2 Nov: New Zealand v Great Britain KO 4am (UK Time) (TV)

[Boomer Bang Wool]

2 minutes ago, Pulga said:

The tier 2 nations go first.

Aah makes sense

[Steve13]

Any idea how many tickets have been sold?

[bamfordsbeans]

Just tried to record the game for tomorrow so I can watch it about 9.00am,only to find that it is only scheduled between 5.30 and 6.00.

[GeordieSaint]

25 minutes ago, Steve13 said:

Any idea how many tickets have been sold?

Nobody knows. They’ve just reopened up the South Stand (lower tier). Could be anything between 20k - 30k. 

[DavidM]

17 minutes ago, bamfordsbeans said:

Just tried to record the game for tomorrow so I can watch it about 9.00am,only to find that it is only scheduled between 5.30 and 6.00.

3.30 and 6.00

[bamfordsbeans]

On my schedule it is showing This is BBC2 between 3.30 and 5.30,so I'll end up recording that and hope for the best.

[DavidM]

3 minutes ago, bamfordsbeans said:

On my schedule it is showing This is BBC2 between 3.30 and 5.30,so I'll end up recording that and hope for the best.

If so just put the next programme on record to 

[MattSantos]

It may have happened. I dont think i can be bothered watching.

Sad times

[Boomer Bang Wool]

48 minutes ago, MattSantos said:

It may have happened. I dont think i can be bothered watching.

Sad times

Really? I couldn’t be more excited 

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, MattSantos said:

It may have happened. I dont think i can be bothered watching.

Sad times

I'm excited about the game, but I won't be getting up at 4am to watch it live, which will affect my enjoyment of it. 

But then, why would we try and optimise the scheduling for the key markets?

We staged last week's GB Test to overlap with the Union WC Semi Final that England played in, and are putting the GB Test on 2nd in a triple header this week so we kick off at 4am instead of say, maybe a 6am start. Still, at least they didn't play it on a Friday like the WC opener.

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

2 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

Nobody knows. They’ve just reopened up the South Stand (lower tier). Could be anything between 20k - 30k. 

With Eden Park holding 50,000 surely there must be more than 30,000 of the stadium open?

If it’s under 30,000 you have to question how we let the momentum from Tonga’s World Cup campaign fizzle out so badly  

[Dave T]

5 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

With Eden Park holding 50,000 surely there must be more than 30,000 of the stadium open?

If it’s under 30,000 you have to question how we let the momentum from Tonga’s World Cup campaign fizzle out so badly  

We should remember though that there was no real momentum. The 30k Semi Final for the Tonga v England game was a one-off in truth. 

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

We should remember though that there was no real momentum. The 30k Semi Final for the Tonga v England game was a one-off in truth. 

The group stages of the tournament were

Tonga v Scotland 9k

Tonga v Samoa 18k

Tonga v New Zealand 24k

With 30k at their semi final I think it’s fair to say they had some momentum 

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

The group stages of the tournament were

Tonga v Scotland 9k

Tonga v Samoa 18k

Tonga v New Zealand 24k

With 30k at their semi final I think it’s fair to say they had some momentum 

That looks quite a nice trend when you a) omit the lowest crowd of the lot, 8k in the QF versus Lebanon, and b ) ignore the context. 

There was no momentum, they hadn't built up the Tonga team over a period of time, they got a strong team together which attracted a big crowd in the Semi Final after they had beaten the Kiwis earlier in the tournament.

And tbh, that is fine, but we need to be reasonable with our expectations, Tonga didn't just become a huge team and a huge draw overnight. 

What we have actually seen following the World Cup is probably better than what England did following 2013. They have played 4 matches since that World Cup and have attracted 18k, 26k, 24k and 9.4k.

[bamfordsbeans]

Not capitalising on Tonga's emergence is similar to England's in 2013.

This year was crying out for a Four Nations but as the clubs rule our game, top class internationals seems to be left to other sports.

[Dave T]

24 minutes ago, bamfordsbeans said:

Not capitalising on Tonga's emergence is similar to England's in 2013.

This year was crying out for a Four Nations but as the clubs rule our game, top class internationals seems to be left to other sports.

Tonga are playing in a tournament with NZ and Aus, and have just played a game against GB.

