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A lot of people are quick to declare that the 2013 Rugby League World Cup isn’t a ‘real’ World Cup, despite it obviously taking place on a world and the winners getting a dirty great big cup.
Solar systems and silverware aside, the first week of rugby league’s showpiece has ticked a number of boxes to give it the legitimacy it craves.
Here’s an update on some of the key performance indicators the tournament has managed to reach so far:
Upsets
A World Cup without upsets isn’t really a World Cup at all, but rather an extremely expensive simulation with excellent graphics.
International rugby league is not really known for its upsets, however so far we’ve had the unlikely Scots and USA squeeze past NRL-laden Island opposition in cracking fixtures.
Are more still to come? Buggered if I know, I’m too scared to make any more predictions!
Suspect judiciary decisions
Gee whiz, you give blokes a jersey to represent their country and all they want to do is fire up and belt someone else.
Which is great, but doesn’t that lead to annoying things like fines and suspensions?
Not in a World Cup it doesn’t, and the RLWC 2013 has already had a humdinger of a dodgy decision, with Sam ‘Psycho’ Burgess getting a one match ban for a game he wasn’t going to play anyway for decapitating Sam Thaiday.
Refereeing controversy
A cornerstone of international sport, refereeing controversy is the broken wood and old shopping trolleys that fuels the bonfire of a cup.
With the ‘square in the air’ getting more time in the Tonga versus Scotland match than some of the blokes on the Tongan bench, there were bound to be some questionable calls.
Actually scratch that, there was about half a dozen, but at least the viewers got to listen to what Ashley Klein was thinking when he made them, which is pretty good.
Right?
Bloopers
World Cups showcase the best, the brilliant, the amazing skills, blah blah.
What is really needed to fill the montages are some wacky, unforgettable moments of ineptitude.
Sonny Spill Williams is a natural fit here, but you can also chuck in David Mead’s goal kicking and the bloke at Channel Seven who thought we’d like to see 30 seconds of a match, then have it restart again delayed a few minutes later.
Idiots in fancy dress
The moment I knew the 2013 Rugby League World Cup had made it was when the camera panned around a soggy Bristol at the USA versus Cook Islands game to show some goose dressed up as Captain America.
It was… perfect.
It demonstrated how people, who are a world away from either competing country, can get into the swing of things just because, well, it’s a World Cup and that’s what you do.
As far as I’m concerned all the tournament needs now is for a player to have a bust up with his coach, crack the sads and then fly home to snipe about his former manager in the papers and the RLWC will have removed beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is, indeed, a real World Cup
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