RLWC: How one lopsided result led to the 'end of the world'

The A-League makes the RL'WC look tiny. Yay Melbourne Heart.

What's the stuff have we made up? Certainly not TV ratings, saying 'billions' would watch? I think you need to stick to your sport as it has a history of dishonesty and down right nasty with its affiliations. So move on please and don't make up things so as to open the door to troll.

What any skillful winger would do try to keep pushing him towards the touchline, while trusting your cover defense will cover your inside shoulder.

Emric, If you were the last line of defence 10 metres out and the opposing centre was coming at you at full speed with an unmarked winger outside him, what would you do?

Pickett 1. don't you think a sin bin is a drastic step for a minor infraction? Pickett I think you forget that the awarding of a penalty has the result of several choices by the captain of the team who has been awarded a penalty. He can take a tap kick and run with the ball, or he can organize his team for a set play tap kick, he can chose to put pressure on the opposition by kicking into touch closer to the goal line and receive the throw-in to the line-out or he can ask for a scrum instead of the penalty and of course he can go for goal (3 points) a lot of tries as also scored under penalty advantage. 2. Marker defense has a natural blocker in the guy doing the play the ball and its only two guys (if duel marker is present) compare this to the entire back-line who are right on the gain line in Rugby the difference between success and failure in a field goal normally comes down to direct pressure - forcing the guy to rush his kick - believe it or not one or 2 guys rushing the kicker is not as effective pressure as 5 or 6 3. Its interesting Leagues go on and on about how they have reduced the cynical play in their game to almost zero (mostly by removing any competition for the ball to zero) that you wouldn't recognize the difference between deliberate cynical play such as a deliberate knock down, when compared to keeping the play moving (intercept). II disagree with you because I've never seen knocking a ball down during its flight between 2 players as particularly skillful. 4. As I pointed out we each have our own ideas about global. You obviously have a lot higher threshold for a sport to meet to be considered global then most in this world and i suspect that your just upset because of the amount of criticism about the League World Cup. As for Argentina not winning a world cup - to win a world cup in Rugby you need to win 5 games of 6. Argentina have beaten - France, England, and Australia - they have never beaten either New Zealand or the Springboks. However there are no grantees both the Springboks and All Blacks have been knocked out in the quarter finals of a world cup before - so yes if Argentina managed to get into a semi-final against France, England, Australia, Wales, and avoid their boggy teams - they could make the final and any team that can make the final could win it. Wales have always had a strong rugby culture they are let down by their self-belief not their skill levels oneday (I hope soon) they will once again rise to match the southern teams once again. 4 Nations have won a rugby world cup but its the semi-finals you want to look at to see who the contenders are. in rugby this is New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Wales, Argentina, France, England, Scotland. League has had 6 nations make it to their world cup - those nations are Wales, Fiji, England, France, New Zealand, Australia. The UK have also won the competition - This brings me to the final point. The United Kingdom is a federation, your fibbing a little when you state that 3 nations have won the League world cup. What you should have said is 2 Nations (New Zealand, Australia) and the United Kingdom have won the League World Cup.

Pickett: 1, 2, & 3. You obviously have something against rugby laws, rules and points system in our sport. If you don't like it write a letter to the IRB or even to over 6 million players and millions and millions of rugby fans and who play, support and like the game and its points the way it is. Do you complain to the the NFL that the majority of its players don't touch the ball at all during the game? Do the Americans complain about it? No. 5. I think Emric has made it quite clear that rugby is an international sport and it will keep getting better and bigger once the 7's kick off in the Olympics in 2016. Argentina were very close in 2007 and Wales has a very good chance to win the RWC. The All Blacks can lose in the QF or SF as it has happen before so Wales could end up in a situation where it could face Australia, England or France in final one year. Teams that Wales have beaten many times before as is the case with Ireland and Argentina. The RWC started in 1987 and 4 nations have won it. The RLWC started in 1954 and only three countries have won it and only 8 nations have won FIFA world cup since 1930. What's your point? If you don't agree with one country to represent each region that Emric mention then maybe over 120 countries that have local competitions and play rugby and not just facebook countries either. its not rugby union faults that rugby league decided 100 years ago to put a few professional clubs in charge of the sport while ignore developments and grassroots expansion.

