Seriously though, I'd be interested in knowing who or what MattyB is blaming for all the ills he's moaning about.

The ground - presumably the RFL/Welsh RL should have built a new one for this game?
The crowd - presumably the RFL/Welsh RL should have spawned another 20,000 people to attend?
The commentary - well, I agree with that actually.

The RFL needs to play to their strengths and played the game in England with a smaller capacity than the Racecourse. Either Leigh (like last season) or Warrington. Both grounds within the catchment area for Wigan, Saints and Wire fans and within an hour travelling for both fans in North Wales and West Yorkshire.

If it had been at Leigh and it had been priced right (£10 adult, £5 kids) then I would have taken my two lads, as I did in the same fixture last year.
The terrace behind the posts was packed, with an attendance upwards of 10k and with LSV capacity at 14k looked pretty good on the cameras.

Just checked - 10,377 www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/15497522 We should have built on this! But this is the RFL.

Just checked - 10,377 www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/15497522 We should have built on this! But this is the RFL.

Spot on on both counts. To be honest I struggle to remember many England/GB teams who have been able to throw the ball out wide fluently. If McNamara & Lowes are coaching it's no great surprise.

Josh scores 4 tries on England debut. In any other sport, the commentator would tell you if this has ever been done before, who by and when. Ray says "4 tries for Josh err Charnley. Err I remember Billy Boston scoring four and Garry Schofield for Great Britain". Really good Ray. Thanks.

The England players were stood on top of each other for the first 20 mins, we had the structure of an under 8s side. England are not a well coached team, it was highlighted during last year's 4 Nations and Exiles games. Nothing got changed and now we've got a series against 2 of the lesser nations to paper over the cracks so the RFL and McNamara can come and say how rosy everything is before we yet again fall short against the Aussies in next year's world cup. The script has been written, I hope I'm wrong but we've all seen it time and time again.

McN just on 5 Live - never heard such complete & utter BS waffle in years!

Just scraped 4k. Disgraceful. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/20042115

Just scraped 4k. Disgraceful. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/20042115

your never going to get big crowds in games like this so why don't the RFL give out thousands of free tickets to schools, youth clubs, etc etc, yes they won't make any money but the added attendances would make our great sport look less off a joke on national TV, why not do the same with every SL game, every team could give out a 1000 tickets each, surely this would create more revenue in the long run even if it was only a few thousand extra a year, it would still be good for the game, the atmosphere of todays game was that exciting i turned over to watch Star Wars

Well we got 10,300 last season for the same fixture and it was a good atmosphere.

Had it been at Leigh Brian then yes I would have gone (and taken the lads), as I did last year. Unfortunately due to the lads rugby training with Judes until mid-day and the fact I had an errand to run around 1pm meant I wouldn't make it.

You should know by now that I'm a regular attendee of RL (at all levels) by now as I bump into you enough times.

Nice casting of the rod though Brian!

My point was that not much thought had gone into the planning of the 3 team competition by the RFL. As I said previously they should have played to the strengths that they have and played the game at Leigh building on the great initiative of last year where they achieved over 10k.

I also think playing the France game next week at Hull is a mistake (26k stadium with less than 10k on I'd expect).

Whilst I can understand that each team should play one game in their home country, I believe they got it wrong this time.

England v Wales - Leigh.
France v England - Gilbert Brutus. (Would have prob sold out).
Wales v France - Wrexham.

Would have had two excellent crowds on TV and given the marvellous Perpignan supporters full reward for their tremendous progress in SL.

Next weeks game is at HKR.