[Train strike]

 

[Tue 18 Oct: RLWC: Tonga v Papua New Guinea KO 7.30pm]

8 hours ago, Josef K said:

What i really enjoyed about tonight wasn’t just the first class RL, but also the atmosphere as well. The kids getting behind PNG & Tonga did so right until the end and was brilliant. It was also great to see the diversity of the crowd which was really heartwarming.
Another positive for me was there was no vile or abusive language and know one plastered”.
Like i said in my last post i was talking to a Salford fan and i saw a few of them, but i also saw “Wire, Leeds, Wakey fans, and loads of Leigh supporters. I am going the game next Monday and i hope it’s the same again. 
Another positive for myself was the 7.30pm KO, as i was home for 9.45pm. The match nearly kicked off on time which would’ve been a first for years & years at a RL game. 
I don’t know who the ref was but i thought he was excellent, there was hardly any stoppages and he let the game flow. 
The only small negative of the night was the scoreboard wasn’t working which meant most fans didn’t know how long was left or even the score. That was my only gripe. 

The score and remaining time was all on the big screen, but personally I’d have had them displayed on the scoreboard and the usual clock too. Seems to have been a bit of a mix on that front as Warrington used the scoreboard on the South Stand as normal but the countdown clock on the West Stand was only in use for the first 10 minutes and then reverted back to 40:00 and you just had to screw your eyes up to read it on the screen.  

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

Just now, faithfulbyname said:

So I don't need to print it out for LSV? Was a bit worried as am at my parents and they don't have a printer 

No you don’t need to print. Turn your brightness up on your phone and scan the barcode off the PDF on your emails or the QR code from your Apple/Google wallet

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

2 minutes ago, Whippet13 said:

Had an odd email from the RLWC this afternoon asking me to redownload tickets I have for this Sunday and next. The seat numbers are the same, but they have apparently added details to help me get to my seat easier! Not the end of the world but not good customer service either.

Has anyone else had this? The email says:

We are writing to advise you that after consulting with Leigh Sports Village, and in an effort to ensure a smoother matchday experience, we have added additional details to your match ticket to help you get to your seat easier.

This is relevent for the following matches: 

- Mens - Wales v Cook Islands on Wednesday 19 October  
- Mens - Lebanon v Ireland on Sunday 23 October
- Mens - Lebanon v Jamaica on Sunday 30 October

We kindly ask you to redownload your ticket so that you have all the required information to find your seat.

Yes, I think it stemmed from Headingley at the weekend. If your ticket was in Apple/Google wallet it didn’t have the stand on, just the block and obviously you can walk all around the ground. Not an issue at Leigh because the block relates to your specific turnstile with no movement inside but I think they just wanted to be on the safe side. Your original ticket will still work. 

[Tue 18 Oct: RLWC: Tonga v Papua New Guinea KO 7.30pm]

2 minutes ago, Josef K said:

When i got home from work i was bushed and i was thinking of giving it a miss and watch it at home. But with persuading a couple of people to go the match i thought “it’ll look well if i stay at home”.

I am glad i went now because it was a cracking game and night. I got onto the ground at about 6.55pm and i met up with my mates, and at first it was all negative because we thought it’d be another poorly attended match. But a couple of mins before KO fans started streaming into the West Stand RL style, i said to a mate “they must have the same people going through one exit and out another and back in again to make it look like it’s really busy.

But i was talking to a Salford fan at HT and he said “the East Lancs was closed and it took ages to get to Saints”. 

East Lancs wasn’t shut but was very busy for a section near Leigh. Usually takes 25-30 minutes to get through if you get stuck (luckily I’d checked the SatNav so went through Lowton and completely dodged it)

Really enjoyable game. Really thought PNG were hard done to, but from an England point of view there’s nothing to fear from either of them in a potential QF (think I’ve got that right?) as long as the focus is on playing around them rather than getting drawn in to a battle.

Was surprised Ipape got MOM but with Leigh bias I won’t complain - would have been the PNG no 6 for me.

Very enjoyable evening. Hope it kicks on from here. 

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

Dare I say it, but the presence of some ‘away’ fans definitely helped tonight (even if most of them are from Leigh*)

That was also something that massively helped at the Women’s Euros with the atmosphere created by the visiting fans, particularly the Dutch and Swedes

The no kiosks in the East terrace was a bit weird but tbf there must have been a dozen people serving in the South; just a shame I missed a try walking all the way back round!