Emric: 1. Penalty value: so you're saying it should stay at 3 to stop naughty play which might prevent a try. Well why doesn't the ref just sinbin the offender? Or give a penalty try, as there seem to be heaps of these in union. 2. Field goal: marker defence is not back 10 metres in league. It's not even back 3-5 metres. It's virtually level with play the ball. You are dreaming if you think you have more time to kick a FG in league than union. 3. Deliberate knock on: oh brother, if there is a bonehead ruling in union, this takes the cake. This makes the ridiculous strip rule in league look reasonable. How the heck can you tell the difference between a defender going for an intercept and trying to knock the ball down? Both actions are virtually identical - stick your hand out between the ball and the overlap. Even the video ref wouldn't be able to tell. Oh, so it's the intent is it? Put the defender on the stands with a lie detector and find out. Ridiculous. It takes a lot of skill, timing and daring to stop the ball going to the overlap's hand whether you're trying to intercept it or knock it away. In league, Hazem El Masri got this to a fine art and he was commended because its bloody good defence and it took a lot of skill. 4. Extent of globalness: I could go forever on this but a few things: Argentina will never win a RWC; I doubt Wales would either; Korea made the semis in the World Cup and Japan made QF twice in a row; Russia has a serious union competition? So does the league; choosing just ONE country to represent a continent/region to say we've got that area covered is just ridiculous. Argentina for South America being covered and South Africa for Africa being covered is just nonsense. Just 4 nations have won the RWC, 3 have won the RLWC. So there's not much difference here.

Well said Emric.

That's pretty good, so do the teams split that? $500 000 each. not quite the $10 000 000 you get for qualifying for the football world cup but still be a decent night if you put it on the bar.

Just going off the original article. Apologies for not doing a full investigative journalism job on all the minutiae of the tournament organization. And why are you talking about "fault"? You're still in such a super defensive mode you're now arguing with yourself. Lighten up!

Great post!

I think if you truly had an interest in this RLWC since you seem so read up on eligibility, crowds and scorelines, you would know the RLIF/tournament organisers paid the airline fees from the country of origin. They stated prior, all nations would be responsible for costs of flights if those players happened to be coming from other countries. So in the Tomahawks case, they would of had to pay the costs of many flights from Aust/NZ. That's their choice so they have to deal with it. I think the RLIF made a good decision because, one, the RLIF ain't rich, and two, it would encourage these nations to choose more domestic players. Another effect, which worked a treat with the Pacific Island teams saw lots of NRL stars visiting these nations prior to leaving the home base of say, Tonga to the UK. Here we saw school clinics, events, etc which was great promotion. So I would hardly say it's the RLIF/RLWC organisers fault. All squads had their airfares covered by the RLWC apart from those heritage players who chose to leave from other countries. Added, there were many players who must be commended for paying their own flights like Frizell for Wales.

Cathar appears to embrace his role as the NRL media manager.

