In rugby league, space really is the final frontier.
Space between Australia and wherever the frontier is, space between what the game owes the bank and what it has, space between perception and reality, between the best possible outcome and the worst.
In the wake of international Star Wars Day (May the fourth be with you, geddit?) I bring you this dispatch from the furthest reaches of the known rugby league universe, namely Toronto, West Wales, Prague and joints like that.
A postcard from the edge, if you like.
No, this isn’t going to be a recital of how many Irish referees were trained up this week or whether it’s a good thing that England Knights are touring New Guinea instead of competing in a European Championship.
We’re here to talk to you about how people think out here, and how it might have an impact on the way the game as a whole thinks in future.
Because in Australasia, things seem quite settled. We whinge about referees and fine coaches and have blokes misbehave in nightclubs and fear for the future of bush footy… then play Origin and do it all over again, ad infinitum.
Meanwhile, in England they’re having meetings where a handful of clubs supposedly want to take control of the entire sport in its birthplace.
Playing numbers shrink and TV rights prepare to do likewise as people of means from New York and Boston and Philadelphia and Dublin and Belgrade line-up for tickets on what seems a Titanic.
One of the attractions of living in North America or Europe is that you can convince yourself you are a participant in history rather than a spectator watching through a telescope.
Of course, being a participant in history can get you killed. A vast swathe of humanity would rather be on the safe side of the telescopic lens.
Whether rugby league history really is being made in northern hemisphere capitals depends on how some of the decisions fall. These discussions could just as easily make the game itself history outside its antipodean citadels.
Denver is a well-worn narrative here. Will the World Cup in North America seven years from now finally widen our gene pool enough to breed out our self-destruct gene and foist us upon an unsuspecting and welcoming world?
Or will it not even be held because playing games at that attitude is pure folly and 14 hours is a long time for a rugby league player to spend on a plane?
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The Wolfpack returned to Canada last weekend, playing in regional Markham, Ontario. On sale during the game against Swinton was a heritage jersey.
Yes, an 18-month-old club produced a heritage jersey.
It marked not the Wolfpack’s first game way back in 2016, in those primitive times when you couldn’t automatically put bunny ears on your head on Facebook video messenger, but the establishment rugby in Ontario.
Not David Silcock’s Tri-County Rugby League of the 1980s but rugby – rugby union.
While a similar design for the Wolfpack by an Englishman commemorates the visit to Canada of the 1928 rugby league Lions, the Wolfpack chose to celebrate the birth of what is considered in most other places the “rival” code, an organisation even Ontario Rugby League until recently considered a malevolent force.
But it’s all rugby to the Wolfpack. Like I said, things are different out here.
Even in England, there’s a feeling that in order to take a new direction, the sport needs to almost implode before being rebuilt by opportunistic outsiders. The more dire things get, the easier it will be for an Eddie Hearn or a David Argyle to fix them.
Take this example: West Wales Raiders were beaten 144-0 by York last week and 124-0 to Bradford this week.
To our traditional rugby league way of thinking, this just makes West Wales Raiders shit. But to someone I communicated with yesterday, it’s a golden opportunity.
Teams from mainland Europe want to eventually join Super League but find it problematic to find a way in. What if teams like West Wales Raiders and Hemel Stags and a Coventry Bears formed a new pan-European competition, where they would face Red Star Belgrade and Dorcol Spiders and North Brussels Gorillas?
A competition of “shit” teams could have more commercial potential than one made up of sides who only a year before were putting a century past them!
Too many people think they know too much about rugby league in Australia for this sort of thinking to take hold. Where no-one knows anything, everything seems possible.
Just because no-one spoke up in favour of the proposals of Wigan chairman Ian Lenegan at a meeting last week, in which he suggested streamlining the top flight, doesn’t mean no-one agreed with him. Just because Gary Hetherington and Andrew Chalmers say nothing will change next year, doesn’t mean nothing will change next year.
Out here on the edge, rugby league’s next course is being plotted. If the ship is piloted into an iceberg and sinks without a trace, no doubt a new one will be built in its place and the same old mistakes will be made again.
For 123 years, it has been thus.
David Worrall
Guest
I was wondering if anyone knows how I could contact Dave Silcock, a pioneer of the CRFL in the 1990s and 2000s. Any information would be much appreciated.
Fred
Guest
Appreciate the comment Michael, and impressed with your involvement in sport.From what I can judge (living in Australia but always following the English game closely having lived in Leeds for a bit), league is doing just fine in the north, and there seem to be some great success stories in some of the lower tiers, like York for example, and it looks like former powerhouse Bradford is in the box seat to get promoted back to the second tier next year. With English media so heavily based in London though, a casual sports fan living in the south could be forgiven for thinking league barely exists.
Fred
Guest
UAE Rugby League was declared illegal, and the head of UAE rugby league was arrested. All due to pressure over them daring to have the word "rugby" in their name.
Michael Gates
Roar Rookie
Love the hoists, love the community work being done by the teams, hate Skolars, mild-disinterest in Broncos & a massive man-crush on Benny Barba. But basically I just love rugby league & want it do well. Challenge Cup day is alright if you know it's on...... Just calling it how I see it Cathar. Hopefully see you pitch-side somewhere in London soon!!
Michael Gates
Roar Rookie
I'm not a code-warrer mate - I played union my whole life, love league, now 'play' aussie rules in London (for the social side of things mainly) as well as staunchly attend as many Chelsea games as I can. I'm just commenting on the dire state of rugby league in not just London, but out in the wider UK. I say this having briefly worked for a London-based league team, albeit one most people will have never have heard of!! Amateur rugby league in London is going alright I guess, the Hills Hoists (all aussies basically), Silverbacks & Brixton Bulls try their best & I guess the Broncos & Skolars are out in the community using their limited resources but even blind Freddy Fittler can see the sport struggles over here, no matter how rose-coloured your specs from specsavers are. Come on down to Clapham Common on Saturday & watch the Demons mens Premiership team, containing 6 UK players & 6 Rest of World players (supplementing the rest of the team of Aussies) & save yourself from having to go out to Ealing or (heaven forbid!!) stab-central Wood Green to watch a fairly dire level of league for somewhere between £15 - £25. & if not this weekend, you're all invited to the Common on August 11 when we host the Grand Final; a better day of amateur sport world-wide you'd be hard pressed to find ;)
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Yoda . