By Steve Jancetic
October 17th 2008 @ 1:29am
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Emerging nations using World Cup as springboard for growth
The 2008 Rugby League World Cup is about much more than just wins and losses for the seven emerging nations taking part in the tournament.
While none are expected to challenge the might of Australia, England and New Zealand for the right to contest the November 22 final in Brisbane, the competition is seen as a platform for growth.
Whether it be harnessing the enormous talent pool in the Pacific island nations of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji or restoring a former powerhouse such as France, the 2008 World Cup is about building for the future.
“The players, they can’t all play for Australia or New Zealand. These emerging nations, they want to get their own identity, especially the islands,” Tonga coach Jim Dymock said.
“Hopefully this won’t be the last of games for the emerging nations, hopefully we can keep doing it every year and get more games for them.
“If we get more games I think, you’ll see more of the boys playing for the islands - like the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga.”
A sign of the changing times is evident in the strength of the Tongan and Samoan squads.
While New Zealand selectors were given first crack at all eligible players, veterans such as Samoan pair Tony Puletua and Ali Lauititi and Tongan brothers Fraser and Louis Anderson asked to be overlooked by the Kiwis in favour of playing for the place of their ancestry.
“A lot of the boys want to put their hand up for Tonga so we can lay down a strong platform so that younger players coming through the ranks can opt to play for Tonga,” Tongan prop Lopini Paea said.
“It’s more than just playing for the nation, we’re really trying to push forward for the future of Tonga as well.”
Tonga appear favourites to emerge from pool 3 to book one place in the semi-final qualifier, but first they have to overcome Samoa in their preliminary match in Penrith on October 31.
The winner of that game will almost certainly progress through to meet the winner of pool 2, likely to be either Fiji or France, for the right to join the top three sides from pool 1 in the semi-finals.
“There’s a big history between Tonga and Samoa. They’re next door neighbours and obviously there’s a lot of war in the history,” Paea said.
“That’s all done and dusted now but I suppose that rivalry still hangs in there.”
For the other teams, just making it to the final 10 sides is an honour in itself.
Ireland could be up against it to get a win against either Tonga and Samoa, but they are sure to get plenty of support from the Irish community with their two matches to be played at Parramatta Stadium.
Likewise Scotland could also struggle on the scoreboard against both France and Fiji in pool 2.
“I myself was quite surprised they got up and won,” Scotland and Bulldogs prop Chris Armit said of his side’s qualifying win over Wales.
“They ended up getting through on aggregate (differential), but they’ve done pretty well to get this far.”
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True Tah said | October 17th 2008 @ 7:21am | Report comment
7 emerging nations?
PNG have been playing the game since the 1950s, France have been competing in world cups since the 1950s.
Are these emerging?
Scotland and Ireland have even yet to be reborn as RL nations.
Millster said | October 17th 2008 @ 8:03am | Report comment
Also - disputes about whether the “emerging” tag is right in each case aside - does it not worry you that you can identify 7 emerging nations in a World Cup of 10 nations total? Seems a bit fragile and structurally unbalanced to me…
Pippinu said | October 17th 2008 @ 8:36am | Report comment
Being a lover of the indigenous game, I can’t really criticise League for trying something like this. But I will add a couple of things:
1. Upon being introduced to League in the early to mid 80s, I have a recollection that there was some sort of World Cup that involved the five main nations: Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, PNG and France. I think it was on a sort of round robin basis, but the majority of the games were quite competitive. That looked like a good basis to build a regular, enduring international comp, but it seemed to fall away immediately afterwards. It seems to me that it is only a small jump from those five to having a viable international series of 8 nations, split into two groups of four.
2. One thing I am not liking at the moment is the switching of players from the island nations to the larger, more developed nations. If there is one thing that will kill the credibility and viability of the comp - it is precisely that. Surely we should be going out of our way to see the flow go the other way, rather than favouring the established nations?
3. This is a personal, biased view - but for me, there can only ever be one world cup, full stop. Having said that, I agree with TT that League has every right to have a periodic international championship that pits all League playing nations against each other - a better choice of name might be the way to go.
Pippinu said | October 17th 2008 @ 8:37am | Report comment
oops - I’ve put the above post on the wrong thread! doh!
oikee said | October 17th 2008 @ 9:26am | Report comment
Thats slowly changing PiP, the island nations are now starting to wake up and there players are becoming prouder of there nations so more are inclined to play for there country. Also add the fact that a increase of around 20% more isalanders are going to be playing the game come next world cup will see the island nations taken very seriously come next world cup. The devolopment is slow but its getting there. Australias rein is fast coming to a end, i also mentioned that there is a pacific nations tournament next year, the funds from this world cup will assist with that, unlike soccer we dont have billions to throw around.
The growth of super league will help ireland and scotland also wales to have stronger teams, france also needs to build in strength and will given time.