"Rugby League World Cup semi-finalists England will host New Zealand in a three match test series in Autumn 2018.

England will face the Kiwis for the first time since the narrow 16-17 loss in front of a sell-out crowd in the Four Nations 12 months ago and will be hoping for a repeat of the 2015 series, when captain Sean O’Loughlin led the team to a 2-1 series win.

Dates and venues for the Autumn series will be announced at 12pm tomorrow (22nd November) when tickets will also go on sale for all three matches."

What venues do we think it will be? London, Hull, Etihad I would go for potentially...

Warrington, Huddersfield and Olympic Stadium.

New Zealand’s last game in this country was watched by over 40,000 people. We should be looking to achieve that figure for the 3 tests. I’d go for.

City of Manchester stadium, Wembley, Elland Road Leeds.

Why not select larger stadiums in major cities and see how many people we can get? Selling out the KC and DW is great but I think we can do better. I'd like us to go for the below games. Saturday 3pm kick offs:

Game 1 - Olympic Park, London

One of the games needs to be in London to continue developing our presence there, 44k last time demonstrated there is an appetite, and should be built upon. Making it the opener should hopefully add some to the gate as well.

Game 2 - St James, Newcastle

Build upon interest developed during magic weekend. It's outside the heartlands but still reasonably accessible.

Game 3 - Etihad, Manchester

Heartlands supporters from both sides of the pennines who can't be bothered travelling far would probably pick this one. I think a very large attendance would be achievable at the Etihad as long as there isn't also a game in Lancashire or Yorkshire.

Think it will probably be - Olympic Park, Elland Road, DW

Hull, Wigan and Olympic Park for mine. We'd get nowhere near filling a big soccer ground in the North for the Kiwis and Elland Road is a shed of a ground.

we've got 4 years to sell 1,000,000 tickets to 31 games so we'd better start thinking big, rather than worrying about playing safe. We need these games to draw 120k minimum so for me it would be Olympic Stadium (45k target) Elland Road (35k) and Ethiad (40K).......Remember, GB are away in 2019 and then the Aussies are due in 2020 and by then we should be looking at 150k for 3 tests against the Okers if we're going to stand a chance of hitting that 1 million target.....and every game on BBC1 .......non negotiable.......BBC 1. I'd even go so far as to try to get the 2019 KO times in NZ so as to deliver the maximum audience back home......8pm KO NZ means 7am back home.......

Should we not be giving ourselves a challenge though? We have just done Hull and Wigan against the kiwis and sold both out. Surely that shows we could try something a bit bigger. I reckon we could get at least 40k in the Etihad as long as there wasn't also a game in Lancashire/Yorkshire. That would be represent progress, and wouldn't look too bad in a 55k stadium.

Newcastle is a great shout as a venue, and to reinforce the MW if they continue to have it there.

Agree with that. I will be pretty disappointed if we don't go to Newcastle. What is the point of having Magic there, then going somewhere like Coventry (still can't get what the RFL's obsession is with that place)

I could see it being quite similar to last time, with one big ground and two smaller ones. Average attendance last time was just short of 31,000 so we certainly need to be aiming higher than that but realistic so stadiums dont look too empty, 40,000 attendances can be achieved and they are putting the tickets on sale well in advance for once which will help.

I would want St James Park, Elland Road and Olympic. I'm not a fan of Olympic but we seem to be putting down some roots there and have had a couple of decent enough attendances, St James cos it would build on Magic by taking rugby league in a different form there to keep interest going until next magic, Elland Road cos it is heartland and we will 100% sell it out.

Two 40,000s and a 35,000 attendance gives us about 38,000, not too bad I think and could easily hit 40,000 average.

Like I say though, think it will be just as unambitious as last time.

Just looked at occupancy percentage of last three tournaments in this country (rounding up). 2013 was 80%, 2015 was also 80% and 2016 was 69% (we have to remember the fiasco that was coventry which will have brought the last figure down).

