Smith coaches both England and Warrington

England coach Tony Smith hopes the 2013 World Cup in the UK will increase the profile of the sport in the country.

He told BBC Radio Manchester: "It's exciting for our sport, it's exciting for England.

"It's good for our game because it's going to give us much more exposure than we would normally get - and we need all the exposure we get.

"It will introduce more people to the game and, usually, when we introduce people to our game we keep them."

He added: "The more we can get out there and show the rest of the population what a great game we've got the more chance there is of our game growing and more participants and more audience.

They have to come from down under to play in our conditions, on our fields and maybe under our rules as well England coach Tony Smith

"So it's good all round really and it's going to be a great event. We always stage great events over here and I'm sure it'll be well supported.

"It gives us that little edge as well. They have to come from down under to play in our conditions, on our fields and maybe under our rules as well.

"We had to go down there and compete under their circumstances which still annoys and irritates and let's hope we can get the advantage this time ourselves so I look forward to that.

"England will do really well at the next World Cup and we're doing a lot behind the scenes to make sure we are preparing the best we can. So it should make for a great tournament."

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