By james
November 17th 2008 @ 7:33am
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Simple ways to improve rugby league internationally
Watching the Rugby League World Cup, I have seen some great football from minnow nations. And I can’t help but think what a shame it is that Australia is so dominant and no one can come close to them.
However there are a few ways in which we could improve the international standard of rugby league.
1) More international competitions - Every year most countries should be competing internationally against one another, the introduction of more competitions needs to be considered. I can already think of a few - a pacific island cup, European cup, a competition involving the USA and Canada would also be good.
2) Stricter eligibility rules - Players should not be allowed to chop and change countries to represent. I think for the initial 10 years you must represent the country you are born in (to try and compete with the desire to play origin). After this time players can pick one country to represent and must play for them for their career.
3) Academies in other countries - This is a bit audacious, and I understand difficult due to financial issues, but it could be aided by the ARL, NRL, RLIF. Every NRL team has one academy in a different country, which would be a feeder for them in addition to the under 20s. They would scout the top 25 players from that country and develop them. Due to the strict eligibility rules they would not differ to Australian status.
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El Capitan said | November 17th 2008 @ 8:57am | Report comment
james,
Sounds good in theory, however, teams like England have learnt that if they open the flood gates to let other nations play, you get a good comp, but a sh*thouse national team. Australia is so strong, due to the number of players they can choose from. If the NRL accepted more foreign player, they would end up like England.
Good point on the internationals though. RL needs to play more internationals with the lesser teams, and perhaps even the jnr kangaroos, to help develope these nations to be playing against teams that are conditioned to NRL standard.
Big Kev said | November 17th 2008 @ 9:14am | Report comment
come on dude. NRL clubs and SL clubs are hardly loaded - Cronulla just had to borrow 500k to pay their wages!
As for the international matches - who is going to pay for the costs to host these, flights etc? There are very low player numbers and very low interest. Crowd numbers will be very low, no-one will buy the games for TV… come on.
Plus I am pretty sure they actually have most of those games you suggest in place - thing is there is zero interest. Even the Pacific Cup, which probably has more merit than all the rest - imagine Fiji without their NRL stars. Who would pay to watch that, even in Fiji. With their NRL stars? Well (a) the guys all want to play for Aus so would not make themselves available (b) they would not do it without pay and (c) the costs to host such a tournament would not be covered by ticket sales and TV revenue.
oikee said | November 17th 2008 @ 9:27am | Report comment
James there is many many ways to help the international game. Something that has really brought forward the importance of having internationals is the talent in the minnow nations. The Fiji amatuer team they showcased last night is one reason we need to keep developing these countries, more players in the queensland and nsw comps is a start. Another thing that we need to do is let rabs warren retire and also dissmiss Gus Gould as a commentator, its hurting the game. A comment made by Gus last night was the final straw, i quote “Jarad hayne is playing himself back into a Australian fullback jumper” ????
This is real worrying signs for the growth of the international game, along with players like Toupo, Hunt and others who could and should be playing for their countries of birth. What is wrong with us as a country, are we scared of losing or dont we want to expand the international scene.
All or most of the Australian team should switch to union and start playing for the Super 14’s just to help the local comp and make the NRL weaker. Sounds harsh i know but i cant enjoy any more of this farse, to be honest the Kangaroos are just to good, lets move them on to another sport where they would get better competition.
Ian Noble said | November 17th 2008 @ 9:52am | Report comment
Wally
Precisely my point Deans has obviously worked hard on coaching the basics and the Ws have responded well, they know how to win matches which will make them more formidable in the future. ELV’s or not, test matches are hard tense affairs and between two well matched sides it makes gripping exciting rugby. Yesterdays defeat will have told Johnston more about the squad members than a win, however desirable that may be.
The remaining tests in this current series may be too early but I hope we shall start to see an improvement during the 6Ns as the combinations in the backs gell and he gets to grip with the scrum particularly the front five were there are obvious deficiencies.
james said | November 17th 2008 @ 11:37am | Report comment
El Capitan, i think that initially it would not pose a problem to have foreign players in the NRL. and after a certain time period then restrictions could be placed on the teams. Also what you will find is that the domestic competitions of the other nations would improve due to unwanted NRL players moving back to their homeland. Its all good for international rugby league.
big kev, that is why i said we need the strict eligibilty rules, so there are some nrl players playing in these comps. Australia poaches most good players which is why we are so dominant. Also the RLIF could help get these competitions going.
