good time to be perfecting that hybrid hydrogen/electric/solar car you’ve been tinkering on in the garage…..

Why …….. it comes down to expectations ……. most tho it would fall flat on its face and no one would come and watch …….whereas most games have had a few thousand ……the new island teams…. the future of a new kinda series of six nations all good stuff when the doom day Sayers said (and hoped) it’s gonna fall flat on it’s face ……. well it did not fall flat on its face ……. made lots of money …….it achieved much more than was expected and to me that means on that measurement it has been and outstanding success …… that’s is how you measure things against what performance was expected and what was achieved ……… measuring the RLWC against other sporting tournaments is wrong measure comparing a grape with a steak.

Well done to the ARL ……. achieved beyond expectations ……. that’s my measure……. and on this measure a outstanding successs.

Alright then, cop it on the chin, now why not use the Kangaroos as a money spinner, you challenge other nations to come up with a team to beat or play the Kangaroos on your home soil with the benefit of winning a huge purse if you beat them. I have thought this up for the very reason that league is going no=where compared to other sports.
So some nation puts out the challenge, any players they wish to choose from in the other leagues (super or NRL ) that are there players can be in there team. So if Fiji thinks it has the players to have a crack at beating the roos, they issue a challenge match, maybe played at suncorp, if england send out the challenge, then maybe wembley, if its russia then in their country. Anything else is not going to grow the game, its too late to try to get the international comp off the ground. But if you read my last post the Dinosaurs will always win.

Here is a plan, just off the top of my head:

- Take Australia, NZ, and England out of the equation for a ‘first phase’ – later on to be the core of a test series.

- Play the rest of the countries in an international cup. The winner gets into the test series above as a national team. PLUS a group of selectors pick an International all-stars team from the rest with the aim of giving those really talented players from teams who would not do well some profile (and hopefully get the players a gig in NRL or Super League).

- Split Australia into NSW and QLD origin teams, but making sure that those 2 teams don’t steal any player that has the chance to play for a non-Australian side (even the international all-stars).

You end up with 6 teams – NSW, QLD, NZ, England, the winning International Cup nation, and the International all-stars. This lets you run a 6 team series and at the same time the good players from the whole world of League have a chance to play in one team or another (e.g. if Fiji is shit overall but has a couple of real talents they can be showcased in the all-stars).

This might be completely loopy but hey… lets take the negativity around the current RLWC and turn it into positive ideas for building the game.

Finally, I agree with the notion of the RL – RU merger longer term so please read the ideas above as an interim solution to deal with the issue of League needing a much better structure for its internationals than it has now.

You’re right about rugby administrators & development officers only preaching to the already converted. It drives me nuts!

But there’s an element within rugby union, a very significant block element, that is happy to keep union as a boutique sport.

Sure, i would like to see the players join into a single effort to make Australia a world power, and by definition, this can only be in Rugby Union.

it is interesting to hear yesterday that the AFL is debt free and with 50M in the bank, building a centre of excellence (or something) in western sydney. This financial arrogance may bring them up quite short in the future. it is jsut a few years ago that RU had about the same amount of cash post RWC 2003 and in much better economic times. Anyway, let ‘em invest.

As for the young lads stepping down to union from rugby – Ashton was a loss but Wigan didn’t seem that keen to retain him, Myler was going nowhere and the Leeds lad who joined Newcastle had a great start in SL then couldn’t get in the first team.

The number of foreign players in SL is a concern but it’s not exactly the only sport to suffer from that. None of the players who played for the england rugby team in this years world cup are as bad as they appeared – what went wrong is open to debate.

I admit I’m one of those who doesn’t go to premier rugby club games, & haven’t done so for over a decade. The game of rugby I love was probably last played in about 2003!!! I’m living on memories……….

Our most successful Olympics sport? Swimming, which is basically middle-class white kids domain. More countries are enjoying success & competitiveness in this sport, but it ain’t like track & field athletics, where we basically suck.

Cricket? Tests played by 10 Countries, including those true world powers Bangladesh & Zimbabwe! We used to be somebodies in Tennis. Again, basically a middle class white kids domain. Until European poor kids realised they could belt the pants off the spoilt western brats if they were prepared to train twice as hard.

Rugby League? Realistically, there’s never been more than 4 competitive countries play this game. How can you get excited by your heroes when there’s so little international opposition? It’s even worse in Australian Football. We can carry on all we like about the Barassis & Whittens, but they only ever played against their fellow countrymen.

