1997 World Club Championship.

[Vyvyan]

I remember it well.  There were a few British victories at home but they were rare.  Away from home the British teams were mostly thrashed.   A lot of teams treated it as a holiday and were duly pumped.

Wigan beat the Bulldogs IIRC which was a good effort.  The Bulls nearly beat Penrith at home.   Leeds beat Adelaide or was it Perth with Paul Sterling scoring a stunner.

[JDR]

On 17/03/2023 at 11:36, EggFace said:

I think Bradford Bulls were the only club that drew great crowds.

Even though I'm not a Bulls fan I was living in Bradford at the time and got very cheap entry to matches with a leisure card I had. I really enjoyed seeing some of the good Aussie sides, and good atmosphere as you'd expect.

[R L Winger]

Bring it back in full

[Oxford]

5 minutes ago, R L Winger said:

Bring it back in full

Couldn't agree more RLW.

[JonM]

I remember going to one of the games at the Stoop, the Broncos smashed Canberra. London got better attendances for their first two home games in round 4 and 5 than any of the Australian clubs did. That was the year they finished second in SL, IIRC.

Like a couple of others have posted, I was backpacking in Australia in 96 & 97. Caught a load of ARL & SL games in Australia and then back to the UK in time to see some of these games too. 

The gap now is surely much wider I would think.

[DlEHARD]

I was at the Broncos vs Auckland Warriors Semi at ANZ Stadium (QE2) 

[Phil]

I remember Halifax v Brisbane at Thrum Hall, only 3,500 to see arguably the greatest club side in the world 🫤

[DACS]

A lot of people stopped going to the later matches because the SL sides were generally so outmatched it all got a bit embarrassing. 

If it was replayed again today you'd probably see even bigger scorelines against SL teams, interspersed with a few narrow wins on our side. I don't think the gap is much bigger than it was, but the game has moved on.

British sides would get physically battered a lot of the time, and the mistakes made in SL would get punished much more (unforced errors being my pet peeve with England). 

[thebrewxi]

On 17/03/2023 at 16:12, Whippet13 said:

They played Canberra (won), Brisbane and Canterbury (both lost) - decent crowds, for London, I recall.

The canberra game was fantastic. I remember watching it atvtge time, but I dontbyhink it was live most likely a mud week repeat on sky. But I found it on YouTube a few years back and watched again.

Shaun Edwards came on as a sub and seem to completely change the match around. What a player!

[thebrewxi]

On 20/03/2023 at 14:08, Phil said:

I remember Halifax v Brisbane at Thrum Hall, only 3,500 to see arguably the greatest club side in the world 🫤

A few probably turned up for the Broncos too. 

[Click]

On 17/03/2023 at 16:12, Whippet13 said:

They played Canberra (won), Brisbane and Canterbury (both lost) - decent crowds, for London, I recall.

I was only 5 and remember the Canberra and Canterbury games (My only real memory of the Canterbury game was that they had a blonde player who my mum hated and thought was a dirty player, and let everyone know that  )

[Sports Prophet]

Would love to see it again, I just can’t think of a suitable time of year to host it.