GB Lions Tour on sale today + Eden Park schedule confirmed

[Walter sobchak]

about time those mining companies raping Png put something back!

I’ve said the same thing many a time. These companies should be funding PNG hosting tours of all ages at the very least.

 

[Walter sobchak]

Been a cluster of sht all the way, RL has to be the shttest run sport in the world!

It’s like they do it on purpose. Frank Spencer would’nt f@ck it up as much!!!

 

[Walter sobchak]

The players and fans deserve better. No wonder RL players defect to union. I know I would.

 

[roughyedspud]

Now you can see why the Kangaroos have stayed away from it.
There was no appetite for this kind of tour down under yet.

Yet if England had done a proper 3 test series,building on the world cup final and how good poms are going in the NRL these days it would have sold just fine!..
There's no appetite for GB and a nonsense series of games that mean nothing that's killed this tour....and some of us told anyone that would listen this from day zero...

 

[Jim from Oz]

Yet if England had done a proper 3 test series,building on the world cup final and how good poms are going in the NRL these days it would have sold just fine!..
There's no appetite for GB and a nonsense series of games that mean nothing that's killed this tour....and some of us told anyone that would listen this from day zero...

Yep, that's pretty much it

Or – even more radical – a regular (i.e., every 4 years in the UK, every 4 years in Oz, so every 2 years) GB v Oz 3-test series for the Ashes.

Nah, that only worked well for 100 years … ! The RLIF + ARLC know what's best !

 

[Arucard]

Yet if England had done a proper 3 test series,building on the world cup final and how good poms are going in the NRL these days it would have sold just fine!..
There's no appetite for GB and a nonsense series of games that mean nothing that's killed this tour....and some of us told anyone that would listen this from day zero...

Bingo!
The GB concept will only be well received again if the other nations involved were to reach the level Tonga are at now.
The current set up means there is no meaning behind the jersey and name change.

As you said, AUS vs ENG with the current scenarios behind it was a perfect selling point.
Such a lost cause now and such a waste. Typical RL.

 

[Walter sobchak]

Bingo!
The GB concept will only be well received again if the other nations involved were to reach the level Tonga are at now.
The current set up means there is no meaning behind the jersey and name change.

As you said, AUS vs ENG with the current scenarios behind it was a perfect selling point.
Such a lost cause now and such a waste. Typical RL.

GB only has any relevance if any other of the home nations particularly wales are producing players good enough to be picked to tour.

 

[lafai]

Great Britain Squad

Lachlan Coote
Ryan Hall
Zak Hardaker
Jake Connor
Jermaine McGillvary
Blake Austin
Jackson Hastings
Alex Walmsley
Josh Hodgson
Tom Burgess
John Bateman
Elliott Whitehead
James Graham
Daryl Clark
Luke Thompson
Josh Jones
Gareth Widdop
George Williams
Oliver Gildart
Jonny Lomax
Jack Hughes
Joe Philbin
Jake Trueman
Chris Hill

Source: rugbyfootballleague on Instagram

 

[roughyedspud]

England in different shirts....waste of f**king time..

 

[Springs09]

Yet if England had done a proper 3 test series,building on the world cup final and how good poms are going in the NRL these days it would have sold just fine!..
There's no appetite for GB and a nonsense series of games that mean nothing that's killed this tour....and some of us told anyone that would listen this from day zero...

The only other point for a GB Tour once an Ashes series was off the table would be an extended tour playing many of the games' newly emerged countries. But this being rugby league, we only get 2 games v pacific islands and a meaningless 2-test series v NZ. They could have done something like NZ, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, PNG, Cook Islands, Lebanon and USA or Canada on the way home.

Anyway, they've been f**king it up ever since 2015. 2013 & 14 were great and naturally it looked like we would go on to bigger and better things, but we've gone the other way.

 

[adamkungl]

Best format for a tour is obviously a best of 3 series with 2-3 other exhibition/standalones.

All issues with the GB team aside, there's no reason why NZ fans shouldn't be keen to turn out and watch their national team playing at home for once after a much improved 2018.

The international game won't attract traveling fans in any serious numbers until it has a healthy, coherent, consistent calendar and events scheduled and hyped 12+ months in advance.

This will always be the number one issue until it is taken seriously. The other stuff is fluff.

 

[RedVee]

So... Lachlan Coote justifies it being GB then?

 

[yakstorm]

So... Lachlan Coote justifies it being GB then?

I know it's a rather pathetic way of making it 'GB'... getting someone who has only managed 3 caps for one of the other home nations.

 

[Burns]

Ticket sales for next week match in Hamilton looks so, so terrible.
Only 5 of the very central Bays on the TV side are on sale.

I think anything above 10,000 could be hoped for really. I don’t think can expect too much of a walk up, as it didn’t happen for the New Zealand Test earlier this year. Why would it now?

 

[adamkungl]

Ticket sales for next week match in Hamilton looks so, so terrible.
Only 5 of the very central Bays on the TV side are on sale.

I think anything above 10,000 could be hoped for really. I don’t think can expect too much of a walk up, as it didn’t happen for the New Zealand Test earlier this year. Why would it now?

Tonga fans might rock up late?

Though the drama around the team/federation + the Rugby World Cup semi finals might be a serious dent

 

[Burns]

Tonga fans might rock up late?

Though the drama around the team/federation + the Rugby World Cup semi finals might be a serious dent

We said the same thing for the July Test, and it didn’t happen. JT2 even joked that the Tongan fans were waiting for the last minute sale because the tickets were too expensive.

I think this goes towards showing the drawback of simply relying on the ‘Tongan wave’ to prop up the Hamilton, and to a greater extent, the Eden Park Test.

 

[latingringo101]

I know it's a rather pathetic way of making it 'GB'... getting someone who has only managed 3 caps for one of the other home nations.

Apart from someone like Regan Grace would any legitimate born and bred Celtic home nations RL players make GB?

 

[morningstar]

 

[Burns]

Going to need more of this every day for the next five days

 

[yakstorm]

Both teams are doing quite a lot of media opps and fan based activities over the next 5 days which will hopefully help drum up some hype... Whilst the walk up for the mid-year Test wasn't great, the sales leading into the game were definitely strongest the week of the event.

Hopefully a respectable crowd can be there at Hamilton, and then we have Kiwis beat Kangaroos in Wollongong and a good match between GB and Tonga to hype up the following week.