Ideas for kickstarting international league
Roar Pro
By wallythefly, 18 Oct 2008 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- France, NRL, NSW, NZ, PNG, QLD, Rugby League, Super League, Tonga
With the World Cup coming up, and the understandable talk about its legitimacy, I’ve put together a few ideas for some representative tournaments or games that can be played after the NRL and Super League seasons.
The first proposal is for a World Club Championship.
No, not the one-off trial match that’s played in England every year, but instead, to make the finals race more exciting, why not have the top teams that make the top four or five of the NRL and the Super League play off in a World Cup-style tournament.
The second idea is for a three match series between the best players in the NRL up against the best of the Super League.
This wouldn’t be a hypothetical Australia versus England, but rather the NRL All Stars would involve Australians and well as the Kiwis and any other nationality that was good enough to make the side.
Likewise, the same would apply to the Super League side.
Next, there could be a World Origin.
Australia is so dominant in rugby league that I think it justifies splitting us up.
Instead, have five teams made up of NSW, QLD, New Zealand, Great Britain, and Emerging Nations (which is a euphemism for ‘rest of the world’).
This would be a much more even competition than the Tests and would certainly have a huge amount of interest in Australia – more so than the Internationals.
The Tri-Nations?
Of course, Australians will want to represent their country, so the Tri-Nations would remain.
At around the same time, I’d propose having another tournament between all other league nations, a ‘minnows’ World Cup for want of a better word featuring PNG, France, Tonga, and maybe even a Maori and Aboriginal side.
If rugby league still feels it needs a World Cup, then go for it. Maybe there should also be a play-off for the bowl and plate like there is in Rugby 7s, and give the smaller nations another shot at some silverware.
So a five year representative cycle would be
Year one: World Club Championship
Year two: NRL All Stars v Super League All Stars
Year three: World Origin; New South Wales, Queensland, NZ, Great Britain and Emerging Nations
Year four: Tri-Nations; Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia (and all other teams in another tournament)
Year five: World Cup
What do other Roar readers think?
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- Explore:
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NUFCMVFC said | October 18th 2008 @ 8:14am | Report comment
I’d have to say these are some pretty good ideas in context of Rugby League actually
sheek said | October 18th 2008 @ 6:33pm | Report comment
One mistake I think people make, is to assume any sport requires an international profile, in order to thrive. Sometimes, such an ambition is simply counterproductive.
The AFL have demonstrated conclusively that you don’t need an international profile to corner the market. Doing well in your ‘target’, in this case, domestic market, is what counts. Ditto American Football.
On the other hand, ARU CEO John O’Neill has tied the success of his code to the ongoing success of the Wallabies. Which is fine while the national team keeps winning. Players & fans to the game have steadily declined since the highwater mark of 2001-02, as the Wallabies struggle for consistent success.
Rugby league should stop pretending to be something it isn’t. It has a very strong support base in within the Australian NRL & English superleague. This is its strength. Stop pretending the game is bigger on the international stage. It isn’t. Furthermore, it’s embarassing trying to pretend otherwise.
When the rugby league world cup first began back in 1954, there were only 4 countries – Great Britain, Australia, France & New Zealand. Such was the even spread of talent back then, you only needed the 4 countries anyway. Indeed, so strong were the other 3 countries that Australia, despite possessing legendary players like Clive Churchill & Ken Kearney, sometimes finished 4th out of 4 teams!
The Rugby World Cup comprises 20 teams, but for all the bluster of the IRB that the game is expanding, only 4 countries have won the cup, while only 5 are likely to win at any time. This is unlikely to change in the next 20 years. Those 5 countries are Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England & France.
So rugby league should concentrate on its strengths – NRL domestic comp, superleague domestic comp, state-of-origin, ashes series, trans-Tasman tests. Peel the world cup back to 4-5 countries if necessary – Great Britain, Australia, France, new Zealand, & maybe PNG.
The AFL have demonstrated in Australia, & the NFL in the USA, that you don’t need an international profile, if you get your domestic profile right.
sheek said | October 18th 2008 @ 7:43pm | Report comment
Wallythefly,
While your suggestion of an orgin concept involving NSW, Queensland, NZ, GB & emerging nations is well intentioned, it’s a humiliating blow to the internationsal status of these other countries.
This goes even further. In the past we’ve had a Lebanon & Italian team made up entirely of Australian premier league & park players. Then there’s the concept of splitting national teams in two – NSW & Queensland; Kangaroos & Aborigines; Kiwis & Maoris.
This is what I mean by embarassing, although well intentioned. Further, it’s demeaning for the sport. Accept your weaknesses, work on your strengths.
