This

Can I just add also that its absolute nonsense that the Australians don’t take the world club challenge seriously. It’s a bit like saying that England doesn’t take the four nations seriously because we’ve lost.

Spot on my friend, as usual.

But just for this year I would quite easily swap 1 & 2.

GF every day of the week over CC and WCC

I would take one st George illawarra grand final win over 10 wcc victories. I've never even watched a wcc game before. Even if it was played in Australia it's just not something I care about.
In saying the saints have picked their best possible team to play and I'm sure they want to win. If Wigan win than I won't make any excuses about trial or anything because Im sure the team has enough pride in their performance that they will be trying 100%

Even if the Aussies did take it seriously and lost fair and square they would ALWAYS put it down to other reasons than the English side playing better like weather, no warmup game etc and play down its importance just because they lose.

just a thought,but maybe this is the way to go for rl.we'll never compete with union on the internationl scale,but if we can get the aussies and us to market this as a premier club sporting event,the best team in every country play a knockout event maybe the wider audience may just get on board,no other sport does this to my knowledge

What sort of replies were you expecting from the Dragons players other than the standard media type replies where they basically say that are really up for it and the game means a lot to them etc ?

They would probably like to say "Yeh its great to be over here in the UK mate on an all expenses paid holiday with a game of footie thrown in to help with our pre season build up, the only prob mate is i`m not sure how many of us will be able to keep a straight face when we see loads of blokes in the crowd from Wigan wearing girly pink tops, its gonna be a bit off putting and a real test to stay focused".

Having not read through the thread, I would like to mention a few things.

I have no doubts they will have been mentioned.

Winning the grand final is the pinnacle of the year and a team has to work very hard to get there. This game will be Wigan's thrid and St George's first... (Ithink)

St George will be rusty

Neither team is the same that won their respective Grand finals.

The aussies don't take it very seriously. Much like the LL shield it doesn't mean as much as maybe it should because either the fans or teams don't attach much significance to it.

grand final.

better advertised, better hyped , better off ground entertainment, better in ground entertainment, better atmosphere with TWO sets of fans.

be honest?.........who outside wigan cares about the WCC.
i didnt care last year when we wernt involved..........GF ..just about every RL fan wants to watch it

The aussie press and aussie fans treat it as a warm up game.

The players and coach do not..... I will take their view.... nobody flies all the way around the world for a trial game!

Dont know what I prefer really.

I've been there for the 8 in a row challenge cups, the 2002 final, they were all special.

Seen us win a few leagues, the first ever Super League and last year, cant explain the joy

And now the WCC's.

Its 2.23 am and i dont think i've EVER been this excited about a match before, cant even explain why because I dont know.

CC's, Grand Finals an WCC's all mean the same to me, same feeling of joy if we win, same gutted feeling if we lose, no less or more for either.

Bring them on!

grand final for me any day. but this is going to be an unforgettable night just like manly in 97 i was there

Ask anyone who went to the manly game knows what it meant to beat the Aussies !
and will never forget it as long as they live

The wcc for me all the way

More should be made of it in terms of prestige, if the Aussies don't take it serious then they wouldn't even come here never mind step out in the pitch !