![\"England](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1_England.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe bigger the stage, the better.<\/p>\n
England forward Mike McMeeken.(Image: SW PIX)<\/p>\n
Mike McMeeken has one key solution for the development of British rugby league: play more big games.<\/p>\n
That goes for both the Super League and the England national side, with the domestic game seeing another competition fixture successfully played in Las Vegas last weekend and the national side facing Australia in a three-match Ashes series last autumn.<\/p>\n
And for both domestic and national scenes to continue to develop and thrive, the Wakefield Trinity and England prop wants to see more big events on both fronts, with the Super League set for Paris later this year and expected to take games to Barcelona and Dublin next season.<\/p>\n
In turn, it\u2019s hoped the exposure to the big occasion will give England \u2013 who head down under for a World Cup later this year \u2013 the chance to do the one thing they desire most: beat the Aussies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be exposed to those big games in international stadiums more often,\u201d McMeeken told All Out Rugby League. \u201cAustralia, by the sounds of it, are keen to keep the Ashes going, which is massive, and we’ve proved there’s a hunger for the games here by selling out the stadiums.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make it more competitive, we’ve got to be involved in those big games more often, both nationally and domestically.\u201d<\/p>\n
The consensus is those big games, both domestically and internationally, will help England in the big tournaments, and McMeeken is backing them to develop the side.<\/p>\n
He said: “You look at rugby union, and ten years ago there was a massive gap between some nations, the top three in the Six Nations, for example, but over the years it’s become a bigger and more competitive league.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole Six Nations is competitive and you don’t know who is going to win. That\u2019s how it needs to be in rugby league.\u201d<\/p>\n
McMeeken \u2013 who will lead Wakefield out against Hull FC this Thursday night \u2013 also believes there\u2019s an appetite for the big occasion, and that was proved by the Ashes series and also by strong sales for Magic Weekend this July.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople look at the Ashes negatively in terms of the results, and rightfully so,” he said. “In terms of the results, we were way off it and 3-0 doesn’t look good on paper, but as a spectacle, it was unreal.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have the first game at Wembley and then the next two games at Everton’s new stadium, sold out \u2013 the atmosphere for that was one of the best I’ve ever been involved in.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then the last game at Headingley, to get another sell-out in the heartland of rugby league, was great.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can now take that experience of playing Australia in big games forward into the Super League and to the World Cup this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what it takes now to compete. They’re on it for 80 minutes defensively, so to break them down, you’ve got to come up with something big.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving more big games will only help us do that. We just need more of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bigger the stage, the better. England forward Mike McMeeken.(Image: SW PIX) Mike McMeeken has one key solution…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-519734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}