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The new extended version of the World Club Challenge is about to take place in England. With three of the best teams from the English Super League featuring, one would only think that the three best from the previous season of the NRL would also feature.
Those who assume that, would be wrong.
Instead, for this new and improved competition we have teams who finished eighth and 12th competing with last season’s premiers.
Many believe that the key to boosting worldwide popularity is through a better relationship between the NRL and the Super League, and it isn’t far from the truth. But this extended World Club Challenge isn’t the way to do it.
My proposal is a new concept for a World Club Series to take place every four years consisting of the premiers from each competition from the past four seasons. If a team wins two premierships during those four years, the runners-up from the most recent season would take their place.
This would create a kind of rugby league Champions League.
The competition would also take place at the end of the season, and would replace international rugby league for that year.
For example, if the new World Club Series were to take place at the end of the 2015 season, the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 premiers would all qualify meaning Manly, Melbourne, Sydney and South Sydney would all compete with Warrington, Wigan, St Helens and Leeds.
These eight teams can largely be debated as the best in both leagues over the past four years and would make an extremely competitive competition.
The eight teams would then be randomly divided into two groups of four, making sure two teams from each league were in each group. Each team would play the other teams in their group once before the top two would proceed to the semi-finals.
This would make a total of five weeks of rugby league, which isn’t really a huge demand on the players participating. The winners would then ultimately have the pride of being named the World Club Champions until the 2019 edition.
The 2019 series would then feature the premiers from 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
This would create a massive buzz all around the world, as the best of the best go at it every four years and would really increase popularity for the sport on a international scale. The competition could easily be hosted by both England and Australia, with both countries alternating each series.
This would also coincide with international rugby league too, with the World Cup being played two years after every World Club Series, with a Four Nations tournament held every two years in between.
The annual World Club Challenge also wouldn’t need to be abandoned as a pre-season tradition, as in actual fact, the World Club Series would most probably generate higher crowds and excitement for these matches due to the new relationship made between the two leagues.
Players wouldn’t have more stress put onto their bodies either as the competition would progress for the same amount of weeks as a Four Nations or Tri-Nations tournament would.
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