43k is a great crowd considering it was a against Samoa, only 2k less than 2013's opener but that was against Australia and also a double header with Wales involved.

Lots of locals there today and many at their first game of Rl who had not been to magic before but went because it was England

Hopefully that continues.



The good thing about the BBC showing every game is that we had RL stories on the homepage where you could see them rather than needing to be a high level hacker to find them.



If we can have a strong tournament it could be the shot in the arm the game needs.

I noticed that, lots of England rugby union shirts in the crowd, hopefully got lots of locals and first time fans engaged. The big win today will hopefully boost ticket sales for the rest of the tournament too.

Samoa's attitude and approach to the game was a disgrace. It was either a protest performance to show how unhappy they are with Matt Parish being their coach, or it was a thoroughly distasteful display of unprofessionalism. Are you telling me the likes of To'o and Luai would put in a performance as gutless as that for Penrith? I doubt it.



You could see a few of their players were shocked during the game. It seems like a group of their players at least were of the opinion they could just turn up and beat England.

Hey Aussie Troll you are Gus Gould "England can't beat Samoa" !! do you even care how stupid you continually look ?

Dom Young is signed for Newcastle Knights for 2023, but is free to negotiate for 2024 and beyond from Nov 1st.

As a Newcastle Knights fan, I can just see him getting 100k more expensive to sign every time he runs on the field.

Apart from being 6'7" and one of the fastest players in RL, he is also, intelligent, motivated, level headed and likeable.

Damn it, I wish he was a bit of a jerk, we might have a chance to keep him if he was.

At first I thought 13k for the Australia game was a bit disappointing but then remembered this game swapped with Hull as the MKM isn't available today.



So two games in one weekend in Leeds and many travelling up to Newcastle for the England game too.



The smaller games on weeknights will give a sign as to how sales are going overall.

Great to hear, while I know the future of Magic Weekend is uncertain surely it makes sense to return to Newcastle next year and I'd be offering everyone with a North East postcode the same discount season ticket holders get.



What we cant do is what happened in 2013 where we got a southern accent heavy Wembley crowd engrossed in an all time classic and then decided not to play even one test at home for years!

What a bizarre comment, though you do have previous eh ? Up the Centurions

The shirt issue still riles me. I saw loads of RU all white and a simple rose. Good simple design easy to wear as casual wear.

The England RL is just for sale to the diehards. It will have no wider appeal.



I asked my daughter if she wanted an England RL shirt and she said she preferred the RU one.