Wembley return hailed a success with Sinfield urging a swift return

Saturday’s crowd of 42,344 was deemed a success by the governing body as they held back-to-back international matches at the national stadium for the first time.

The gate for Wales versus New Zealand and England against Australia was bigger than the last Wembley international – 41,135 when the Kangaroos defeated Great Britain in 1997 – and also the 41,271 figure for England’s 1995 victorious World Cup pool game over the Australians.

While the attendance was relatively low for Saturday’s opening game involving the Kiwis, prompting patronising flashes on the big screen urging “Rugby league fans to make some noise,” and there was also the ever-worrying sight of a Mexican Wave mid-game, the numbers had swelled by the time the main event occurred.

It was still massively short of the biggest crowd for an international game in this country when 73,631 people watched Steve Renouf edge Australia to a 1992 World Cup final win over Great Britain, but it was largely positive nonetheless.

When Leeds Rhinos winger Ryan Hall scored after just 11 minutes, there was certainly no need to raise the decibels artificially, as Wembley erupted.

His Headingley colleague Sinfield admitted: “I do think it’s got some life in it. It’s the third time I’ve lost here (Leeds have suffered defeats in the last two Challenge Cup finals) but to play here as a stadium is fantastic. However, to play for England here? There is no bigger occasion and no better venue, especially against the Australians. Hopefully it’ll be the start of something. It’s been a long time since we’ve been to Wembley as a nation – 14 years – but I think just like the Grand Final at Old Trafford has got bigger and better each season, hopefully this double-header can improve and increase crowds year-after-year too.”

There is no Four Nations planned for 2012 but a Wembley double-header could be staged as part of the 2013 World Cup and future Four Nations tournaments in this country.