More World Cup partners come on board

[Pulga]

19 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

Don't care about obsessing over whether Aussies play ball. Rest of us should be looking to build an annual 4 nations tourney anyway. Eng Fra Wales and Jam  (If you can get Kiwis in instead of Wales or Jam lets do so)

Why not Ireland?

 

[Yakstorm]

42 minutes ago, Pulga said:

Why not Ireland?

 

I have to admit I've never quite understood the reluctance from the RFL to try a match between England and Ireland outside of a World Cup in England.

In the two times the two nations have faced off (2000 and 2013) both matches have been sell outs, from a player pool perspective they have always had a larger pool of eligible players than a lot of other European nations and even from a historic migration perspective, there is a significant Irish community / connection in the RL Heartlands.

Understandably playing a match in Ireland would possibly not be a huge success, simply because like Scotland, not enough work has been done to establish the game there, however I feel like trying to sell tickets to an England v Ireland RL Test in England would not be a difficult sell. 

[Odsal Outlaw]

6 hours ago, Yakstorm said:

I have to admit I've never quite understood the reluctance from the RFL to try a match between England and Ireland outside of a World Cup in England.

In the two times the two nations have faced off (2000 and 2013) both matches have been sell outs, from a player pool perspective they have always had a larger pool of eligible players than a lot of other European nations and even from a historic migration perspective, there is a significant Irish community / connection in the RL Heartlands.

Understandably playing a match in Ireland would possibly not be a huge success, simply because like Scotland, not enough work has been done to establish the game there, however I feel like trying to sell tickets to an England v Ireland RL Test in England would not be a difficult sell. 

I remember the 2013 WC game and seeing ticket touts outside a sold out Huddersfield. Fantastic event! It would need Ireland to have access to all their players tho and a solid development plan at domestic level I think for it to have merit.

[Dave T]

22 minutes ago, Odsal Outlaw said:

I remember the 2013 WC game and seeing ticket touts outside a sold out Huddersfield. Fantastic event! It would need Ireland to have access to all their players tho and a solid development plan at domestic level I think for it to have merit.

This is the problem, we have seen Scotland play in some very good games in World Cups and 4Ns, but without a full complement of available players each year the standard varies wildly. 

That is what I would focus on, getting the funding and scheduling to allow teams to field their very best teams, rather than having different tiers of the same team. 

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

On 07/06/2021 at 22:57, Yakstorm said:

Having Australia involved in any future tournaments is nice, but as the last Four Nations showed, New Zealand and even Scotland attract strong audiences.

In fact, you could arguably say any RL international not relegated to the Red Button can pretty comfortably draw 800K and above on BBC, with those involving England of course drawing larger audiences.

New Zealand v Scotland had more tv viewers than the Four Nations Final of Australia v New Zealand. When you see figures like this you have to question why England haven’t played a game since 2018.

[Sports Prophet]

On 05/06/2021 at 03:03, Cumbrian Mackem said:

No. Every 4 years with the 4nations held in between.

6 Nations for me, but similar sentiment

[Dave T]

14 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

New Zealand v Scotland had more tv viewers than the Four Nations Final of Australia v New Zealand. When you see figures like this you have to question why England haven’t played a game since 2018.

I suppose we have to look back at when we did it (admittedly as a one off) and we played against France and Wales in a series we had one-sided games on the BBC in front of rubbish crowds, and I suspect the TV figures, gate income and sponsorship didn't stack up. 

It's a bit like when England got 65k for the game against the Kiwis in 2013, but a few years later got 17k in Hull - the prestige of a quality tournament adds interest. 

So whilst I agree with you that we need to find a way to make these tournaments work, in reality there looks to be little demand for them at present. 

[Sports Prophet]

On 08/06/2021 at 01:31, Whippet13 said:

My understanding is a final decision by the end of the month. I cannot see it not happening, the only question is will some antipodean players cry off. Even if they do, the nations will still compete.

My preference would be to delay it until there is more certainty that crowds can attend en masse. I think sports fans and neutrals will be begging for their fix of top level international sport, that the organisers really need to take advantage of full crowds for their fixtures.

We are still talking about cancelled SL matches at present. 

I suspect the NRL, the Australian Gov’t and the RLPA alike will also have their say on participating in 2021 and will have some reasonable influence on the other pacific nations attendance too.

[DlEHARD]

International footy is very attractive to fans and sponsors. Players too.

The figures Yakstorm is sharing are very impressive.

[RP London]

I would suggest that as long as there are some guarantees from the govts that players can come into the country and that they can go home afterwards too, with the minimum of disruption then the tournament should take place. 