Picket. You make many points so lets try to break down them Rugby is not as international as we Rugby supporters would like. I am not sure how much more global one would like us to be but Rugby has at least one major competitor from each of the global areas. Lets break down the global regions of the world into its pocket areas Africa North America South America Asia Europe Oceania Now we have the regions we will need to define some parameters about is considered global Lets focus purely on Top Teams - which Areas of the globe has at least one rugby team capable of winning a world cup Africa : South Africa North America : None South America : Argentina Asia : None Europe : France, England, Wales Oceania: New Zealand, Australia Middle East: None Of those nations above they are serious contenders to win a rugby world cup. Each of of those Nations have made it to at least one Semi-Final if not having won a Rugby World Cup. so if we use that as our scale then over half the regions of the world have at least one nation who is capable of winning a ruby world cup. So if your looking for a competition where each region has 1 team capable of winning a major sporting competition no sport is truly global even soccer is dominated by the South American and European Nations (2 world regions) Should we judge global on how many professional competitions, or strong amateur competitions exist? Africa : Super Rugby North America : None South America : Argentina (Strong Amateur) Asia : Japan Europe :Russian Rugby Competition, HC Oceania: Super Rugby Middle East: None Should we judge global on how many nations have enough teams/players and structure to form a national team? Global means so many things - is rugby global - you will find your own way to judge. did the Rugby World Cup bring in 135,000 international visitors to New Zealand who spent close to 1 billion dollars in the New Zealand economy. Yes it did. Did the Rugby World Cup sell 1,300,000 tickets across all the games held in New Zealand - yes it did. Has rugby grown its world cup from humble beginnings to be a very large international competition yes it has. If Football (Soccer) is the benchmark does rugby have a long way to go - absolutely. The Football world cup sold 3,800,000 tickets to its games in 2010 and brought in over 300,000 international visitors. Rugby is building slowly on its success and will continue to do so. You ask why Rugby wont reduce the number of points for a penalty to 2. This works well in League because League has taken all the competition for the ball out of the game. If you remove the competition for the ball you effectively create a situation where the other team gains almost no benefit for cheating. Rugby wants an open competition for the ball naughty play must be discouraged and punished appropriately when it happens. Reducing the punishment will encourage more infringing especially on the try line. A field goal is a exceedingly difficult thing to do in Rugby in league your gifted 10 meters of space which is more then enough time to line up a field goal - in rugby your given maybe 3-5meters of space and almost no time, this is a reward verse effort situation. A penalty try can be given if an infringement happens in such a way to stop a would be try - deliberately knocking a ball down goes against the spirit of the competition for the ball - this is of course different to an interception which is encouraged and can change the course of a game I believe Rugby has bridged the gap to become a truly international competition. You are welcome to believe differenty

Comapring the profitability of Club football and the World Cup is like comparing apples and oranges. In an event like the Rugby League World Cup profitiblity is and should be the main aim as it is only held every 4 years or so and cometing countries are attending from all over the world. (i admit , being Rugby League, it's a small world at this period in time). the reasoning for making a profit is that the RLIF can then allocate profit back into the minnow countries currently competing at this World Cup. The bigger the profit made the more money pured into developing the game internationally. That is why the profit IS the main measure of success unlike club football (NRL) which is currently being funded by a massive TV rights deal over which will coninue to support the game as long as it continues it's success.

Agree that a profit is a very good thing, but its not the only measure of success. Otherwise most clubs would be finished very quickly! Perhaps one thing the RLIF could do with that money is to cover all the players' costs? That's if the stories about players from the smaller countries paying their own way to the tournament are true? Would be a great gesture of support I think.

Regardless of what the naysayers are sprouting, if you want to measure the success of the Rugby League World Cup look no further than the estimated profit that it is expected to make. If the reports coming out of RLIF headquarters is to be beleived, the World Cup is expected to make a profit of betwen $5M and $8M. That's PROFIT, not turnover. This itself proves the success of the Cup. In my book, the Cup can only be called a failure if it run at a loss. Even if it broke even for the tournament then I beleive even that would be a success. The fact that the profit is considerable can only occur if there is genuine interest in the tourmanent from sponsors, government organisations and supporters, The anti league supporters will keep on spriuking their negativity in relation to the World Cup but the bottom line is...The end justifies the means. A +$5M profits ensures a lot of means.

That union is no way near as international as the union fans say, has too many stoppages, too many penalties, most confusing rules and is in fourth position in footy popularity in Oz. Why don't they decrease the penalty and field goal to 2 points? Also why is it a penalty try if you 'deliberately knock on' while defending your line? I would've thought this was great defence.

Who's Rothfield?

"The most interesting thing about you is not your slanted view of RL but your need to use different personalities to try and drive them home." And yet again you make this bizarre claim that myself and TREX are actually one person? Using your own complete lack of evidence methodology, I could claim you and CT are the same person. But I haven't got a complex about people having different views to me, so I don't do this. And I take it you're only interested in League? You need to open your eyes up and take an interest in other sports. Maybe it will help you calm down and get a bit of perspective on the world. It's OK for people to have differing views to each other. You don't have to resort to name calling and conspiracy theories just because the rest of us don't share your blind love of League.