"At least 12 of the 16 clubs want to go and that is great news given that last year we were at three. I think that shows how successful it was and how good the NRL club experience was there, which is really important as they felt they were looked after and it is a concept that was worth participating in.

"It was always the worry that if they didn't start the season well people would say that it was because they went to England for the World Club Series but as it is Brisbane, St George Illawarra and South Sydney are three of the top five teams at the moment so it has worked pretty well."

Solly said the WCS had also provided a boost to the code in Britain, which recently attracted a crowd of 40,871 for the opening day of the Magic Weekend at Newcastle FC's St James Park.

"It was great to get the opportunity to build on the relationships we developed in February and report back to the NRL clubs about the success of the World Club Series and in some ways the impact it had on the sport in the UK, which without that presentation may have gone unnoticed," he said.

"It was good to be able to show not only the success of the matches, not only from a commercial point of view but all the work that went along with it that meant that the profile of Super League and the start of the season was bigger than it otherwise would have been."