Bristol?

They haven't announced the opener, semis or final yet. Wembley will figure in there.

Bristol is hardly the North of England is it?

The RFL learned in 2000 that too many games in the south means very poor attendances. They have learnt from a prior mistake and are choosing venues more sensibly with only a few expansion area games.

Where is this soul you speak of?

Last time i went to odslum it was just a massive, windy, empty crumbling bowl

you just described the whole of Bradford!

like a few others i would have liked to see south yorks involved - the most obvious one would have been doncaster getting a quarter final, its a nice stadium, good access and not too huge that a modest crowd would look lost in it.

i just hope that the rfl will go all guns blazing to make sure there are decent crowds at some of these venues, otherwise we have learnt nothing from the 2000 WC

Millennium Stadium, Old Trafford and Wembley are most likely to feature.

Guessing Wembley opener, Cardiff semi final (most likely a double header) and final close to home at Old Trafford.

Think the idea is that the host authorities are the ones that go all guns blazing.
Think the RFL will be concentrating on the opener, semis and final. If they are at the three big grounds rumoured, there's a lot of work to be done! 240,000 tickets in three grounds right there! That's probably equal to the other 18 host grounds!

I know there are some odd choices for venues, but I do agree with France playing in France. Guaranteed sell outs with very little promo needed. Pool those resources into promo for Ireland and Bristol and the other games.

Also France are more competitive at home.

Really pleased that Warrington has been awarded 2 matches and will also be used for training. The hard work of the bid team and promotion of the bid has paid off.

Think they need to sort this out on the RLWC website though.

Some of those choices are beyond belief. Extremely worried about this tournament.

So no games in London or Sheffield, what?? Glad to see Bristol get included though. Find it a bit of a joke it says "England and Wales", yet it's in "England, Wales, France and Ireland."

Which choices do you seen as being beyond belief?

I've just had a look at the new stadium in Whitehaven, as until this morning I didn't even know they were having one - I find it amazing that a 'stadium' with a capacity of 3,200 has got a game

Happy with bristol being a venue. Happy with ireland being a venue but at least one top SL game needs to be taken to Ireland beforehand. London must be getting ko stages games. It would be the dumbest move ever not to have a KO game involving Australia in London.

The matches in Ireland and France. Whitehaven, Neath, Rochdale. The lack of matches in London and Doncaster. Not convinced about some of the others as well.

Having said that, I've just realised that Nigel Wood is the tournament director. So we can pretty much kiss any chance of this being a success goodbye.

I agree it does seem strange and low (I know it will go upto 5k with temp stands) but I guess it would be used for a game like USA v Cook Islands, or maybe a Scotland game?

Think it can only be a good move to have home games for Ireland, France and Wales. Interesting to see Millennium Stadium mentioned as a potential venue given the slots now available - surely only one of Cardiff, Old Trafford, Wembley would be used and even then only as the final, but choosing them for a semi would be a very bold and interesting decision!

The choice of Rochdale isn't as daft as you might think as I would expect they will get a Fiji game - there is a large Fijian community there I believe and a lot of hard work has gone in to the bid. Not a bad ground at all either, in fairness (in fact it's only just short of Super League guidelines).

I dont see how anyone can moan about france having games.

Completely agree.

The Ireland and France stadiums for me I can see both sides of the coin. As it was meant to be England & Wales World Cup I think its daft that games are being held outside of those two countries but on the slip side having a France game in France will almost certainly get a full house and a lot better crowd than if it was held in the UK. Ireland I'm not sure but would love to be proved wrong.
Neath is ok for me as they have Wrexham in the North and Neath in the south so both areas are covered.
Rochdale I can only assume is the Fiji link much like KR with the PNG link.
Doncaster has suprised me as well, I was there on Saturday at the footy and it is a great ground and thought a quarter final would be played there.

I dont think its time to be negative about it yet as there arre still two years to go so hopefully next year tickets will start to go on sale and bit of promo starting and have a long build up to it.

Because the World Cup is not being held in France. It's supposed to be 'England and Wales 2013'. If the World Cup is held in France in the future, will England get to play their matches at home? In the 2006 football World Cup that was held in Germany, did Poland and Switzerland get to play their matches at home? No, even the thought of it is laughable. Yet for some reason it's ok in RL.

Other sports do use different countries though. Rugby Union world cup 2007 France hosted it but Wales and Scotland got in on it as well and not just group games but Quarter finals. Also France didn't even playing in there own country when hosting it on one occasion.

Can see what you mean but if it means the game gets bigger crowds, makes it financially viable and helps to grow the game in those areas then why not?

Headhunter, has someone stolen your login?

You normally, blinkeredly agree with most of the crazy stuff the RFL do! Are you sure youre feeling ok?

Even worse, I still disagree with you - am I agreeing with the RFL now? Crazy!