Rugby Union? More traction here, there being a genuine ‘first 5′ (Australia, NZ, SA, England & France) & a ’second 5′ (Argentina, Italy, Wales, Ireland & Scotland). You need a combination of forward power & backline dexterity in this sport. We’ve more often had more of the latter & less of the former. And we’re only occasionally “top dog” in this sport.

If we want real world respect for our sporting prowess, we’re going to have to do something special in association football. Until we become a world power in football, there will always be an asterix against Australia’s supposed sporting prowess.

Now lovers of domestic Australian football, rugby league, cricket, etc may not care. As long as the domestic sport they follow gives them their kick, they’re happy with that.

But from a world perspective, if we want the world to believe we’re as good as we ourselves think we are, then association football, track & field & rugby union, in that order, are the sports we should concentrate on. Otherwise, let’s not kid ourselves about how good we think we are!

Couple of points, perception is part of the development of any sport or professional. Beckham is probably an expection, but even Wayne Rooney has had training to improve his interview skills. League is not a joke but it needs to smarten up it’s act.

By the way the RFU have just concluded a new deal with Murdoch which includes more rugby union then ever before, with for the first time the Anglo Welsh cup and First Division rugby. I would like to the demographics of the subscribers to Sky as I suspect Murdochs game plan to break into the untapped AB market who don’t subscribe to Sky.

On Ireland v ABs, Graham Henry confirmed that the team playing was his strongest 15. The 2nd string played Scotland the week before.

Brian Nobles comments are very serious as if the progression of young English players is barred by foreign imports or if there is insufficient money in the game then it will not attract these players to the professional game. The SL is the breadwinner and the owners need to attract good quality players to make the SL exciting and therefore improve the viewing figures otherwise the TV revenue will decrease. Difficult balancing act in the short term fix with foreign players against the longer game plan of bringing through English talent. Some of whom are attracted to Union because of the bigger pay packets and greater International exposure, Ashton and Myler at Northampton and the young lad at Newcastle whose name I have forgotten at the moment of young players being enticed from league not the established stars. Some have not managed to convert such as Walker at Gloucester, but the chances of conversion are greater at that age than later; interesting times ahead.

What I was able to see was the Scotland A / Georgia played at Firhill by way of Georgian Public Television. I can tell you Georgia was hopeless against Scotland’s virtual third team. Admittedly, there were a lot of young players in the Georgian team due to the fact that French clubs would not release players. Given how well the Lelos play last year in the RWC, a lot more was expected and still have a long way to go.

The week before I saw the Russia / Spain Moscow game via Russian TV and the standard was quite good. It was probably a little below Super 14 . All the players knew exactly what they were doing ang used a lot of backline moves.

Georgia has the Australian, Tim Lane, as its coach and a Frenchman coaches Russia. Hopefully, this will help raise the standard.

Last European season, I saw games involving Russia, Romania, Portugal and Georgia and all were of a similar nature, all entertaining but a standard slightly below Super 14. So it appears a slow improvement rate is there despite Georgia’s debacle against Scotland A.

There is a move in Europe to get the six nations increased to eight and have promotion and relegation but can’t see the home unions agreeing to that

There have been some excellent games in the rugby league world cup, what’s your point?

I don’t really think any games are pointless but I keep reading and hearing about the rugby league world cup being pointless and a joke. If the people of Ireland were constantly bombarded with articles and reports saying union games against New Zealand are pointless and a joke how many do you think would show up?

Rugby has had over 100 years of sniping from other sports journalists (mostly, but not restricted to union journalists) – it got so bad in England not so long ago that a petition was raised and handed in at parliamnent – the chaps who started the petition wrote a book about their experiences – in reality it diodn’t change anything at all – but it did serve to highlight the hate which the code has had to endure from the media. The average chap in the street won’t read rugby articles in theor papers but he might read articles from feature writers and if they are telling him that rugby is a joke then that’s the impression he will be left with.

Ireland has never beaten New Zealand at Rugby Union but there have been numerous epic battles including 1992 at Carisbrook. Has the Irish Rugby League team ever beaten the New Zealand Rugby League team?

Rugby League is a great game, nuff said. The Rugby League World Cup is a joke, although a pretty bad one.

The Kangaroos go for the throat, its one bet you wont ever lose. As for Nobles comment about super league, all he is pointing out is the fact this league has still got catching up to do compared to NRL. As for super League in England, the last time i looked they had secured a good T/V deal with Sky and expanded the comp, along with having just sold the rights to channell 9 for not only super league, but also the Challenge Cup,,,, If thats going backwoods then i am in heaven.