8 replies to this topic

[Wendall]

The New Zealand Warriors will break new ground by opening their 2011 NRL campaign against glamour side Parramatta at Eden Park.

Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah made that announcement today with the match taking place in the first round of the season on the weekend of March 11-14.

The newly refurbished ground played host to rugby's rival code earlier this month in an international double header featuring the Kiwis playing the Kangaroos.

The game attracted more than 44,000 people but Australia's 34-20 victory over New Zealand was overshadowed by crowd problems when bottles were thrown onto the ground.

http://www.nzherald....jectid=10689815

RL is booming in Kiwi land and the NRL (like Union in the UK) are not scared to take games and make them into events unlike SL.

For example SL in 2011 should have had Saints v Wire at Goodison and instead we have it at 13K capacity Widnes when it got 17K last year. We need to wake up

[skep155]

Only a matter of time until there's a second NRL team in NZ I feel. Wellington seemed to be the previous preferred choice but attention seems to be switching to Christchurch. As mentioned elsewhere, it would be a good thing for the perception of League if the NRL was known as the best Rugby competition in the world, it might hamper SL's chances of expansion though.

[Matt J]

Rugby League at Goodison Park would be immense, the ground traps all the atmosphere, with a decent sized RL crowd, it would be an epic.

[MrPosh]

Rugby League at Goodison Park would be immense, the ground traps all the atmosphere, with a decent sized RL crowd, it would be an epic.

Goodison Park is a terrible ground with poor sight-lines from three of the four stands. I accept it's an atmospheric ground, but 15k people watching Saints gub poor old Wire again isn't going to be very good there.

[Matt J]

Goodison Park is a terrible ground with poor sight-lines from three of the four stands. I accept it's an atmospheric ground, but 15k people watching Saints gub poor old Wire again isn't going to be very good there.

Fair point.

[thirteenthman]

The New Zealand Warriors will break new ground by opening their 2011 NRL campaign against glamour side Parramatta at Eden Park.

It should be a cracking game, especially with Feleti Mateo and Krisnan Inu freshly transferred across the Tasman and Kearney newly installed at Parra.

[ParisSurtout]

Only a matter of time until there's a second NRL team in NZ I feel. Wellington seemed to be the previous preferred choice but attention seems to be switching to Christchurch. As mentioned elsewhere, it would be a good thing for the perception of League if the NRL was known as the best Rugby competition in the world, it might hamper SL's chances of expansion though.

Christchurch would be ideal, because it would implant a professional club on the south island, thereby creating a very intense rivalry that could lead in the future to a SOO-type Island of Origin series.

Wellington would be better as a third club in the future. It is desirable to have eventually three NRL clubs in NZ IMO.

[ShotgunGold]

Christchurch would be ideal, because it would implant a professional club on the south island, thereby creating a very intense rivalry that could lead in the future to a SOO-type Island of Origin series.

Wellington would be better as a third club in the future. It is desirable to have eventually three NRL clubs in NZ IMO.

This isn't against Christchurch but do you know how many people live on the South Island? 1.4 million, with 400,000 in Christchurch.

The North Island has about 3.1 million with 1.4 million in Auckland alone (about 33% of pop)

It's a nice idea to separate the two out but unless you want 50-0 scorelines an Origin series would always be best as Auckland v Rest Of NZ (obviously with better names!!)

So yeh just pointing out that an Origin should play no part in whether Wellington or Christchurch gets favoured.

[G Las D]

Only a matter of time until there's a second NRL team in NZ I feel. Wellington seemed to be the previous preferred choice but attention seems to be switching to Christchurch. As mentioned elsewhere, it would be a good thing for the perception of League if the NRL was known as the best Rugby competition in the world, it might hamper SL's chances of expansion though.

No if needed - NRL is the best rugby competition of any code in the world.

On a slightly different tack - Super League needs to raise its game and its attendances to climb up to NRL standards.

Average attendances 2010:

NRL 17,367

Super League 10,659