Wallythefly said | November 17th 2008 @ 11:47am | Report comment
I posted something on here a few weeks ago, among a few others (that always get bagged when I bring them up
) was that during the Tri-Nations there should be a ‘minnow world cup’ (although you’d definitely want a better name than that.
So basically a 10 team comp sans Aust, NZ, Eng/GB.
That’s not the final answer to issues of getting these guys competitive against the top three but i think it could help.
I think a lot of the guys who could play for fiji or tonga rather than Aust would be more willing to do so if their team had more internationals.
I think this world cup has showed that league fans ARE interested in seeing tonga play samoa etc
sheek said | November 17th 2008 @ 1:32pm | Report comment
My suggestion is to have the many wonderful athletes thay play rugby league, to play rugby union instead. It’s ridiculous for example, that Fiji, Samoa & Tonga should split their meagre but potent talents between 2 rugby codes.
Let’s go for one combined, quality rugby code. Rugby union of course. But with all those magnificent rugby league playing athletes. Especially from Australia.
Lanky said | November 17th 2008 @ 2:27pm | Report comment
the other thing worth noting about Rugby Union is the 7 series. This is a true world series involving 20 teams from all around the world. Chances are this will be an Olympic sport soon and will grow significantly. Smaller countries like Fiji and Samoa have done very well over the years and Kenya and Tunisia have had some limited success. It really is a truly international game.
Steffy said | November 17th 2008 @ 7:46pm | Report comment
Sheek, merging rugby and union would just lead to 3 codes. I have no wish to watch union, so if rugby and union merged and played under union rules I wouldn’t watch it. People play and watch rugby because that’s what they want to play and watch - a merger wouldn’t stop that. When union went openly professional a lot of the union media types were predicting the death of rugby as though the only reason people watched and played rugby was because union used to pretend to be amateur. That was shown up as a nonsense, a merger will get similar short shrift.
netrug said | November 17th 2008 @ 9:43pm | Report comment
Steffy,
Rugby is Rugby and league is league. League is not Rugby.
The IRB law book says it is the “laws of Rugby’. The RLIF law book says it is the “laws of the game” So league is actually a game with no name. League broke away from Rugby and changed some rules so you cannot call it by the same name. It is like calling American football by the name of Rugby because itv derived rfrom it.
Steffy said | November 17th 2008 @ 9:51pm | Report comment
netrug, the northern union didn’t stop playing rugby when they broke from the RFU - the game they played was rugby, the game their successors play is rugby. I happen to refer to the 2 games as rugby and union - you might choose to refer to them differently.
netrug said | November 17th 2008 @ 10:13pm | Report comment
Sorry Steffy, you are wrong in the way you described them. See the name of the games in the law books of each.
A union is the controlling body of various Rugby clubs
Steffy said | November 17th 2008 @ 10:19pm | Report comment
Sorry, netrug, you are wrong. The names in the law books are of no consequence at all.
A league is a competition, rugby clubs play in various leagues - and some union clubs but in many places that is only a recent phenomenon.
sheek said | November 17th 2008 @ 10:23pm | Report comment
Nutreg,
Rugby union fans need to be very careful about ownership of the word & game “rugby”. Union was very fluid back in the decades before it finally codified its laws around the late 1860s, early 1870s.
For example, the kicking ‘forcings back’ (which we played as kids) popular with rugbyites in the 1850s became the fundamental cornerstone of Australian football.
Believe it or not, the ‘down’ rule in American football came from rugby as it was played roughly around the same time. When league was looking for something to differentiate itself from union, it didn’t come out of “left field”.
The leagueies actually went back to the early days of union, perhaps again around the 1850s, & developed the ‘play the ball’ from the ‘down’ concept.
There is a body of thinking that, depending on when you took your time machine back to the 1800s, you will find as much evidence of styles of play we recognise today in league as we do in union. Oh the horror, the horrror…..
An uncomfortable thought for unionites that we don’t exclusively own the origins of the game, but there you have it. Also probably explains why some old rugby types ‘invented’ the William Webb Ellis story as a spurious means of establishing ownership.
netrug said | November 17th 2008 @ 10:43pm | Report comment
In France league was known as jeu de treize until a court case a few years ago and was allowed to be called Rugby de treize.
