The upcoming World Club Challenge for 2010 is now a month away with the match to be played between Super League and NRL champions the Leeds Rhinos and Melbourne Storm. The match, which will be played at Elland Road, is always supported well by the English fans.
But I can’t help but feel the match is wasted being played in the old dart year after year.
Perhaps it’s fair to say we can’t trust the Australian fans to turn out in big numbers to support the game, unless it were to be played in Queensland. And with the schedule booked solid with 4 nations and other internationals for the next four years, its impossible to fit it in post-season.
So the match must be used as a exhibition match to be taken different countries around the world as a introduction to the best of the best in rugby league.
The success of the Australia Day challenge match in Jacksonville in 2007 played between South Sydney and Leeds which drew over 12 000 people from over 40 states, should have showed the administrations in the RFL that these exhibitions games do work.
With the upcoming American League not far away it would have been a perfect time once again to take a game to the American people. Countries like Russia where the game is struggling at the moment could use this game as a launch pad for a new beginning.
It comes back to if we want people of the world to come to rugby league we need to take the game to the people.
Realist
Guest
The same could be said about the rugby union world cup: only a few teams have a hope in hell of winning it and; only 8 or so nations are enthusiastic about the event, with four of them being based in the British Isles.
Realist
Guest
rugby league envy n noun Psychoanalysis envy of rugby league's thrilling, fact-paced action, causing delusional rugby union fans to troll rugby league posts on theroar.com.au :D
Mick from Giralang
Guest
I don't think the ESL has the depth of the NRL...but the WCC has shown the top teams aren't far apart.
Jay
Guest
ha! The ESL is no where near the NRL. If it was England would have won the 4 nations!
Sam
Guest
actually both stole the idea from soccer - champions league?
M1tch
Guest
Dont want to justify the crowds, because they are many factors, but thats another arugment lol With the 10k I was amazed, of course a few Leeds fans but a great turn out, if they win games people will stay, but if they go 3-25 again..who will turn up?
Mick from Giralang
Guest
This is the squad they took for 2009: Adam Blair Will Chambers Cooper Cronk Israel Folau Liam Foran Matt Geyer Ryan Hoffman Dallas Johnson Antonio Kaufusi Jeff Lima Sika Manu Dane Nielsen Anthony Quinn Billy Slater Jeremy Smith Sam Tagataese Aiden Tolman Steve Turner
Andrew Watson
Guest
wait till you see the Melbourne line up this year. There will be no Cronk, White, Inglis, Blair, Smith, Slater...
Sportfreak
Guest
face it, the ESL is better than the NRL. It shows every year when the Aus teams are humbled by the poms.
Mick from Giralang
Guest
Andy you're right about the home ground factor etc....but there is simply no other way of matching two club sides, unless a game can be arranged at a neutral venue, say, on the moon. I simply don't understand how anyone can say a match between two teams is not a demonstration of their relative strengths? Please explain!
Mick from Giralang
Guest
So, the English teams win when it's played here, and win when it's played over there....far from a "laughable" demonstration of the relative strengths of the two club competitions. No one's suggesting the NRL clubs are hitting their peak at the start of the season. But it's simply "laughable" to suggest they don't take it seriously.
Andy
Guest
"the game is an excellent demonstration of the comparative strengths of the respective competitions" No it is not Mick, because of the home ground advantage, linesman, video ref, engage super league rules, and weather. You know i could be wrong because this is just speculation but it seems that the australian side is at a disadvatage.
Andrew Watson
Guest
Mick, are you kiddn. No team would want to be hitting any strengths at the start of a long season. NRL big hitters dont even start hitting thier peaks until round 8-10, as they have another 16 rounds to decide thier fate. To say the English teams are not too far away is a loooong guess, but they have had success under the current format. Further more when they last played it Australia, Wigan did beat Brisbane in Brisbane. But to say this game is an 'excellent demonstration' is laughable...
Travis
Guest
30K fans turned up to watch Leeds and Manly in Feb 2009. I'd call that a successful venture. End of story.
chris
Guest
Well it's been Wigan and then Bradford and for a while it's Leeds crowds which are strong but the rest are pretty poor for Super League and i would love to think the 10000 plus at the Crusaders game where welsh but i have been fooled before i.e. Paris 1996. But iam not trolling as it was Rugby League who had the vison of a european comp in 1995 but by 1996 Rugby Union stole that idea and it become the very succesfull HEC.
chris
Guest
Apart from Leeds crowds are pretty poor for Super League and i would love to think the 10000 plus at the Crusaders game where welsh but i have been fooled before i.e. Paris 1996. But iam not trolling as it was Rugby League who had the vison of a european comp in 1995 but by 1996 Rugby Union stole that idea and it become the very succesfull HEC.
Mick from Giralang
Guest
Andy, you're never going to replicate the same teams...the attriition rate in rugby league simply won't allow that. As it is, the game is an excellent demonstration of the comparative strengths of the respective competitions --- and the success of the British teams shows there's not a lot between us at club level. The WCC is simply one element of rugby league's international program --- albeit one that has prove very successful, despite the logistical problems posed by the north/south hemishpere divides. At the same time, it's always fruitful to look at ways of improving things --- hence the value of M1tch's article.
Mick from Giralang
Guest
Who'd have ever thought you'd get 30,000 to a rugby league match in Melbourne on oz rules grand final day.
Mick from Giralang
Guest
The clubs hardly treat the world club challenge as a joke. The only players that are missing are those out with injury or a recuperarting from surgery. The crowds and TV ratings show this match is a winner.
Mick from Giralang
Guest
M1tch: I wouldn't get too upset about these trolls. Their obssession with rugby league underlines their envy of the great game.