Last night Huddersfield Giants’ John Smith’s Stadium played host to the World Champions as current World Cup holders Australia met Lebanon in the quarter finals.
Josh Addo-Carr was the star of the show as Australia had too much fire power for the Cedars to handle despite the presence of NRL stars like Mitchell Moses, Adam Doueihi and potential Super League signing Josh Mansour.
The win for Australia sends them to Elland Road next week as the Aussies prepare for a semi-final clash likely against New Zealand unless Fiji pull off the magic they conjured up in the 2017 quarter finals when they stunned the Kiwis.
If they do, they will once again meet Australia in the semi finals as they did in 2017. In fact it will be the fourth consecutive tournament that the two have faced off in the last four.
But to some what happened on the field plays second to the talking point which has dominated in the World Cup: attendances.
This has been a constant discussion point with some claiming tickets are two expensive during a cost of living crisis.
Last night 8,206 fans attended the quarterfinal clash which is a similar attendance as the one recorded at the Riverside Stadium last week as Tonga and Cool Islands met in the last group stage game and is above the tournament average of 6,000.
It doesn’t break into five digits unlike the 10,000 at St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium, the 13,000 at Leeds Rhinos’ Headingley Stadium for Australia vs Fiji or indeed the 14,000 at the same venue for New Zealand vs Ireland last week.
That said, outside of England games, last nights attendance was inside the top five for the tournament.