Of course William Webb Ellis story is a myth. You could always run with the ball otherwise he would have been penalised. it was seen as “not the done thing” to run with it. it was a gradual shift when the laws of 1845 were introduced at Rugby School.
Dridiron’s scoring another touchdown for two points instead of kicking a goal for one point comes from Rugby’s “running in”. As a try was worth nothing, you ran the ball in for another try so you could get a try at goal closer to the posts.
Steffy said | November 17th 2008 @ 11:14pm | Report comment
netrug, after the end of World War 2 rugby was again allowed to be played in France (the reason for the ban has been well covered) the governing body of rugby in France had to get the sport officially recognised by a national sports body. Naturally some powerful figures in union sought to deny them that recognition (union in france has a particularly nasty history of such acts) and lobbied other sports bodies to deny rugby official recognition. However, rugby managed to get enough other sporting organisations to back their bid but union lobbied to deny them the use of the word “rugby” - which they were succesful at so the game had to be known as Jeu a treize until relatively recently.
It’s a great shame that in australia the rugby league authorities are ignorant of the history of their code and are actively helping union to gain hegemony of the word “rugby”.
Should union ever succeed in getting sole use of the word “rugby” it will be a black day indeed and a triumph for those corrupt and dishonourable men who have populated union over the years,.
Westy said | November 17th 2008 @ 11:28pm | Report comment
I do not know about overseas but it appears way back in 1908 all was not that simple………some in NSWRU were willing to put a compromise as to consistent standard rather than the previous discretionary travel/medical compensation to representative players and guidelines for clubs…..Overuled to seek “international” solidarity…and we in Australia have been paying for it ever since….it appears the NZers just did it …………..Dally was important …but by late 30’s we had lost 2/3 of amateur players to amateur league……..I think our administrators fucked up but guess who wrote the history.
netrug said | November 18th 2008 @ 9:16am | Report comment
Sorrry, but Rugby is the name of the game. The word football has been dropped ans just plain Rugby. League is another sport that even the controlling body cannot give a name.
Rugby is known both in the law books and in every country as Rugby.
League is known as league , Rugby league, Rugby for thirteen or in the case of Russia, rogbilig.
You must be from Victoria, Steffy, as they are the only ones to confuse the two.
oikee said | November 18th 2008 @ 11:34am | Report comment
I would love to call rugby league across the world Super League. But i now see the rugby rah rahs getting use of this wording as well.
Lanky said | November 18th 2008 @ 1:14pm | Report comment
Steffy - you might be right about a merger leading to 3 codes, but the fact is when the game split way back in 1908, they were exactly the same, so it was an easy decision for the players (and fans) to “switch” - of course the games have grown apart and now there is a cultural divide that can probably never be bridged. Having said that there are probably more fans who watch both codes here in Aus than you would imagine - probably 50% of all Union fans would watch League and vice versa.
If there is enough push for the international game to grow, there might be some groundswell among League players, administrators and fans for a merger but I doubt it. More likely that in years to come (remember Union has only been pro for a very short period) Union will end up as the professional sport with all the top athletes, while League will be a semi pro club competition in Aus and Northern England followed by the passionate die hards.
oikee said | November 18th 2008 @ 2:35pm | Report comment
Sounds good on paper lanky, you are forgeting one slight simple fact. What game of Union will you be hoping is going to replace State of Origin. Any ideas there . ?
Jessie said | November 19th 2008 @ 2:41pm | Report comment
Only one problem. To get games between Canada and the USA, you’d first have to get Canada actually playing rugby league.
As far as I know hardly a sole has picked up a Steeden there for nearly a decade. There are tumbleweeds as far as rugby league goes in downtown Toronto, the game there is truly dead as the dodo. There is more chance of rugby league being played in Tasmania.
Union is growing fast in Canada, but rugby league there is such a joke in Canada that its profile actually makes the AFL presence there look impressive :O
Converting union players is the only chance, but with some of the anti-union attitudes coming out of comments here, I’d say that nigh a possibility. And then if the national team is made up of all washed up union converts it does absolutely nothing for the credibility of the international game.
oikee said | November 19th 2008 @ 4:38pm | Report comment
I am afraid Union is the world game, no good trying to deny this fact. The games played overseas at the moment were all sold out and massive crowds. League needs to get 2 extra players on the feild, contess scrums and get a line out going so they then can compete, also call it rugby.