*Not actually kidding

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

3 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

Is this really a massive consideration?

I bought my tickets full price - but I'd be happy if they gave 20K tickets away in Middlesbrough to fill The Riverside rather than having a couple of thousand of us rattling around for Cooks vs Tonga...

 

Tbf yes it’s been a massive issue in RL for over a decade now really, albeit probably something reflected more in people shelling out early for cup finals and the like rather than the tough sell group games such as the one at the Riverside. 

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

2 minutes ago, Damien said:

I agree. While not to everyone's cup of tea the band adds to the atmosphere and big match feel. Even the band at Doncaster yesterday made a huge difference.

…and then ruined it by playing music at the highest level possible every time there was a break in play 

[Tue 18 Oct: RLWC: Tonga v Papua New Guinea KO 7.30pm]

8 hours ago, SalfordSlim said:

I'd have got tickets for this one if I wasn't at Rochdale v Salford in the EFL Trophy. Must need my head testing. Should be a great game though and looking forward to both teams smashing 10 bells out of each other. 

#BTeamBoycott means I’ll be at Saints rather than Bolton v Leeds U21s  

Absolutely buzzing for this one, I must say. Can’t wait to see the Leigh contingent tested at such a high level. 

[Mon 17 Oct: RLWC: France v Greece KO 7.30pm]

Nearly home. More than can be said for my Salford-supporting mate who had to leave at half time because of cancelled trains, not to mention a fellow Leigh fan who I bumped in to at half time who was driving home after the game….to Exeter!

Enjoyed it more than I expected and certainly a better contest than it threatened to be at one stage.

Overall it was one for the “French rugby league doing French rugby league things” archives. One day they’ll actually do themselves justice. 

[Mon 17 Oct: RLWC: France v Greece KO 7.30pm]

Playing the instrumental for the Grease theme because Greece have scored a try. Don’t ever change, rugby league  

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

2 hours ago, Just Browny said:

Yeah I'd agree with that.

Am I misremembering or in 2013 did we not have 'categories' of games with different pricing tiers? That's what we should have had here

 

There has been that to a certain extent

Wales v Cook Islands at LSV is £15 to stand behind the sticks, but £20 for Lebanon v Ireland

(apologies if someone has already pointed this out. Hard to keep up with this thread!)

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

58 minutes ago, Josef K said:

Can they Leyther i didn’t know that nor do they but i will tell them now and see if they still want to go. 

Best keeping an eye on RLWC social media or give Saints a call in the morning just to confirm whether it’s ticket office or cash gates but other than that they will be good to go  

[Attendances (Multiple Merged Threads)]

Just now, fighting irish said:

5000 odd at Halliwell Jones for NZ v Lebanon, but what a game. Lebanon have been the best of the losers so far, by a mile. 32 - 12 is no disgrace especially when they played with 12 men for about 20 minutes. Don't know what their stand off was sent off for? Sitting in the ground we had no explanation. I hope the tv coverage, will encourage more ''new'' viewers to come out to the live games as the tournament progresses. 

Those of us at the ground had even fewer ideas about the red card - in fact we had no idea it had happened until it was announced over the PA!

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

44 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Hadn't got this far in the thread when I posted my message, thanks Matt.

But Gubrats and @Wolford6on another thread both said they had phoned the office and were told that tickets were not for sale at the ground?

They aren’t at the moment because the equipment hasn’t arrived from Ticketmaster/RLWC but they will be available on the day  

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

9 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

Can you do that at Leigh ?

Buy on the day? Yes. Ticket office will be open from 9am until half an hour after kick off. As will the online sales, so you can simply buy in the pub, have an extra pint and go straight to the turnstiles. 

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

1 minute ago, Josef K said:

I know a three people who would have gone to the games at Saints but they couldn’t be arsed setting up an account to get tickets. They did say “if they could’ve picked them up from Saints or pay at the gate they would have gone”.
The four games i am going to luckily a mate ordered them for us, but he wasn’t happy with being charged P&P for tickets that he was getting on his phone and not through the post. Myself i would sooner have an actual ticket in my hand than having to download it or get it printed. Hopefully the crowds will pickup, but i am mainly concentrating on what is happening on the pitch. But if they decided that they’d cut the price of tickets for the group matches to try and entice people i wouldn’t mind. 

They can. 

