2009 Four Nations Opener

[Desert Qlder]

as a oldham fan i'll be looking at a weekend away @ toulouse...hopefully, a weekend away for the challenge cup final, a day out at the national league grand finals..and now wembley for the 4 nations (which i might add i called ages and ages ago)

HAPPY DAYS :lol:

How could I have ever doubted you blokes?

 

[Calixte]

Sometimes I think if Sydney fans had the passion of our English brethren, the only place AFL would be played in this country would be off-shore (like Tasmania!) because they would have been forced out years ago...

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

I can see why the Kiwis don't want the French in. They don't want to get beaten by another side.

:lol:

Blunt but oh so true.

 

[deluded pom?]

How could I have ever doubted you blokes?

You have to realise that spud was born with a silver spoon in his mouth :sarcasm:

 

[Calixte]

Now, now...

 

[roughyedspud]

You have to realise that spud was born with a silver spoon in his mouth :sarcasm:

all lancastrians are ;-)

 

[Calixte]

Go back to your Eccles cakes and tea... :lol:

 

[roughyedspud]

i've never had a eccles cake :lol:


anyway back to wembley....pricing,what do we reckon?

about £10 adults - £5 kids? lets pack the place out..


also, a couple of things

1. marvs right,we should have waited till after the world cup before announcing a 4 nations game at wembley..cos we either have to win it or run australia very,very close for us to get enough publicity for it to be viable..

2. stevo announced in his column that england would kick off the world cup in PERTH....so take his "exclusives" with a pinch of salt

 

[screeny]

NZ are still streets ahead of France. Their recent close match was the final nail in Kemble's coffin and can be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

[kiwileaguefan]

France are not up to the standard of the top three nations. France's results from the last two World Cups have been very average, the fact they finished third in the Federation Shield two years ago proves to me Tonga will put up a better showing than France.

The French national team will never push the top three nations in a competition until they get another Super League side or more French players playing in the Super League. That’s the difference between them and the Kiwis with the Warriors, there are so many Kiwis playing in other teams around the world.

I have always said the top Pacific Island nation should play off against the top European side to have the right to join the Tri Nations.

At the moment we have a World Class Competition which has only had three blow out scores out of 24 odd matches. Yet for the sake of expansion we are going to bring a Nation in that’s going to get smashed by 60-80 points with a better nation missing out?

Oh by the way i am still picking Fiji to beat France too

 

[bazza]

After having attended the Wembley weekend only a couple of months earlier, would Englands predominantly Northern based fans be willing to make another rather costly trip down to London for this game? Cas, Rougheyd, DP?

I think if they do a bit of marketing then they could attract more southern based supporters than a Challenge Cup final between 2 northern teams.

They should also be able to get at least 10,000 Aussie expats if they put a few ads in the right magazines and pubs

 

[marv]

France are not up to the standard of the top three nations. France's results from the last two World Cups have been very average, the fact they finished third in the Federation Shield two years ago proves to me Tonga will put up a better showing than France.

Quite how you arrive at this is beyond me, step back to winter '05 and UTC had just finished their last Semi-pro season before they morphed into the Dragons. The French players at Catalans then played an entire season of Full time rugby for the first time in their lives, leading us into October '06 where France played 4 Tests against good quality opposition losing their final match against a Tonga side that contained at least 10 players currently playing NRL or SL.

Not to mention the fact that the make up of both sides has changed Dramatically since then, the French team that took the Feild that day was:

Renaud Guige
Freddie Zitter
Sebastien Planas
Damien Coutourier
Olivier Charles
Maxime Greseque
James Wynne
Adel Fellous
Julien Rinaldi
Jerome Guisett
Jamel Fakir
Eric Anslelme
Greg Mounis

John-Christophe Borlin
David Ferriol
Olivier Elima
Christophe Moly

The ones in bold are the ones I reckon will be going to the WC the French back division has changed outta sight from '06 KLF and the development of these players has improved tenfold.

Yet for the sake of expansion we are going to bring a Nation in that’s going to get smashed by 60-80 points with a better nation missing out?

Every other nation would get smashed by the tri nations sides, the 2nd tier sides are all of a muchness only difference being France have a reasonable quality league structure, one side in SL and another playing at a good level

Oh by the way i am still picking Fiji to beat France too

Its not impossible, Scotland could beat Fiji too, thats the idea, the two "minnow" groups are really even across the board IMO

I would be surprised if they didnt hang on with an official 4 nations announcment until they see how France go, after all we dont need to know wether or not France are in for sure, England will play Australia somewhere in the Tri nations regardless of the inclusion of the French.

 

[marv]

I think if they do a bit of marketing

Oh well thats that f**ked then

then they could attract more southern based supporters than a Challenge Cup final between 2 northern teams.

Yeah we could attract ALL 2,000 of quins regular fans

 

[LeagueXIII]

Don't italy get flogged in most 6 nations games, however it didn't stop the union from expanding.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Anyone who wants to bitch, bitch now, I'll make a special thread for you.

Other than that, It's about bloody time, the only way IRL can go forward is if we all move forward and give everyone a chance to show what they have.

You guys can kick and scream about Island teams being ripped off, well I say, France with their 70+/80+ teams are bigger than you.

 

[stormtragic]

Hopefully this is true, is it official?

For the record here's what I would go with:

Week 1:
England V Australia - Wembley Stadium, London - 90,000
France V New Zealand - Stade Gilbert Brutus, Perpignan ~ 10-12,000

Week 2:
Australia V New Zealand
France V England - Stade Municipal, Toulouse - 36,000


Week 3:
France V Australia - Parc Des Princes, Paris - 49,000 (for lack of a decent sized rectangular ground)
England V New Zealand - Elland Road, Leeds - 40,000

Week 4:
Final - City Of Manchester Stadium, Manchester - 48,000

Have to give credit for the DH idea to Spud ;-)

play final at old trafford...would get good crowd and great atmosphere

 

[bazza]

Oh well thats that f**ked then

Yeah wouldn't

Yeah we could attract ALL 2,000 of quins regular fans

I think there are plenty of people in London and surrounding areas that like RL but don't go to Quins games every week because they either have another team to support e.g. Wigan, live too far from Twickenham to go every week.

Also, people who aren't regular RL fans would be more likely to watch an England v Australia match at Wembley than a RL match involving 2 teams from small towns in the north of England.

 

[jim_57]

Nah France need to be there, putting a very small country like tonga or fiji in will make the comp look a hell of alot worse than france getting flogged.

France is for the long haul, a country the size of France with rich RL tradition is 100times better option than a country like Tonga who rely on Australia and NZ 2nd rates and would be lucky to be able to attract a home crowd of over 5,000.

From what I hear Toulouse will go full time next year which will mean france have 2 FT teams to pick from, I personally think they won;t get flooged as badly as everyone seems to think and I don't think it's beyond the realms of really of them winning games in the first few years.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Yeah wouldn't



I think there are plenty of people in London and surrounding areas that like RL but don't go to Quins games every week because they either have another team to support e.g. Wigan, live too far from Twickenham to go every week.

Also, people who aren't regular RL fans would be more likely to watch an England v Australia match at Wembley than a RL match involving 2 teams from small towns in the north of England.

Hey bazza, us people who complain about southern teams and other stuff all the time, relax, we are not involved with them, we have had a bad time, Rugby League Rules.

 

[bulos01]

There was a meeting at the cc final, and Frances biggest fear was losing money, not competing with the top 3.
50000 at Wembley is better than a full 25000. with 3 Londoners in the england squad for the wc this can be a real push league in the south. things are really happening in london and down south!