Wigan over England for sure.
It would be nice for England do well, but Wigan to win number 20, and do the double is far more important.

I must admit as much as I would love England to win, I must support the club I've watched for years first. I have a feeling that the World Cup, even if England win it would be a one day news story quickly forgotten. No trip to Downing Street or MBE's like other sports I'm afraid.

England winning might actually help RL turn a corner in this country, and long term is way better for the sport than a Wigan win. So not a remotely hard question.

However, if the question was PNG, Fiji etc winning the World Cup or Wigan winning SL, I'd support the nation every time over a club. I care more about the quality of the sport than my club by an absolute mile. The way to increase the quality of the sport is increasing player numbers. Internationals provide that pathway, domestic victories do not.

As a long term fan of Wigan and a long term fan of this great, insular, backwards, frustrating, self-destructive, invigorating sport of ours there can only be one answer.

An interesting question could be..

Would you rather

1. Have England lift the World Cup and we get embarrassed by Warrington at Old Trafford...

Or

2. Wigan beat Warrington with the best display of Rugby this season, and England lose by a drop goal in extra time to Australia in the World Cup Final??!!??

just throwing that out there!

Still England, with club rugby, as all Wire fans know, "there's always next year"

Can't see England winning the WC as we have too little versatility in my opinion, but I would take England winning the WC over a Wigan win tomorrow - only while it's WC year though and on home soil! The sport needs it as many of you already state.
However, a fantastically close and well tempered matchup between two top class sides tomorrow should help bolster the nation too!! :p

England every time.

I find it remarkable that this thread isn't 99% for England. Quite depressing really.

It's just the same as the debate that always crops up in football during WC/European qualifiers, tournaments etc. Most people tend to go for club in that case.

Would be interesting to see if people who follow RL and chose England, also follow football and whether they would choose England also, and if not, why not.

As a fan of another successful club, I find that an embarrassing England performance ends up taking a lot of gloss off Leeds winning the GF in a given season. I'd happily swap one of those GF wins for a meaningful victory for GB/England over the Aussies and Kiwis. At the end of the day it should be in the interests of the clubs to have a strong England but it seldom pans out this way. I think a big problem is this one-club mentality that puts the clubs first at the expense of the bigger picture.

Surely one of the reasons that Wigan were a great team in the 1990s was that many of their players went on to play in a GB side who were able to stand toe to toe with the Aussies (at least more so than we have seen in recent years). In those days Leeds won nothing, but a stronger international competition in which players like Schofield could actually take on the antipodean teams was better for the game IMO (even though the top clubs are better run now).

What's the good in Wigan winning everything now if their players get embarrassed for England? Are local bragging rights worth that much more?

My thoughts exactly. i'm sure if you asked the club v country question on the other boards you'd get a similar spread. it shows how insular our sport is.

Wigan, by a country mile, it would be nice for England to win the WC, but to be honest I can't seem to raise any enthusiasm for the tournament, to me England is a football team, I'd much rather we go back to Great Britain and have a real Ashes series and even then I would always prefer a Wigan win over beating the Aussies or Kiwis.

Both!

On the Liverpool site it was 100% Liverpool and well over 300 people voted and I am sure it would be the same on every big club site,shame really as they aren't looking at the big picture,this country would stop if England ever won the Footy world cup.it would be massive for rugby league too if we won world cup the papers and media love world champions and if that includes beating the Aussies even better,players would be at number 10 and probably a host of OBE/MBE as well Cameron loves having winning sportsman round his house

Has to be England for me. It would give a massive boost to the game in this country and, maybe (dream on), we might get some decent national newspaper coverage for our game. I don't think the whole team would get in the honours list though. That's reserved for the rah rah boys.