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The nature of the World Club Challenge for the Australian teams was summed up by the commentators during last year’s match.
“Conditions here not getting any better. A bit of rain in the air now, wing blowing down the field, and the pitch, it has to be said heavy to start with, is getting heavier still. It could prove a little draining for the undercooked Manly Sea Eagles”.
Says it all really.
To the dreadful weather and under-preparedness of our teams, add the chanting of the all-English crowd and the biased commentary of Sky Sport’s Eddie Hemmings and Mike ‘Stevo’ Stephenson.
Consequently, there are many of us who can’t take these matches seriously.
However, I’m not one of them. I find these contests played in the early hours irresistible.
The NRL team is representing Australia and even if they’re my own side’s grand final conqueror, like Manly in 2009, I find myself willing them on.
It’s my team this time and I’ll be up at 6.45am (it’s a rare treat to see a Storm game live) on Saturday revelling in the alien and intimidating atmosphere they’ve been flung into.
It’s the unfairness of it all that makes these games such close and compelling.contests.
Competing in their first serious match in four months, in the freezing cold of Headingley, the Storm will not play like the best team in the world which is what the NRL premier is.
You would assume that if the Leeds Rhinos (despite being a superior Super League team containing several experienced internationals) were forced to face a match-hardened Melbourne in the summer sunshine at AAMI Park the result would not be pretty.
The temperature in London last week was 30°C less than in Melbourne but that wasn’t the only reason the Storm knew they had landed in England. The bus driver who was to take them from the airport to the hotel for a much-needed recovery session had slept in, forcing them to stand about drinking coffee while a fleet of taxi cabs was organised.
Unfortunately for the Storm, Leeds will not be so lackadaisical. Quite the opposite, in fact. The English teams take this game very seriously.
Leeds’ coach Brian McDermott is treating it like a grand final: “It’s a huge thing. It’s not lost on us how big a thing this is”.
If the Storm can win playing in the northern England mist in front of the deafening Rhinos’ supporters it’s a victory worth savouring.
The biased (but not disrespectful) commentary can get a little trying, as can the insistence by Mike Stephenson (I think) on referring to a try as a “T-R-Y” and worse, a no try as a “N-O T-R-Y”!
Of course, the fact that it’s played in England is more our fault than theirs as the WCC concept lacks support in Australia. Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield said he would rather play in Melbourne than on his home ground.
Nor are the English under the illusion that their league is the equal of the NRL but if their champion team can beat ours, whatever the location and conditions – then I suppose they have the right to call themselves the world champion team.
The World Club Challenge is returning to Australia next year. It just won’t be the same being played during the day in the sunshine.
I also fear it will be a non contest.
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