Basically England have been weeded out by this obsession with the GB RL Lions (a name which is really jarring as we were never really known as that in my lifetime).

[GeordieSaint]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

That looks quite a nice trend when you a) omit the lowest crowd of the lot, 8k in the QF versus Lebanon, and b ) ignore the context. 

There was no momentum, they hadn't built up the Tonga team over a period of time, they got a strong team together which attracted a big crowd in the Semi Final after they had beaten the Kiwis earlier in the tournament.

And tbh, that is fine, but we need to be reasonable with our expectations, Tonga didn't just become a huge team and a huge draw overnight. 

What we have actually seen following the World Cup is probably better than what England did following 2013. They have played 4 matches since that World Cup and have attracted 18k, 26k, 24k and 9.4k.

Bit in bold is important.

Can't help but feel when our sport has a successful incident (or short group successful incidents in a short period of time), we instantly jump on it as momentum. When in fact, it's an incident(s); not necessarily a trend. It's the trends that are the momentum and take time to develop...

[southwalesrabbitoh]

On 29/10/2019 at 22:19, Harry Stottle said:

Really sorry that Nelson Asofa Solamona is not playing, wanted to see him in the flesh, still for me the best prop in the world in JWH will be playing our lads will have a job containing him,

IMO Hargreaves is not the best front-rower on the planet. 

[southwalesrabbitoh]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

Tonga are playing in a tournament with NZ and Aus, and have just played a game against GB.

Basically England have been weeded out by this obsession with the GB RL Lions (a name which is really jarring as we were never really known as that in my lifetime).

It cheeses me off when i see 'England Lions' under the name of a player on Aussie TV, for me now i want to have the GB Lions playing all of the time and not have an England RL side; yeah have the England Knights to play as a development side. So GB Lions in the 2021 WC, IMO you can't have Ireland and Scotland in the RL WC when hardly any of the players speak with a Scottish or Irish accent, or have never lived in those respective nations as adults. 

[southwalesrabbitoh]

5 hours ago, bamfordsbeans said:

Just tried to record the game for tomorrow so I can watch it about 9.00am,only to find that it is only scheduled between 5.30 and 6.00.

No, have another look.

[Chrispmartha]

Ill be up to watch it at 3.30 ish, hate watching it when its recorded.

[DavidM]

45 minutes ago, southwalesrabbitoh said:

IMO Hargreaves is not the best front-rower on the planet. 

He isn’t , although he’s one of the biggest cheap shot merchants 

[Harry Stottle]

6 hours ago, Boomer Bang Wool said:

Does anyone know why this wasn’t the last match of the day? 

Nope, never understood it that the home nation should not be the bill topper, could it be the TV companies scheduling (like Sky) to be a better fit for the Aussie audience? That is all I can think of why it should be so. 

Anyway, just woke and its game day, leaving for the ground in 5 hours time will be there ahead of the Samoa v Fiji game, but obviously looking forward to the other two much more especially the second one, I watched the English Community Team last night v the NZ Residents and albeit the Kiwi's won - they were to big and to strong - the effort was superb from our lads, and the skill factor with ball in hand was a pleasure to watch which is something sadly missing from a Bennett coached team.

Nevertheless, C'mon you Brits.

[Harry Stottle]

6 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

Nobody knows. They’ve just reopened up the South Stand (lower tier). Could be anything between 20k - 30k. 

We have been rescheduled with our seats, don't know where we will be sitting till we recieve the new tickets prior to leaving for the ground. 

[HawkMan]

3 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Nope, never understood it that the home nation should not be the bill topper, could it be the TV companies scheduling (like Sky) to be a better fit for the Aussie audience? That is all I can think of why it should be so. 

Anyway, just woke and its game day, leaving for the ground in 5 hours time will be there ahead of the Samoa v Fiji game, but obviously looking forward to the other two much more especially the second one, I watched the English Community Team last night v the NZ Residents and albeit the Kiwi's won - they were to big and to strong - the effort was superb from our lads, and the skill factor with ball in hand was a pleasure to watch which is something sadly missing from a Bennett coached team.

Nevertheless, C'mon you Brits.

I envy you, BTW after the All Black calamity last weekend, has the media there been more enthusiastic about the Kiwis ? Finding new heroes, that sort of thing.