England v France Double Header in Warrington - mid-season 2023

[Jughead]

https://www.rugby-league.com/article/61243/england-men-and-women-to-face-france-in-april-double-header

Same old, really. Positive is it’s an actual international game not a rep game. 

Edited November 16, 2022 by Jughead

[gingerjon]

My opinions on this would get me banned from the site

[Eddie]

That’s about as good as anyone could have realistically hoped for, though it’s a shame it’s at Warrington again. 

[Chris22]

*bangs head repeatedly against wall*

I should probably expand...

Good: Ticket prices sensible, fixture announced quite early, playing a test team 

Bad: Women's team post record stand alone crowds at World Cup and are immediately relegated to a warm up to men's game.

Missed opportunity to go outside heartlands (I'd rather have 7,000 at Coventry, Middlesbrough or London than Warrington and I think we'd get similar crowds at both, if not higher outside heartlands)

RFL haven't yet bothered to announce on their social media pages.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Chris22

[Jughead]

Appears to be a blank weekend in the Championship and League One too (unless there’s cup games scheduled for that weekend) so hopefully there is scope for others to play international games, too. 

[Damien]

The positive is that it's good that a men's and women's game has been arranged mid-season v France.

They've just gone for the very safe, unambitious and small-time approach of a double header in the heartlands and whose fans have been shown to turn up their noses at such a fixture time and again.

[dkw]

Should include PDRL and Wheelchair RL and make it a full on RL Festival day.

[Jughead]

Just now, dkw said:

Should include PDRL and Wheelchair RL and make it a full on RL Festival day.

Oh, give them time. Im sure they’ll stack it high, despite all evidence suggesting people don’t want that. 

[dkw]

Just now, Jughead said:

Oh, give them time. Im sure they’ll stack it high, despite all evidence suggesting people don’t want that. 

What evidence is that then? Have you canvassed this already, whether they should include PDRL and Wheelchair RL.

[Jughead]

Just now, dkw said:

What evidence is that then? Have you canvassed this already, whether they should include PDRL and Wheelchair RL.

The last couple of years of the mid-season international, the perennially stacked high Challenge Cup Final Day and the Challenge Cup Semi/Women’s Cup Final Days and the attendances for such events are the evidence that people aren’t interested in double and triple headers. 

The PDRL and Wheelchair sides should have their own fixtures but we don’t need an unwanted double header becoming an unwanted triple header. 

[Damien]

5 minutes ago, dkw said:

Should include PDRL and Wheelchair RL and make it a full on RL Festival day.

Why does everything have to be festival? Each of these should be treated as standalone events in their own right.

[dkw]

2 minutes ago, Jughead said:

The last couple of years of the mid-season international, the perennially stacked high Challenge Cup Final Day and the Challenge Cup Semi/Women’s Cup Final Days and the attendances for such events are the evidence that people aren’t interested in double and triple headers. 

The PDRL and Wheelchair sides should have their own fixtures but we don’t need an unwanted double header becoming an unwanted triple header. 

Where those mid season internationals on the back of highly successful world cup tournaments for PDFL and Wheelcharil RL?

[Jughead]

Just now, dkw said:

Where those mid season internationals on the back of highly successful world cup tournaments for PDFL and Wheelcharil RL?

They should be their own events, as should the womens game. Stacking a mens/womens double header with a PDRL game too is, most likely, unwanted. 

[dkw]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

Why does everything have to be festival? Each of these should be treated as standalone events in their own right.

Everything doesnt, but I think on the back of the world cup getting as many people into one or two places would do well. They can still be treat as standalone events, in different locations etc just with one overarching advertising campaign to build on the visibility from the World Cup.

A festival doesnt automatically mean 4 games in one place right after each other.

[dkw]

1 minute ago, Jughead said:

They should be their own events, as should the womens game. Stacking a mens/womens double header with a PDRL game too is, most likely, unwanted. 

unwanted by who, how do you know this?

[Midlands hobo]

8 minutes ago, dkw said:

What evidence is that then? Have you canvassed this already, whether they should include PDRL and Wheelchair RL.

Watched all the PDRL on iPlayer was really impressed with not only the standard but also the effort. They actually had pride in the shirts. (all countries)

[RigbyLuger]

Why Warrington? Not central, had criticism during the WC for crowds, won't attract anyone new. Lazy.

[Just Browny]

York got 7,000 for a women's game the other day. Surely we should have been trying to get it back for a standalone women's fixture? Far more sensible than taking the Bash there.

[Guest]

Should have been in France.

Get England out of their comfort zone.

At least Warrington is more travel friendly from the South than LSV - so will pop up.

I personally might have looked at Donny or York.

I'm guessing York is a touch small but for sure the women's could have gone back there.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Leonard

[Damien]

3 minutes ago, dkw said:

Everything doesnt, but I think on the back of the world cup getting as many people into one or two places would do well. They can still be treat as standalone events, in different locations etc just with one overarching advertising campaign to build on the visibility from the World Cup.

A festival doesnt automatically mean 4 games in one place right after each other.

The men's match could have been at say Coventry. The women's match at York. Wheelchair at the Copperbox and PDRL at Warrington. There is zero need for these to be at the same place or the same day trying to flog to the same fans, the vast majority of whom have shown zero inclination to go to any event other than the one they are interested in. 

Indeed I would say people would be far more likely to attend if they were more spread out rather than a pile them high strategy masquerading as a festival. Playing in different weekends gets the sport far more coverage through the year and is far better when it comes to selling to TV.

[Midlands hobo]

Is this challenge cup quarter finals weekend? If so what happens if Catalan are still in you'll have 2 under strength teams

[Eddie]

7 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Should have been in France.

Get England out of their comfort zone.

At least Warrington is more travel friendly from the South than LSV - so will pop up.

I personally might have looked at Donny or York.

I'm guessing York is a touch small but for sure the women's could have gone back there.

That would have meant the RFL paying to travel to France though, and stay overnight  

[JM2010]

We've all been moaning that England don't play France, we don't get to watch England enough on home soil, ticket prices are too high, we don't announce fixtures early enough and we aren't going to arrange games to exploit the publicity from the WC.

They've just done all that and everyone still isn't happy.

The double header works well for me. The wife wants to watch the women but wouldn't come if it was just the men. I'm interested in watching both so I'll be buying 2 tickets for this. Also, it's only £30 for 2 tickets so can't complain about the price either 

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

£15 early bird, let's not go £20 on day 

I suppose Sky or BBC won't want costs of two broadcasts 

[Just Browny]

1 minute ago, JM2010 said:

We've all been moaning that England don't play France, we don't get to watch England enough on home soil, ticket prices are too high, we don't announce fixtures early enough and we aren't going to arrange games to exploit the publicity from the WC.

They've just done all that and everyone still isn't happy.

 

Almost nobody is moaning about any of those things.