Ian Noble said | October 18th 2008 @ 8:13pm | Report comment
Sheek
You are absolutely right about an interrnational profile. If you take the England football and rugby teams internationally they have been been pretty poor in the last few years yet both football and rugby at grassroots level have thrived. I saw a stat last week that there are 42,000 registered football clubs in England ranging from the local pub side to professional clubs with 1.5M registered players. In rugby according to an IRB stat there are 400,000 pre teen boys and girls registered to play rugby with various clubs.
You only need a very small proportion of these players to come through and play at international level. The problem is identifing out of all these players who are good enough, an awful lot will slip through the net. It is only in the last three years that the RFU have established an elite player structure under the direction of Rob Andrew. Yet the girls and boys who have played the sport at grassroots are the future supporters, the merchandise buyers and the TV viewers of the future. You ignore it at your peril.
It is obviously a longer game plan to nuture grassroots, but concentrating primarily on the international profile to the detriment of the grassroots will be counter productive in the long run.
On the RWC, don’t forget Argentina came close to making the final of RWC2007. I am not saying that the traditional order will change over night but as players from the second/third tiers play more in the European leagues and Cup competitions they will be more of a force. The performances of Fiji, Portugal, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and USA in the pools made people realise what progress these countries had made. They all might have lost some heavily, but there were patches were they played absolutely brilliantly. If only they could do it for 80 mins.
Steffy said | October 19th 2008 @ 12:34am | Report comment
Nation v Nation, that’s all that is required although I would like to see more international club games – the world club challenge is always one of the highlights of the rugby year for me and it would be good to extend it to feature more clubs but with the club rugby season already rather too long I can’t see it happening.
mtngry said | October 19th 2008 @ 8:24pm | Report comment
the biggest problem with league internationally is that it is club driven, unless you can get the clubs to agree to it, nothing will happen.
Tim said | October 20th 2008 @ 11:55am | Report comment
The ‘World Cup Challenge’ is a joke because it is scheduled at such a time when both teams no longer retain the rosters that made them champions, and in such a manner that the Australian team is critically short of match fitness and practice. The game is billed as a ‘best of the best’ fixture, yet pits two teams who no longer have the players and combinations that made them the best of their region against one another at a time when one of them hasn’t played a serious game in months.
Look at the ’06 WCC. St Helens’ victory over the Broncos was effectively an empty victory because results during the ensuing NRL season demonstrated that the Broncos were a shadow of their ’06 Premiership side. St Helens hadn’t beaten the best the NRL had to offer – it’d beaten an outfit that barely managed a top 8 finish and were bounced in the first week of the finals in humiliating fashion. If the Broncos had won, a similar argument could be made about St Helens, which was also missing crucial players from the triumph the year before and was not, in any way, shape, or form, the same side that had won the competition. What’s the point of a ‘beat of the best’ game when neither team is ‘the best’ any longer?
Expanding the concept to become a full blown tournament would not fix the matter; the concept is laughable because the Rugby League calender leaves no room for it to take place under favourable conditions.
brad said | October 20th 2008 @ 8:31pm | Report comment
mate rugby league has problems… the players have gone soft, prices are to high for everything and fans are dying off. good ideas you have but doubt they will have any affect. the smaller nations definately need more experience and players should play for the country they were born in not pick and choose. its annoying to see players switching countries every time this comp comes up. basically RUGBY LEAGUE AT THE MOMENT IS A JOKE. we need to concentrate on making it a joy to watch again. although the games have been close and the skill is rising the game was formed around people putting their bodies on the line for the game they love, we still do that out in the bush but on tv its just 34 big fit men acting like kids whingeing about everything they can.its ridiculous
Tim said | October 21st 2008 @ 2:17am | Report comment
‘players should play for the country they were born in not pick and choose.’
The eligibility laws reflect the reality that loyalty and patriotic feelings do not necessarily, or even logically, align with a place of birth. Is a player whose parents immigrate to Australia when he is one year old any less of an Australian than the player who is born there? How about the player born in Australia, who moves to the U.K when he is one – is he more Australian than he is British?
How about the hypothetical gifted player, born in a country that does not play League, who spends his whole career in Australia? Should he be barred from playing international games at all?
No code on earth strictly enforces a place of birth clause because it’s restrictive and inherently prejudicial.
Steffy said | October 21st 2008 @ 3:37am | Report comment
“The ‘World Cup Challenge’ is a joke because it is scheduled at such a time when both teams no longer retain the rosters that made them champions”
So in that respect it’s like all club competitions which clubs qualify for – the Champions League, The Heineken Cup etc.