I know the Broncos move to Wimbledon happened a bit late, but I think a group game at Plough Lane may have drawn a decent crowd

It might well have done, especially if it involved NZ or AUS. Sadly with all games bar 2 up North it looks like the RFL have given up on the capital and the South.

Not sure what can be done for the South, but regarding the capital; Colchester, Winchester, London...... Leigh! You heard it here first!!

Wasn't the location of the games down to the "Northern Powerhouse" thing? Wasn't funding reliant on staging the games up there? (These are genuine questions: I'm not 100%)

The pricing strategy for the tickets looks like it was a mistake. Playing multiple games at the same venue definitely was.

Come on, Bongser, you know full well Leigh it isn't going to be the capital any time soon.
Given your username, I thought you'd know in advance; it's going to be Tyldesley.

Correck (sic), Benny. Bongs also no longer has a railway station but The Bridgewater Canal (The Cut) "flows" through Leigh - and very close to LSV. It's gonna happen!

Correct. The hosting rights are essentially "anything that is left after the bills are paid goes to development"....so if cities bid to host games and TV companies paid for rights etc, all that money, less operating costs are the fee.



As often is the case, when times get tough, Rugby League fans think they are the only ones feeling the pinch...try and buy a ticket to England v the All Blacks at Twickenham later this month...even the £3k hospitality is all gone. QATAR will not be deemed "too expensive" and neither will a Tuesday Champions League match for the thousands of soccer fans from the UK who regularly make mid week trips, but ask someone from Hull to go to Leigh to pay £25 to watch top class international players and it becomes a "cost of living" excercise.


Christ. FIFA USA 94 cost me the better part of £20,000 and I wouldn't have had it any other way!

...sorry, but compared to 2013 there's little to redeem anyone associated with this comp so far. England winning it might be his only hope


If it were just pricing then the cheaper seats would sell out. This is supposed to be the pinnacle of the sport...£15 or even £25 isn't a lot to ask.


The same RL fans in the heartlands who have been screaming and whining about the lack of Internationals are now not going because they won't pay £75 to sit on half way nor £25 behind the sticks. No pleasing some, especially northerners




from wiki

from the captain cook society:


Might be that Middlesbrough actually Bid for the games because they felt that there was a direct link between one of their own really liking one country, whilst the other was named after him?



Agreed.

'Northern Powerhouse'
Up there with 'levelling up' and that old 80s classic ' trickle down'.

And the Norther voters swallowed it, Hook, Line and Sinker, delivering the show of a government who fresh from mishandling a pandemic causing hundreds of thousands of deaths now want to give tax breaks to the super rich at the start of a recession.
Still. At least Corbyn didn't get in. That would have been a disaster

Politics? I'm not sure that should be discussed on this forum (even though I'm inclined to agree with you, for once

)

For a start, I'm not sure how we can blame David Hughes for any of it...

Easy.
Energy prices are skyrocketing, which is contributing to the general malaise around the economy. Meanwhile, these energy companies are making billions.
Hughes is a smaller version of these energy companies, most of whom don't generate the energy, they broker it. Therefore, when your home gets repossessed there is a chance you can blame Hughes. SIMPLEZ

Not sure if Hughes still has involvement at Vitol but they are certainly cashing in on the energy crisis making around $4.5 billion in the first six months of this year. Compared to last years record $4.2 billion profit for the full year they are on course for quite the bonanza.

Well done Samoa, superb performance today.

And England were rather poor.

Chugged along in the 1st half winning territory battle without looking very dangerous. Didn't exploit the man advantage. Didn’t really have any zip until the last 15 and still gave away an intercept try which ultimately cost them the feel good factor of a Final. Massive own goal. Not sure England were poor just sub par.Equally not sure Samoa were particularly fantastic just a bit improved and that proved enough. They definitely deserved to win which, really is inexcusable.

On the plus side though I took the decision a couple of months back to get my money back for World Cup Final tickets I’d bought. So every cloud....

I thought Samoa were impressive. One of their tries was amazing!

As for England? Seeing the team you support underperform, lose any sense of structure and go on to lose? That's Groundhog Day for us.

Choker isn’t it. Too many had their weakest game just when it mattered. RL in England now less newsworthy than RU ladies game. Big opportunity missed. Roll on Batley at home circa Feb 2023.

Dreading that already.
And it looks like there are only two matches on the telly for the Bash. One of them is us against Toulouse.
Please, no! Why do this to us?!
My liver can't take it!

Failure to take advantage of 12 men Samoa in the first half,failure to stick to any sort of game plan all did for England.

That said when it looked to be all over England came out all guns blazing when their backs were against the wall. If only they could have shown some of that spirit in the first half.
Not a game for those of a nervous disposition. For the first time ever watching a game I couldn’t watch the conversion in the last minute that levelled the scores.

Will be cheering like a Samoan next Saturday afternoon!

What does a Samoan cheer like RfE? You gonna rush out & get a shed load of tatoos?

I’ve got a few!!

RfE, looking at the players, I think you might need to get a mullet too.

In the interview with Cake he says we have offers out on 5 players who appeared in the World Cup. Seems positive but how many will sign and of what quality.

Knowing our recruitment policy, they'll be a couple of Greek Plumbers, a Jamaican postman, an Irish bricklayer and a Scottish cobbler who will be missing his mammies cooking by February.