The Hallucinating Goose

I've fallen down the rabbit hole that is match stats now! England and/or Great Britain have played a total of 584 games between 1904 and 2024. So an average of 4.8 games a year. The first game was actually an England game. On 5th April 1904, England played Other Nationalities at Central Park in front of an estimated 6,000 fans. England lost 3-9. Our first game against Australia was on 12th December 1908, when Great Britain faced Australia at Park Royal Ground, London in front of 2,000 fans. The game ended in a 22-22 draw. England played Australasia on 18th October 1911 at Craven Cottage in front of 6,000 fans. England lost 6-11. England first played Australia themselves on 31st December 1933 at Stade Pershing, Paris in front of 8,000 fans. England lost 13-63. England first played Australia at home a couple of weeks after that game on 13th January 1934 at Redheugh Park, Gateshead in front of 15,576 fans. England won 19-14. --------- So in conclusion, we played in London quite a bit then as well, we get pretty small attendances for internationals then as well and we had trouble beating Australia then as well. Not a lot changes does it!

And in that same period, we have played 79 times, and 18 different opponents.

Ah, I understand. I was going back to the beginning of the 90s because that is where Dave started his list. Since 2006, we've only played Australia 6 times in this country.

Well we've played against them quite a bit more as GB since the beginning of the 90s cos GB carried on playing in the tri-nations and tours when Australia came over here. As England though, we've only played them over here 9 times in 30 years.

And we don't play Australia outside of London very much at all: 2013 - Millennium Stadium - 45k 2011 - Elland Road - 34k 2009 - Elland Road - 31k 2009 - JJB Stadium - 23k We've only played Australia 4 times outside of London since England became the main national team.

You genuinely think we will sell out Wembley? You do know that the record attendance for a rugby league international in history is 74,468, the 2013 World Cup final. I think we can get into the high 60s, get close to 70k, but we aren't gonna beat the record attendance by 15k. I'm being realistic rather than positive now.

I've found someone that is driving down to Wembley and will take me! Looks like I am going to Wembley!!

In the end, despite all the posting and analysing I do about attendances for this series, I couldn't care less what price the tickets are or how the RFL go about selling them as long as we sell a good number and it looks great on tv.

Quick bit of research. The highest attended Ashes series in England was the 1994 series with 140,432. The highest attended single Ashes test in this country was 57,034 at Wembley, also in 1994. We've currently sold approximately 100,000 tickets for this series so if we can sell 40k more, and get an attendance of 70,000 or so at Wembley then we equal/beat 1994 and also set the record for the highest attended match in England. I think we're certainly gonna get the highest attended match in England at least. Incidentally, the highest attended test in all Ashes series was 70,204 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1932. Do we think we can beat that? (Highest attended series was the 1954 series in Oz with 179,816 fans so we can't possibly beat that).

Does anyone know whether Australia are gonna play a warm up game beforehand? Maybe play France in France?

We should remember that that last game against Australia was an the Olympic Stadium which fans had discovered is a horrible venue after the previous NZ game there. There was 44,000 at the NZ game and you'd think more people would go to the Oz game but like I say, knowledge of the ground will have been a factor there. The fact the Oz team isn't packed with legends this time round could almost be encouraging because we will have a better shot at beating them. It's a thought that the Wembley game should maybe have been the last one, cos if we do start strong and win the first test then it might have encouraged more people to go. Of course on the flip side of that, if we lose the first two tests, the attendance at Wembley would be rubbish and with the last two tests sold out already, even if we do lose the first test, it won't affect attendances. Alright, forget what I said, probably best Wembley is first!

I agree.

RONALDO!!!

I've still gotta stop every so often and refuel, and its only the best fast food for this goose!

The financial strain of travelling down there and the inconvenience of the travel and whether I would stay down there or travel back late the same day.

I am getting really excited for this series now but am I going to Wembley? Not sure. I'll need convincing.

@Matthias Wald Why is what I said funny? I was just trying to be positive, why wouldn't you want to think 50,000 tickets have been sold for Wembley. Sorry, I'll rephrase what I said: ---------------- The bottom and middle tiers of Wembley combined hold approximately 50,000 fans so I would hope that with the top tier now opened, we have sold far, far less than that number because I'm a miserable ##### who wants rugby league to fail. So far then, we are currently looking at: Wembley - 10,000 Everton - 52,000 Headingley - 19,000 That Wembley attendance is brilliant but I am so disappointed that the other games have sold out because it will make our sport look to good to outsiders who we have to make think rugby league is a joke. That's an average of approximately 26,000 or so for the series with months still to go to stop people buying anymore tickets for Wembley... ------------- That rephrasing suit your attitude more? Happy now? No you aren't cos you're on here...

Sorry for trying to be positive... jesus christ, what is peoples' problem on here..?

The bottom and middle tiers of Wembley combined hold approximately 50,000 fans so I would like to think that with the top tier now opened, we have sold somewhere close to that number. So far then, we are currently looking at: Wembley - 50,000 Everton - 52,000 Headingley - 19,000 Those are fantastic numbers for international rugby league. That's an average of approximately 40,000 or so for the series with months still to go to sell far more tickets at Wembley.

This is the thing isn't it? The stadium looked quite empty but only because it is such a massive stadium. If that game was held at a 70k stadium then it would have looked fantastic and we'd all think it was a fantastic attendance.

It's the same with so many things in society; take shopping. If you go shopping in the morning there is more product on the shelves, more choice with longer dates. However, if you are willing to hang on until the evening, risk missing out on the better products, there will be less choice but you'll be able to get a lot of product discounted because it's coming up to the best before date. Tickets for this test, buy them early, you pay a higher price but you're guaranteed the best seats, hang on until a lot closer to the test and all the better seats might have gone but you can get a cheaper seat that wasn't an option earlier on.

Well that was f###ing dreadful. One of the worst games of football I've ever seen.

England booed off at halftime.

I don't think there's anything exciting about this England game.

If the map on my weather app is to be believed, there is certainly some very heavy rain coming. Doesn't look like it will be sustained but a heck of a lot is gonna come down.