL.

But it's just the typical Rugby League fan mentality, whinge whinge whinge about everything in sight.

Excellent post, I'm glad you had the energy because I didn't.

Many RL 'fans' are great at identifying problems, but their only solutions tend to be that we should stop playing rugby at any level, at all. Sad, moaning s.

One of the nobheads above seems to be accusing the RFL of being unable to 'market' the game (an expression often used by people who know nothing about it) despite he/she already being of the view that everything is crap. Well, marketing something that even the supposed supporters of the product actively despise and run down is some task.

Incidentally, the World Cup is being 'marketed' extremely well if the amount of email traffic I'm getting and first-day sales are anything to go by.

The thing is, Marco-Van-B will complain about the RLWC up to the point that it is on, yet he will no doubt watch every single tournament match, no doubt just to complain about the one sidedness of the games in question.

Hence why RL doesn't need him as a fan. He is the epitome of the whiney Rugby League fan with an immense chip on their shoulder.