The three venues that should host the 2024 England Samoa Test Series

The dust is settling on England’s impressive series clean sweep over Tonga but it’s not too early to look ahead to the proposed 2024 arrival of another Pacific Island nation, with Samoa set to travel north and face Shaun Wane’s side.

It was announced back in April in line with the mid-season international against France that the Tongans would be touring, whilst talk of the Samoans coming over for 2024 started heating up and has since been verbally confirmed. All that is needed now is the official announcement confirming when and more importantly where the games will be held.

The three stadiums selected for this Tonga series were St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium, Huddersfield’s John Smith’s Stadium and then finally Leeds’ Headingley Stadium, three Super League venues from right in the rugby league heartlands which delighted many, but also disappointed those who wanted the games to be taken further afield.

Across the three tests it was Headingley that received the best turn out in spite of the fact the game was a dead rubber, England having already secured the series after winning the opening two tests. Saturday’s clash at Headingley recorded an impressive attendance of 15,477, even more than the Australia New Zealand match down under did on the same day.

It’s clear that there’s a huge passion for rugby league in West Yorkshire with Headingley seemingly the best venue for it, given test two at Huddersfield saw just 11,210 turn out. That figure was the lowest of the series with the opening test at St Helens having recorded an attendance of 12,898.

It would seem from that then that when Samoa do visit in 2024 that Headingley is vital for a successful series from the commercial angle of the game. A trip across the M62 should also be considered, but how about taking the game away from the heartlands for a third test?

These are the three venues that should be selected to host England and Samoa in the autumn of 2024.

Test One – Brentford Community Stadium, London

As brilliant as it would be to take international rugby league down to London and fill out the likes of Wembley, the Emirates or even the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the sad reality is that our sport doesn’t have that pull – at least not against Samoa in a none World Cup game.

Instead heading to Brentford’s Community Stadium would make a lot of sense with the ground being a new build, opened in September 2020, and holding a realistic capacity of 17,250. Filling out a London venue to kick off the series would be a brilliant statement to make about spreading the game beyond the heartlands, and it would also be an incredible atmosphere too.

Test Tw0 – MKM Stadium, Hull

Some will argue that a test should be held in Lancashire and on the other side of the M62 but that M62 split is so divisive that ultimately some fans will always have to travel. In this instance they’d have to travel to Hull which has shown what a huge passion it has for the sport as a city, as evidenced by the growth around Hull KR at the moment. Humberside is a hotbed of rugby league that is set to erupt and an international fixture there could be hugely beneficial to the sport.

Moreover, as a facility the MKM is brilliant and hopefully on the back of a sold-out first test the RFL should make an ambitious ploy to fill a larger football stadium with it’s 25,000 capacity certainly attainable. In 2018 when New Zealand faced England at the MKM, named the KCOM at the time, a crowd of 17,649 turned up and the RFL should be looking to break that and push for a 20,000 plus crowd to highlight the strides the game has made since then.

Test Three – Headingley, Leeds

This one is self-explanatory really. Why change what isn’t broken? Sure, the game wasn’t a sell-out completely but it was comfortably the best-attended game of the series and it offered up the best atmosphere as well. For too long England hadn’t played at Headingley, the last non-friendly game prior to Saturday being at the World Cup in 2000. It cannot be another 23 years before England play at Headingley again.