England Men and Women to play France in April's international break.

Good to have something in the diary but not sure id have gone with Warrington as the venue as both last years England game and the WC group games had poor crowds (crowds at Hull were also poor before anyone pipes up

) id have gone with a small ground in London to try and attract French ex pats, maybe Brentford as its a modern ground and the area has some RL history.

Ideally that would be a warm up fixture for an international against a Tier 1 nation the week after. The they could play a larger competition in the international window at the end of the season. If we are touring at the end of the year a team comes here, if we are not touring we go overseas for 2 games.

England need to play a Tier 1 fixture in this country every year at a big stadium (North London or Newcastle would be a good choice based on previous experience). Any momentum from this tournament will be gone if we only play France in a half empty small ground next year, and we know Australia don't travel the year before a world cup.

At the moment Tier 1 would have to include Samoa, as they made the final.

Agree completely need to keep creating 'events' in areas we have taken the World Cup to. Even playing at St James' or Emirates or Spurs with just the bottom tier open still looks good for TV and draws a different crowd in.

The England v France game is a good opportunity for the "if the game was played at a small stadium in the heartlands and all tickets were £15 it would sell out" crew to put their money where their mouth is.

England vs France or GB Vs France have always had underwhelming attendances and I can go back 40 years. I don't see that changing fast.

There is a big difference between England v France at a world cup, and England v France in a mid season international.

The union autumn internationals are different to the 6 nations too but both will attract huge crowds

There is a big difference between those that go to Rugby Union "one-off" internationals, and those that go to Rugby League "one-off" internationals.

[url=https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/phil-gould-believes-englands-defeat-25505837Phil Gould believes England's defeat to Samoa should have been decided by different method[/url

Golden Point is BS, it should only ever be used (in knockout games) after extra time.

They are expecting a crowd of 64k on Saturday which is good considering England didnt make it and Samoa dont have as many fans kiving here as New Zealand do.

But that means the tournament is going to limp in with 400k tickrt sales, so 50k short of 2013 and absolutely miles behind the orignal target of 750k. Appreciate that Covid and the cost of living crisis would have impacted sales regardless and revenue may still be good as they have charged high prices and not discounted, but serious questions need to be asked about whats gone wrong.

Id start with the Marketing, for me its been too vague (billboards with 'this is real impact' where its not clear what event is being promoted) to the over the top 'games are selling out!!' social media ads, to marketing emails being sent out 2 hours before a game.

Also much discussed questions about the format, the public arent daft and know games like NZ-Jamaica are going to end one way.

Ive enjoyed the last couple of weeks game and the boost to the wheelchair and womens games but this tournament hasnt delivered a big boost to the mens game.

Didn't the last final at Old Trafford sell out before the tournament began? Significantly less than 2013 would be a poor outcome. Ticket sales across the board have clearly been disappointing but they need to learn the right lessons. The highest prices were probably a bit too high for some of the games, but the lowest prices were probably about right. I hope we don't go back to basically giving tickets away for the pinnacle events of the game. Although the Women's and Wheelchair events are relatively new, I doubt selling concession tickets for a couple of quid made a big increase to crowds overall. Lowest price tickets didn't sell out for the big games involving England's men so cheaper doesn't always mean more sales.

Saying things are sold out when they are not, having a ticketing website that is a disaster, and not letting you select a seat in advance was a horrible combination of ideas that would have impacted on ticket sales. I also believe the aim of selling tickets to those outside the "core" audience is the right one. Face it, our "core" audience is effectively those small number of fans who are willing to pay in advance and travel, think how many go to away games compared to home, large numbers of season ticket holders don't go to cup/playoff games for their own team in their own ground, and won't travel to neutral grounds for semi finals/magic weekend.

As well as getting more people to play the game, we need to find a way to attract those who will spend the money, if our core audience is those who don't have a lot of disposable income it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with that audience, but it does mean we have to work with less income, and be less attractive to sponsors. Internationals are more attractive to the non-core audience than Super League will ever be. However tickets do need to go on sale well in advance, as we did for this tournament and knew the fixtures and they were well publicised in national media. I'd buy tickets for genuine big ticket internationals this time next year if they were available and book off time to travel to the games. Sort out the calendar, and ensure that clubs don't reduce the international side of the game's chance of success.

Just had a google and found an article from October 2013 so juat before the start that said 65k sold for the Final, so it didnt sell out before but I think it may have sold out before the finalists were confirmed.

Agree that the ticket website wasnt user freindly, and having to register just to even look for tickets probably put some off.