I do hope the aussies keep picking Gallen. What a liability.

The tournament made a profit before it even started. It was underwritten by the TV companies and Gillette. The crowds are just a bonus.

Can’t wait for next year!

Remeber though England smashed Paris by 60 in June and still got the same amount of crowd when they got smashed week before by kiwis.

The doncaster crowd isnt huge, it would have been 20k plus if held at Hull.

even though they may have budgeted for those figure i dont think they would have lead to a profit.

i thought 6K in paris was poor

atmosphere in final was awesome though. ashame they didnt hold it at bigger stadium

they probably budgeted for the crowds, officals said the 6000 in Paris was more than expected.

crowds were a bit disappointing. in the hearland crowds we only ok. in doncaster, london, and france crowds were poor. tv ratings were ok without being exeptional. will the tournament make money? i doubt it. if that is the case then it would be difficult for it to continue beyond next year. that would essentially spell the end of international RL, which would be disappoininting. i dont see any other alternatives. unforunately the irfl doesnt have an unlimited amount of money to keep propping up the tournament.

I don’t know if you guys got the UK TV feed but there was quite a lot of depression amongst the commentators. The general consensus was that the Aussies are getting farther and farther away from the English lads. I think the English administrators need to help the players – if you have a smaller pool of talent, then you have to compensate in other ways, e.g. a better structure that enables England’s players to spend more time together and enter the big tournaments fresh and ready to go. Look at what Ireland did in rugby union in the early 2000s – they were getting pasted by England every time so they went away and devised a system that enabled Ireland’s players to be at the absolute peak of their performance. The Irish are now Grand Slam Champions.

The problem with English sport is that parochial club identities are very, very strong and the national team always comes second. It happens in cricket, it happens in union, it happens in league, and it happens in football. All the power lies with the clubs and none of them care enough about the national team to be prepared to take a hit to their wallets or lessen their control over players.

Wigan & Hull FC in league have not lost supporters despite having ordinary seasons lately. In fact all indicators of healthy support are on the up: season ticket holders, merchandise etc (though Wigan do need a better major sponsor).

Wigan are usually a 12-16k
Hull FC the same and KR about 8-9k

Football is a big sport and EPL is the biggest comp in the world, I always expected the EPl teams to get big crowds, Bradford in the day got better crowds than Bulls.
Leeds United get bigger than Rhinos.
But League crowds dont usually get affected.

Over the past few years Soccer teams from the North have become more prominent in both the EPL and CC Championship. In particular teams like Wigan FC and Hull FC. Both have made it to the EPL. Along with the success they bring in new fans. Or existing fans that previously would choose say League over a lowly ranked team. But due to the growth in quality of teams particularly in RL territory fans who were ‘fairweather’ have changed allegiances. Happens with all sports really.

It was cerainly a mixed bag. But I would say that the Wales vs Samoa game was good while the Aus vs Ire was entertaining and the Fra vs SA outstanding.

On the game. This was the best game by far. The Eng v NZ game was good wiithout being great and the French just were absolutely average. Sadly I can’t see that inbalance changing next year with PNG. But I might be wrong. Overall unless you’re an English Rugby fan (either code) it was a pretty good weekend of sport.

Leeds United, West Ham and Newcastle United still sell out games even through they have been relugated… Even in the third their league teams in the Carling Cup has such passionate supporters.

At last years world cup – there was a huge English contingent (even in the final). Look at every ashes tour in the cricket with the barmy army – who still turned up, despite not having won the urn in more than 20 years. It is a HUGE mistake to make an assertion that the English only support a team when they are winning.

I think the capacity issue at the sadium has been mentioned.. Its not the enthuasism that the English lack.

The final was a ‘sell out’ with the available seating

as for 5/8..Prince, Cronk probably be top

Anywho..the lesser nations like PNG, Samoa and Tonga now are getting better, sadly its taken 100 years for the pac islands to get a proper comp and play a high level of rugby league.

France suffer due to only having 1 SL team..its like the Wellington Pheonix playing Brazil.