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!

Having some of the games in France makes sense because they're unlikely to be able to host the competition on its own. The game in France needs this kind of support from the game as a whole or else it will just get swallowed up by the Vichy mob.

What's to say France couldn't host in 2021? I hardly think that playing two World Cup matches in stadia that already see plenty of international action as part of a tournament that they aren't even supposed to be hosting anyway is going to make too much of a difference in the long run.
Because it compromises the integrity of the competition. Ironically, you're probably right in that the matches in France are likely to be among the biggest crowds because of the ridiculous venue selection.

Guessing they are leaving the big venues for the later day to see what will be booked around those days.

Seems like the final could be in cardiff

The one thing I find a strange is the choice of neath its not the greatest of grounds.

Obviously it must be better than the Keepmoat Stadium.

I'm wondering if the venue for the final will depend on when the broadcaster(s) want the KO to be - afternoon would be Wembley or Cardiff, evening Old Trafford to make it easier for the supporters.

But it is the home of a rugby league club which I expect would have made it much easier to hire. Llanelli's new ground aside, there aren't many alternatives in South Wales either really without going to 20k+ grounds at Cardiff/Swansea.

Nothing does but we'd need to build the game over there if it's to progress to the stage of hosting an entire World Cup don't you think?



I understand the contradiction within the 'England and Wales' selection, however that doesn't mean there isn't good logic/intent behind the decision. Perhaps it was silly in the first place to label it 'England and Wales' especially when there's more French teams in Super League than there are Welsh teams and more supporters/participants.

Would those of you moaning that France will be playing in France actually go to the match if it was in the north of England. I very much doubt it. Why not fill Avignon or Perpignan stadia instead. The event is about making money. 2,500 for the same game will not make money.

Obviously. That doesn't mean that they need to host games at a preceding World Cup which they haven't been designated to host. French people aren't stupid, they know that they aren't hosting the World Cup, and the two stadia have been proven to be capable of drawing good crowds for internationals anyway so I'm not sure what point you are trying to make?
The point is that England and Wales are hosting the World Cup. It's not the Europe World Cup or Northern Hemisphere World Cup, regardless of whether or not other countries are able to stage games, England and Wales are the two nations that were chosen to host. I don't understand why people seem to see international RL in this strange, contrived way when compared to other international sports. The point of the World Cup is that it's supposed to be the pinnacle of the sport, staged on as neutral a territory as possible to determine the World Champions. Other nations shouldn't get to host games just because they logistically can, otherwise we might as well just get all the nations to play their matches at home and forget about the concept of staging a World Cup in a single country. I don't understand why people see international RL in this strange, convoluted way compared to other international sports.