England to play 2013 6Ns game "Oop north"

Stories in most papers and online that there is a proposal for England to play one of their 2013 ^ nations games either at Old Trafford or The "Whatever Mike Ashley Called St James Park" Stadium.

England have home matches against against Scotland, France and Italy that year - so I guiess it will be the match against Italy.

Overall I think it is a very good idea, though one driven by the RFUs desire to ensure decent crowds for RWC 2015, when the same stadiums are planned to be in use. Although it would cost the RFU money I would like to see them host a AI each year outside of London - and not always against the "lesser" teams.

Playing against the All Blacks at Old Trafford in the '90s drew England a pretty decent crowd. And it makes sense to broaden the support base, that way any money lost in hosting fees (since the RFU owns Twickenham) would be countered by a potential increase in revenue come TV rights re-negotiation time.

Given the way Superleague seems to be stagnating* there's potential to draw some support from the RL fraternity up North - especially if there's a couple of ex-RLers in the England team.


*"stagnating" may be a bit harsh. But RL in England certainly isn't growing very much.

I'd love to see it.....at St James Park (its the only name i will ever recognise..) and despite football being the popular game in the North East...i think you could fill St James (53000) with a sensible pricing policy.

England v Scotland in Newcastle?

Why not Stag?

In the Borders between two arch rivals....though i have heard us Geordies called scots with our heads kicked in before....

Would be a great atmosphere at St James...

red_stag wrote:England v Scotland in Newcastle?

Or England V Ireland in Liverpool.....

It really would GF.

Rodders = oooohhhh a good call.

England v Italy oop north would be gutting, because it's the only sodding game that members of the general public can get tickets for at Twickenham!!!

England v Italy oop north would be gutting, because it's the only sodding game that members of the general public can get tickets for at Twickenham!!!.

Bathmad, but think of all of the - lets call them 'Corporate' fans - who would not under any circumstances whatsoever travel to ANY event if it takes part outside of the 'Home Counties' , so moving a game up to the NW or NE will then free up loads of tickets spare for the real rugby fans.

I don't know much about Old Traffords location within Manchester, but St James Park is 15 minutes walk (probably less) from the Central Station in Newcastle - the only problem being the 2 million pubs in between.



Ok - 2 million is an exaggeration - 500,000 is probably nearer the mark.

And by god they're some seriously good pubs Trailape....

TrailApe wrote:

England v Italy oop north would be gutting, because it's the only sodding game that members of the general public can get tickets for at Twickenham!!!.

Bathmad, but think of all of the - lets call them 'Corporate' fans - who would not under any circumstances whatsoever travel to ANY event if it takes part outside of the 'Home Counties' , so moving a game up to the NW or NE will then free up loads of tickets spare for the real rugby fans.

I don't know much about Old Traffords location within Manchester, but St James Park is 15 minutes walk (probably less) from the Central Station in Newcastle - the only problem being the 2 million pubs in between.



Ok - 2 million is an exaggeration - 500,000 is probably nearer the mark.

Leave "Corporate" fans alone, it's the only way I can get tickets these days as both ERSC and my club are useless!!

Bathmad - ok, point taken I'll rephrase it.

All those fans who have bugger all to do with rugby and have never seen any games other than those at Twickenham during the 6 Nations.

I think the more distance you put between the venue and London (either Northwards or Westwards) the less you will see of the people that are there because it's the 'thing' to do.

I certainly not saying that there are more rugby supporters in the North (its bleedin' obvious there are not) and I'm not saying that there are a lot less prats up here either, but what I'm saying is that the occasion of going to and being seen at Twickenham, Twickers, HQ or whatever those jolly good types call it has overtakrn the Rugby part of it and the social factor experience is more important than the rugby element and consequently has become too costly for your average rugby fan.

I hope this makes sense and I was no way denergrating any real rugby fan who, by hook or crook gets their mitts onto a Twickenham ticket.

And as Geordiefalcon has attested, there are some seriously good pubs in Newcastle (some crap ones too, but usually those have a queue outside so are easily avoided)

Typical off-piste reaction from me to the topic but what the hell, it's the new year and I can always claim lingering hangover....


Why not really fizz up proceedings in the Six Nations and instead of having two sets of fans on the streets of European capitals, why not have three? We always say that celebration is a big factor in Six Nations ...lots of competitive craic but also lots of respect for visiting fans and by visiting fans.

So why not this? England V Ireland in Paris; Wales V France in London etc Strange it might seem but two home games, two away games and one neutral venue would lessen the alleged impact of 3 home games on final results and I think fans of the competition would be only too open to hosting a game by two outside nations and the tourism boosts that would ensue.