Samoa 62-4 France records strong attendance at Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones Stadium

Many have been critical of the attendances during the rugby league world cup, a narrative which began at Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones Stadium on the second day of the tournament.

That day, only 5,000 fans attended New Zealand vs Lebanon in the Kiwis’ opening game of the tournament as Michael Maguire’s world number one ranked side rocked into town with many expecting a bumper crowd to see the stars take to the field much like the 13,000 who watched Australia at Headingley against Fiji the night before.

The 5,000 in attendance was in stark contrast to the 15,000 fans who attended New Zealand’s first game of the last World Cup in England back in 2013 and World Cup Chief Executive Jon Dutton himself described it as “disappointing.”

However, since then there have been some fantastic attendances such as the two England games which followed which sustained the positivity of the 43,000 fans who attended their opener with 23,000 at Bolton last week and 18,000 in Sheffield this week.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s game with Ireland this week at Headingley with 14,000 in attendance.

Tonga vs Papua New Guinea attracted 10,000 fans whilst 8,000 went to the Riverside Stadium for Tonga vs Cook Islands.

Also yesterday, 5,000 watched Jamaica vs Lebanon at Leigh Leopards’ Leigh Sports Village whilst back at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, 6,756 attended the game between Samoa and France as the Samoans again established themselves as one of the favourites for the tournament and set up a huge quarter-final clash against Tonga next week which could be the biggest and best quarter-final in the tournament’s history.