Jim from Oz

Incredibly and awfully depressing… I was so looking forward to coming over to France in 2025, to say nothing of my hopes that the World Cup would give rugby league the boost it needs in France. I can’t believe the government funding was not locked in… Remember the big launch a year ago with no less than the French prime minister presenting etc?!?! perhaps the French rugby union got in the ears of the French government? I would not put it past them!

Depressing if true but do you have a source for this?? Thanks

Actually, Avignon was NOT on the list of the 38 cities and towns that expressed interest in holding games when the event was launched by the French prime minister in January 2022: https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/world-cup-news-38-towns-and-cities-bid-to-host-at-france-2025

This is worrying… if a “treize bastion” like Avignon refuses to pay, how many other cities actually will ???

OK but what about the Catalan home games being streamed by L'equipe? Cheers

There is only one team that needs to be included and that is the mighty NORTH SYDNEY BEARS !!!!

Much of a crowd there at this and other Lord Derby cup matches this weekend?

FFS !

Neither of those two facts seem particularly worth celebrating - unless I'm missing something ?? For eg: Why on earth if L'équipe is covering/filming the game online would they not also show it on their terrestrial TV channel?? And if Bein has walked away, does that mean they no longer show NRL and SL matches as well??

Is anyone able to get behind the paywall and actually post the entire article? Thank you

Indeed… 24 teams in the first division back then! Incredible! And what happened to this millionaire investor/backer, I wonder?

Well, if the French government delivers €35 million, that surely is still pretty good …

€15 million is a lot of money. Which begs the question, how much money did the French government originally promise to the World Cup organisers?

Yes, this is the women’s qualifiers

https://www.totalrl.com/france-anticipating-government-support-for-2025-rugby-league-world-cup/

Sounds great … where was it played? And wonderful that Trent R is still over there … is he doing some coaching? It would be great if he could find 5-6 talented French youngsters and get them over into the Roosters junior set up for a few months for intensive coaching etc

My FLASHSCORE app is saying St Gaudens 32 Limoux 16 … !

I read somewhere that the 2025 Youth RLWC may be played as 9s ….

As players who grew up in Queensland and NSW are not blocked from playing Origin now (it's the main criteria!!), I don't quite understand that statement …

Rocket, that link doesn't work for me, any chance you could cut and paste it? Thanks !

The match started at 3am NSW time and 2am QLD time, as they are a bit backward and don't have daylight savings ! They are INCREDIBLE figures but I wonder if they include people who tuned in later via streaming? BTW I watched it live on Kayo (streaming). And yes, Fox Sports (and Kayo) is the equivalent of UK Sky TV; it is NOT free-to-air. There was no free-to-air coverage of the RLWC 2021(22) in Australia. Hopefully those numbskulls at NINE will now sit up and take notice !!!!

TOTAL FOR WEEK 1: 95,243 (average 11,905) TOTAL FOR WEEK 2: 68,875 (average 8,609) TOTAL FOR WEEK 3: 72,198 (average 9,025) TOTAL FOR THE Q/Fs: 51,139 (average 12,785) TOTAL FOR THE S/Fs: 68,602 (average 34,301) Aus v Samoa: 67,502 FINAL TOTAL: 423,689 (average 13,667) TARGETS: 2000 RLWC: 263,921 (8,514 per match) TARGET 1 ACHIEVED 2017 RLWC: 382,080 (13,646 per match) TARGET 2 ACHIEVED 2013 RLWC: 458,483 (16,374 per match) 2022 WOMEN’S EURO: 574,865 (18,544 per match) ORIGINAL TARGET: 750,000

All over now. Samoa played okay but Australia too good. Not the greatest of games. Shame Crichton didn't get a red card, would have made it interesting. Shame NZ didn't win last week! Thanks everyone for supporting international RL. See you all in France in 2025 !

Crowd 67,502 … good stuff

FFS