So going on those figures, the average 38-40,000 I quoted in my post above would give a 75% occupancy from the stadiums I said. In which case I think achieving a 85% occupancy would be realistic so from the stadiums I wanted above we would be looking at an average of almost 43,500. Decent.

I like maths (assuming I have done the maths right)

Elland Road is a horrific stadium. The last game I attended there was the final between us and Australia and half our party ended up watching it on the concourse because they couldn't sit down! I'm 5' 1" with a 29" leg and even I had to sit on an angle.

Forgive me, I've never been to Elland Road, Im just going on capacity but I will say that I have heard people saying it is a hole before, but we are talking about the RFL here and the people in charge at that ground would probably want a full ground for once.

Okay so venues announced:

KCOM Hull - Saturday 27/10/2018
Anfield - Saturday 03/11/2018
Elland Road - Saturday 11/11/2018

Good that we're going for two bigger stadiums, but a little disappointing at nothing in London.

I am surprised that there is nothing in London but agree that at least they have gone for two bigger grounds. Also good spread across the heartland, east, central and west.

Went to Anfield and didn't think it was fantastic to be honest but I can see what they are saying with the crowd. Hull always sells out and I am from there so happy with that one! And tend to almost always sell out Elland Road, should be some decent crowds at least.

Disappointing that at least one game isn't at London or Newcastle. Still at least the dates, times have been announced a year early, which is real progress for the RFL.

Are we in serious danger of very slowly getting the international game and calendar on a halfway decent footing..? Surely not?

I think we are pretty sure that Hull and Leeds will sell out. As I said above I did not like Anfield, however, Last time we got 40,000 there when England were not playing and the game was on a Sunday. England playing this time and it is on a Saturday, will make a big difference I think AND tickets on sale a year before not a couple months before.

Are we in danger of selling all 3 grounds out?? I'm scared.... Still, will be nice to show those Aussies how to do international rugby league!

Why on earth are we not going back to London? Good that we are going to slightly bigger stadia though. People will be moaning that they are football stadia.

I'll like to see some mid season internationals in there, too.

Quote ="SecondRowSaint"I'll like to see some mid season internationals in there, too.'" Agreed, hopefully that's next on the agenda... There was talk when the 4 year calendar was announced of a mid-season international break... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/39857448 "The creation of a dedicated mid-season international weekend, giving nations an opportunity to build on the success of this year's Pacific Test Series in Sydney."

Quote ="SecondRowSaint"I'll like to see some mid season internationals in there, too.'" Agreed, hopefully that's next on the agenda... There was talk when the 4 year calendar was announced of a mid-season international break... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/39857448 "The creation of a dedicated mid-season international weekend, giving nations an opportunity to build on the success of this year's Pacific Test Series in Sydney."

Quote ="Little Ivor"Agreed, hopefully that's next on the agenda... There was talk when the 4 year calendar was announced of a mid-season international break... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/39857448 "The creation of a dedicated mid-season international weekend, giving nations an opportunity to build on the success of this year's Pacific Test Series in Sydney."'" The weekend of the 23/24 June has nothing in the calendar so possibly then

Quote ="Little Ivor"Agreed, hopefully that's next on the agenda... There was talk when the 4 year calendar was announced of a mid-season international break... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/39857448 "The creation of a dedicated mid-season international weekend, giving nations an opportunity to build on the success of this year's Pacific Test Series in Sydney."'" The weekend of the 23/24 June has nothing in the calendar so possibly then

Shame about London missing from the tour. I hope the reason is more to do with ground availability rather than the RFL pandering to the "we don't want to pay the train fare" crew.

Elland Road isn't the best ground but it is ultimately a large ground in the sport's biggest market (and I can walk there from my house

). Didn't do Anfield last year so will reserve judgement.

Is that not a Challenge Cup weekend?

Clearly the RFL have given up on London, even though there's been decent attendances at internationals in the capital, particularly when Stratford has been used.
Back to M62 parochialism, unless of course you're from the Americas.
Doesn't bode well for a good spread of matches around the country at the next RLWC.