It is a major event and hopefully by that point we can get good crowds. It will be a "feel good" tournament and we can make a lot of that. The majority of the crowd will be from the UK but, to be honest, i would expect that anyway.

 

[The Rocket]

21 minutes ago, RP London said:

I would suggest that as long as there are some guarantees from the govts that players can come into the country and that they can go home afterwards too, with the minimum of disruption then the tournament should take place. 

Definitely starting to get more mentions in the Rugby League media over here now which is great. I saw an article last week saying that a decision will be made " in the next month" on whether it will go ahead or not, I`m not sure how accurate that was, but they are definitely starting to talk about it. Can`t wait, but got to admit, it`s making me nervous.

[Damien]

9 hours ago, Dave T said:

It's a bit like when England got 65k for the game against the Kiwis in 2013, but a few years later got 17k in Hull - the prestige of a quality tournament adds interest. 

But so does a quality venue fitting of a big occasion. For many a test match in Wigan, Hull, Huddersfield is not a big occasion and isn't a draw for many beyond the game.

So does playing in a big ground in London. England still got 45k playing v the Kiwis at a test match at the Olympic Stadium in 2015. I can, and have attracted many friends to matches in Manchester, London etc at big stadiums. The usual northern towns at small grounds is a bit meh and no draw to those who like to go to an event and make a weekend of it.

[Dave T]

12 minutes ago, Damien said:

But so does a quality venue fitting of a big occasion. For many a test match in Wigan, Hull, Huddersfield is not a big occasion and isn't a draw for many beyond the game.

So does playing in a big ground in London. England still got 45k playing v the Kiwis at a test match at the Olympic Stadium in 2015. I can, and have attracted many friends to matches in Manchester, London etc at big stadiums. The usual northern towns at small grounds is a bit meh and no draw to those who like to go to an event and make a weekend of it.

Yes, that all goes hand in hand with the prestige point - but Hudds got 24k for England v Ireland in the World Cup and Hull got 24k versus Fiji. When they played the Kiwis they got 17k. 

So the ground is not the biggest issue there.

[Damien]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

Yes, that all goes hand in hand with the prestige point - but Hudds got 24k for England v Ireland in the World Cup and Hull got 24k versus Fiji. When they played the Kiwis they got 17k. 

So the ground is not the biggest issue there.

Momentum and publicity helps with that too though. Matches, especially on the BBC, build interest and a bandwagon. This is especially so for those that have no idea that matches are taking place and when it comes to RL that really is a lot of people.

I think there are probably 4 or 5 factors at play which help to create a sense of a real event to attract people but the trouble is, outside of World Cups, we may only hit one of these. We occasionally used to see it in test series or 4 Nations finals where ticket sales would fly for a decider and we would then get a capacity crowd. That's why I had real high hopes for the cancelled Ashes series as it felt like we were aiming for that again and ticking all the boxes and its a real shame that was cancelled. 

[The Rocket]

25 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

Missed this graphic but yep.  Eng vs Scot above Eng vs Aus peak and same average.  Eng vs Kiwis highest peak.  RL followers might care about the Aussies but shows we dont really need them for a successful annual tournament. 

And possibly better off without them. The game  I`ve always looked forward to at WC`s (if they met) has been the Kiwis vs. England, because for the last 20+ years they`ve been the better match up. In fact these days take the Aussies out and you probably get a far more unpredictable tournament.

[Dunbar]

The World Cup will go ahead and it will be fantastic.

[zylya]

18 hours ago, Dave T said:

This is the problem, we have seen Scotland play in some very good games in World Cups and 4Ns, but without a full complement of available players each year the standard varies wildly. 

That is what I would focus on, getting the funding and scheduling to allow teams to field their very best teams, rather than having different tiers of the same team. 

I'm still really keen on the idea of a proper European tournament - not only would this enable some historical country rivalries (essentially England vs anyone else ) but would hopefully enable teams to have their best players available because it would be less travel etc. I know that the European Rugby League has various competitions, but until it has England involved, and is promoted well, it's always going to be a struggle. A competition that England take seriously and the other countries use to try and make a name for themselves would attract interest and would only grow in time.

[Mark S]

Whoever the person looking after the commercial aspects needs to be given a job at the RFL after the tournament. 

[EastLondonMike]

Just seen that Nuffield Health have also come on board as an England partner.

https://www.rugby-league.com/article/35595/england-rugby-league-announces-partnership-with-nuffield-health

No mention of how long the link up is, but seems Nuffield Health have taken over the Manchester Institute for Health and Performance, which is housed on the Etihad site the RFL are due to be moving to, so could be the start of an ongoing relationship.