[Vossy]

3 hours ago, Moe syszlak said:

He's doing the game at Warrington tonight. Already been tweeting from the Rodney pub!

Very disappointed he wasn’t in the Three Pigeons round the corner given his enthusiasm for their Halifax namesake (the Halifax one is infinitely superior, mind)

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

1 minute ago, GUBRATS said:

I called at the LSV on Friday for tickets for 2 games , told I couldn't have any 

Bonkers 

A casualty of the logistics of so many venues being involved. Although, that said, there was a provision for that in 2013, albeit they were then distributed from RL HQ with a booking fee and spawned the infamous quote which is still someone’s signature on here IIRC.

For what it’s worth, tickets weren’t available at the venues for the women’s Euros either, albeit in our situation you’d think it would have been sorted much sooner  

Quick enough to do it online, mind. Quicker than it took to write this post, in fact. (Though the real bonkers aspect of this whole thing is that you can’t pick your seats)

*********
After seeing a post on Twitter, I’ve dug out my confirmation emails from RLWC 2013

England v Australia/Wales v Italy (Cardiff) - £18

Fiji v Ireland (Rochdale) - £9 in June, £5 in October

Tonga v Cook Islands (Leigh) - £5

New Zealand v Samoa (Warrington) - £5

Scotland v USA (Salford) - £5

Final (Old Trafford) - £12.50 

Amazing we could afford to turn the lights on tbh!

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

5 minutes ago, ChristianB said:

My daughter's school ran a bus to a Women's Euro football match in Southampton. From Cornwall. All in it cost us £20.

She had a fabulous day (and night) trip, as did the entire coachload of kids.

Put it this way, by reaching out to Primary schools alone within five miles, the Halliwell Jones could have been filled to the brim tonight.

Tbf the community clubs of Warrington were out in force tonight. Good job really (although we did choose to shift seats to a quieter area in the second half)

One benefit of the poor crowd tonight was that I was home within half an hour of the hooter! Not sure I’ll be quite so early coming back from Donny tomorrow. 

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

The legacy of @Dave T and his £40 standing tickets 

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

2 minutes ago, Coastal_Geordie said:

I agree - an adult cinema ticket is around a tenner nowadays, if not more.

£16 a month for the equivalent of a season ticket

[RLWC Attendance-O-Meter]

18 minutes ago, saintspete83 said:

I genuinely think some fans think games should be £20 for adults and £5 for kids forever. With prices like that then this sport has zero chance of growing. 

If we’re expecting the same people to attend multiple games over such a short period of time then that availability needs to be there. Though I expect there were plenty of lower priced tickets at Leeds tonight and no ###### seems to have taken it up.

I’m literally just heading out of the door to NZ v Lebanon and £25 to stand behind the sticks is absolutely the ceiling of what I would pay for a game like that. 

[St James park]

Etihad

St James’ Park

Spurs

Sorted. 

[world cup memories]

17 hours ago, The Lad said:

In 2013 New Zealand played Samoa at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, as the game started we all started singing "ooooh Samoa" and a player for Samoa (can't remember his name or shirt number) just started smiling as he was looking around the stadium. He couldn't believe that a stadium full of strangers was chanting for his country. Sport can be divisive as it's me v you and my team wins and your team loses, but sport can also be very inclusive. It was a great night and even though Samoa lost we kept singing.

Fantastic night, that one. One hell of a comeback from Samoa and crowd support that went with it. And of course Sonny Bill falling dead on his backside instead of grounding the ball.

The 2013 tournament is one that holds a lot of memories for me. My mum had passed away on the afternoon of the SL Grand Final just before the start of the tournament and I was lucky enough that a band of 10-15 mates really pulled together to get me through those times. The opener at Cardiff was a great day out and we defeated our raging hangovers to attend the aforementioned Samoa v NZ game the next day. Ireland v Fiji was such a surreal experience at a sold out Spotland while Tonga v Italy at Halifax was another belter of a day out. Chanting “Fui, sign for Leigh” as he lined up for the kick off; little did we know he’d do exactly that less than 18 months later! I missed the semi final because of work and the final was a bit of a non contest in the end so it was really the group games that won the hearts for that tournament.

Also one far from loved but a shout out from a personal point of view for the 2000 final. I got tickets for my 14th birthday the previous week and went to the game with my brother and three of our mates. Three of the five of us are all going to this year’s final together too. Not a prayer I’d have let my son do the same with his mates when was that age, mind