You can't play the final in a downgraded facility from the other games.



Having all the games as double headers maybe a good idea though. The RFL will probably want a game in Scotland though and there will be murders if at least oneEngland game isn't in Yorkshire

Scotland v New Zealand - Ibrox

England v Australia - Olympic Stadium



England v Scotland - DW

Australia v New Zealand - KC



England v New Zealand - St James'

Scotland v Australia - Easter Road



Final - Etihad or OT



Think big

Do Scotland have anywhere near enough RL fans to have a single fixture up there? For their game against Ireland in the European Cup recently only 1197 attended.



Scotland played two games in Cumbria in the 2013 RLWC in front of 7000 but were they all locals or did the 2000 from that^ game come down to England for that leaving 5000 locals?

Ireland don't have many fans, in Cork at least, considering only 5000 turned up for their game with Australia in the WC a few years ago. Only just short of 1405 watched Wales win the European Cup a few weeks ago.



Going off those attendances if we were to have a single fixture for Scotland against anyone in Scotland, i'd imagine only 2-7000 would turn up so having a single fixture up there at a big stadium would look poor. Any fixtures in Scotland should be a double header.

It's that kind of small time thinking that means only 2-7k do turn up.



Playing at bigger stadia attracts the curious, not just the diehard RL fans. Create the sense of a big event, market the hell out of it.



As we've seen since RL took Internationals to London again from 2011, the crowds have been excellent.



On one hand, you've got what happened. A game in a second-tier tournament, played in the middle of nowhere (Galashiels), against a team of part timers/amateurs (Ireland), at a 4k capacity stadium, with no marketing. No wonder no fker turns up.



Or potentially, play the two best sides in the world (Aus/NZ) in the middle of the two biggest Scottish cities, in decent stadia, and market it.

Lets take the Eng v Sco game to Scotland where we can show any current or new Scotland supporter how England will dominate and make them look crap.

It should always be France involved in these 4 nations games over here imo.

IMO if we have one 2nd tier nation then we might as well have 2 ie…France and Scotland and just make it the 5 nations. This way we hopefully bring up the standard of 2 nations and they also have something to fight for in the tournament (in not getting the wooden spoon).



It will give the ‘big 3’ the chance to rotate squads and try new combinations thus hopefully not resulting in total whitewashes it might also mean the squads are fresher for the big games so we see proper intensity (that at times the series with NZ lacked)



Sure the matches with these 2nd tier nations might not be as exciting as the rest but we can target specific areas of the UK. Have a game in cornwall, cumbria, wales, Scotland, northern Ireland in small regional stadia.



To keep rotating one European nation in every 4 years is absolutely useless.

Yep Elland road is a right dump

Actually, I put Eng v Sco at the DW.

I see your point, as in theory it would be great to have more teams and games, however do people want to see The big 3 murder the other 2 sides by 50 plus points over 6 games? The gulf in class is simply too much to have 5 teams.



And yes, the 4 teams is pointless too unless we stick with France who have real potential in time to realistically improve.The tri series format of a few years ago where NZ ,OZ and England played each other twice with the winner to the final provides us with 7 games of the highest quality and is what we should revert back to imo.

Although Samoa were fairly competitive last year, I agree about the Northern Hemisphere sides.



I'm a big believer that the tier2 sides will only get better if they have the chance to play Eng/Aus/NZ, and have more regular fixtures throughout the year, rather than 3/4 games in the Autumn. Similar to how Argentina, Italy, Scotland etc have improved over in union.



The problem with Scotland is that they have no professional/semi-pro teams, few amateur clubs and generally low participation numbers. Ireland are slightly better in this regard, then Wales with their two semi-pro sides, and obviously France with Catalans, Toulouse and their league. Scotland earned their place, but I agree that the French are the closest at the moment to make that step up.

Yep totally agree with that if we’re going with 4 then we must have some consistency. Hate to say it but look at yawnion…The 6 nations stuck it out with Italy and Super Rugby did the same with Argentina and it works