Edinburgh by far for me.

Some people baffle me with their ability to find fault in absolutely anything. I thought Cardiff was excellent, but the stadium complex at Murrayfield was far better for me.

To pick up on a few comments from this thread:

There were loads of Scottish accents in the ground, and plenty of Scotland Union shirts around. The RFL say over 6k local tickets were sold. Wherever we were people seemed to know about the event too.

There were certain parts of the town where the pubs were full of Rugby fans, but the town is much bigger than Cardiff, so the spreading out of fans will always happen.

The weather was glorious, but Gateaux makes a good point that had the weather been like today, the event could be a washout. It's a difficult one though, becasue being able to sit in the sun made the matches a lot better experience than Cardiff, rather than sitting in a cold concrete stadium with a roof on.

As for the original poster, saying there was nothing for kids, well, I'm not sure what planet he is on. Did you go to the fanzone? There were loads of stalls for kids, as well as huge fields for people to play on. The RFL also had the Mascot games on in between games, and then there's the actual games too! - I'm not sure what else you would want from the event.

As for people moaning about not having ID and not being able to be served, well that's your fault.

I thought the public transport was generally very good, although it was slightly frustrating that the Park and Ride schemes went to an off peak schedule at night, when most people were using it.

I thought that the Murrayfield Stadium was very good, Edinburgh city centre was great (apart from the roadworks) and some amazing pubs. I disagree with some of the comments regarding the RFL marketing up there. Most of the locals we spoke to were fully aware of the event - even those where we stayed in Kinross (25 miles from Edinburgh).

Not many more positives for Edinburgh really. As has been said, if the weather had been ropey then most of the weekend would have been a washout. A heavy downpour during the walk down to the stadium and it would have made for a very uncomfortable several hours. I'm pleased I didn't bring the kids as the walk from the city to the stadium and back would have been way too much for them to cope with.

Having been to both, it has to be Cardiff, its city centre location and stadium roof every time for me.

We should also go back to having derby games, i feel this would improve the attendance a little.

On that point though, there were loads and loads of buses from the city to Murrayfield for £1.20 a journey.

What pi$$es me off is the fact that these people complaining about empty stadiums are probably the ones who turn up for the weekend and can't be ar$ed watching the games unless their own team is playing. I think only the Wire fans contribute to any prolonged attendance on both days.

I suspect that there is no perfect venue, you just got to make the best of what there is on offer, there is something for everyone if you look hard enough.

i thought it was awful, the stadium was too far out, the city was too big so there wasnt anywhere where there were more than 10 people and the scottish are miserable, i will be going next year to support my team but though it was a catastrophe, should without a doubt be back at cardiff

Cardiff for me, one thing that goes on a minus note for Cardiff is there are only 7,500 hotel rooms in Cardiff.

lets play it in Lymm then?
Oh wait they don't have a 60k plus stadium.

How about Chicester?
We couldn't lose 60,000 people there. What you mean where would they go?

Barrow? Rugby League heartland.

Big Stadiums usually are situated near big cities. Usually how it goes. In cardiff, the fans were usually easily found in the pubs. This year they were around the stadium. Sounds like an improvement. Pints might not have been too decent however.

Oh and there's plenty of nice people in Scotland, know from experience.
Plenty of tools in Wigan, Castleford etc...

Edinburgh for me, had a great time.

Much better than Cardiff.

When they are putting on a "big specticle" like this you really shouldn't have to "look hard" it should be laid on for the fans i applaud the effort at the stadium but round and about it was dire imo

What exactly are you looking for?

What do you want laying on? What else could the RFL have laid on apart from the Fanzone, live music, tag festival, Mascot Games, food and drink, and 7 live games of RL?

If you are going to Edinburgh and want things to do apart from the above, then you have to look yourself. You have access to the Internet, so it isn;t difficult to do a little research. In fact the RFL have been providing links to plenty of helpful sites for the past few months.

So, back to the original point, seriously, what were you looking for?

I agree with the majority on this one, Cardiff wins for me overall.

Murrayfield is a cracking stadium, I liked the fact you could wander in and out at will without hassle from stewards. Good set-up which ran very smoothly, apart from running out of draught lager during our game!! I think this was pretty much it for me though, and God alone knows what would have happened had it been raining.

I didn't see a single promotional poster for the event and the one Scottish person I spoke to all weekend didn't have a clue what was going on, so much for expanding the game (which is the whole point, if I'm not mistaken?)

In terms of apres-match, Cardiff is the clear winner. We seemed too spread out and the atmosphere was lost 2 minutes after we left the ground.

That said, we're all back there next year so at least we know what to expect! Hotel re-booked for next year.

in a nut shell the city was too big for the event it took away the family/carnival atmosphere that we had at cardiff which i thoroughly enjoyed ie the street performers walkin about the mascots mingling with supporters opposing supporters havin the crack with the banter all this was missing i don't blame the rfl i blame the local council i don't know for sure but i didn't for one see any kind of posters etc arond the city???

But all that banter was happening in the stadium pretty much all day. The mascots were wandering around for a good few hours before the start of the event.

Cardiff was excellent, and there was a lot of banter in the streets just outside the stadium (within 50metres), however this now took place just inside the stadium grounds (within 50metres). I do however appreciate that not everybody would want to drink in a stadium due to limited drinks choice.

What posters are you looking for? If you are talking about promotion of the event, well that is a completely seperate point.

thats my point it was in the stadium its horses for courses not everybody wants to hang around the ground all day gets a bit boring i love the game but i didn't fancy watching all 4 games at the end of the day you have your ideas of what is a good day for you and yours which i respect and i have my own for me and mine and it wasn't my cup of tea where as cardiff was as it seems a lot of everyone elses it was a pleasent day but not in the same "league" as the previous two

Fair enough, I'm just surprised by your comments about there being nothing to do for families.

There was more to do in Edinburgh than Cardiff, all within a short bus ride away if you didn;t want to hang around the stadium.

Like the sound of that, I will be able to walk to the ground!!

£3 for an allday ticket, although they don't have change on the buses.

i thought it was quality. i liked it because the stadium was a little out. it meant people had to be entertained in the stadium complex, and i think they were. if the 30,000 people who were there each day stayed and watched each match, then it would have looked fine on the telly, and the atmospheres for each game would have been good. when we played, there were very little in the way of leeds fans left, and even the majority of the hull fans had left, and not supported us against their rivals. a bit more publicity around edinboro wouldn't go amiss, but the scots were fine with it, and enjoyed having league fans in their city, and they were keen to have us back. all in all, espcially in these trying economic times, it must go down as a success

I love the fact that we were next to one of the UK's biggest tourist atttractions and people are moaning about the lack of things to do/atmosphere. Filistines.

Totally agree - - poorly organised - load of rubbish - I never went this year and won`t be going next year either .

The Scottish weren't that friendly towards us particularly at 2am in the morning.

How can you say it was poorly organized and a load of rubbish and then say that you you didn't go!!