- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I hope the Aussies got more out of their ridiculously one-sided World Cup quarter-final than I did, but I doubt if that was the case since Billy Slater got hurt.
That’s the problem with playing essentially meaningless games against minnow nations – it might be an absolute romp, but there is still the chance a star player could get hurt.
The World Cup concept polarises people. Some love it, and some think it’s an absolute joke.
I don’t mind them trying to drag a tournament out of it, if that’s what they want to do. I mean, international football is important.
But the question is: How far do you want to go in trying to create the illusion there are actually enough bona fide rugby league-playing nations to justify staging a World Cup of these proportion?
It goes on for way too long. Whoever thought it was a good idea to stretch it out for five weeks, from the opening game on October 26 to the final on November 30, is mad.
Particularly when, no matter how long it goes on, we are going to end up with Australia at one end of the field and probably New Zealand at the other, with England the only other nation a chance of interrupting normal transmission.
I checked, and the 2008 World Cup, held in Australia, went for four weeks, from October 25 to November 22.
But I went back even further, to the 1995 World Cup in England I covered for The Australian newspaper, because my memory told me that was even shorter.
I was right. It went for three weeks, from October 7 to October 28.
The difference in 1995 was that Australia played a midweek game during the group stage and there were no quarter-finals.
In 2008, the Aussies didn’t play midweek games, but there were still no quarter-finals.
Now, Australia still don’t play any midweek games and there are quarter-finals as well.
Watching the Aussies thrash a very loosely termed USA side 62-0 in front of next to no one at a low-rent stadium in Wrexham was embarrassing.
The tournament should, at the very least, be cut back to four weeks.
There is no reason Australia, New Zealand and England can’t play a midweek game each. They each make big changes to their team during the group stage anyway, to ensure all of their squad members get a run.
There would only be a few players who might end up playing three games in a week, or eight days.
Australia will play Fiji in the semi-finals, which have been scheduled as a double-header. New Zealand and England meet in the early game.
In 2008, Jarryd Hayne represented Fiji and Petero Civoniceva represented Australia. Now, Hayne is playing for Australia and Civoniceva for Fiji. That is the nature of the World Cup.
Australia beat Fiji 52-0 in the 2008 semis, while the Kiwis beat the Poms 32-22.
Now we’ve got the same four teams going around at the business end of the tournament, with the same two results likely.
That says everything about the depth and predictability of the event.
I’d like to think England could play well enough to beat the Kiwis and set the tournament up for a traditional clash between the Aussies and the Poms in the final at Old Trafford a week later, but I can’t see it happening.
England have got significant ground to make up on New Zealand as well as Australia these days.
The Poms beat France 34-6 in the quarter-finals. Earlier, in the group stage, New Zealand beat France 48-0. That is some indication of the difference between the two sides.
Australia will obviously beat Fiji in the other semi. Whether the margin exceeds 50 again remains to be seen, but it doesn’t really matter. We know it’s not going to be close.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.