A £250,000 bid to stage the first international sports tournament in the Tees Valley since the 1966 World Cup is set to include a drive to host the world’s top team in Darlington.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said he was hoping to attract defending champions Australia, who have won the competition 11 of the 15 times it has been contested since 1954, to the town in 2021, following its successful hosting of the All Blacks rugby union side in 2015.

The move to host the Kangaroos, who would use Mowden Park RFC’s facilities and hotel Rockliffe Hall, in Hurworth, near Darlington, has been warmly welcomed by some members of Darlington Borough Council.

Councillor Doris Jones said: “It would be absolutely wonderful for Darlington, not only for rugby fans such as my husband and my grandson, but for all residents. I would love to go out and meet them.

“Having such a prestigious team here in Darlington would be a great coup.”

Mr Houchen, who said he had been working alongside the council’s leader Councillor Bill Dixon and chief executive Ada Burns on the project, said he would meet with Jon Dutton, chief executive of the Rugby League World Cup next week to try to progress “the Tees Valley bid”.

He said while it was hoped to secure one or two quarter-finals at the Riverside Stadium, the ambition was to secure for Darlington a large part of the support and training element and some of the women’s Rugby League World Cup.

Mr Houchen, a former rugby union player whose career was cut short by a serious injury, said hosting the tournament would showcase the area to a global audience, just as the Tour de France had done in Yorkshire.

He added: “There’s going to be a lot of community engagement, school engagement, potential investment for grass roots and then there’s the training side and the wheelchair Rugby League World Cup as well and a lot of that would be focused around Darlington rather than Middlesbrough.

“It’s the first time since the 1966 World Cup that the Tees  Valley have bid on a genuinely international tournament.

“We think we’re in a good position to get it. It just shows the seismic shift we have had in this region in recent years.”

Mr Houchen said the “massive appetite for sport in the Tees Valley”, which led to thousands turning out for an All Blacks open training session at Mowden Park in 2015, demonstrated its strength as a venue for the tournament.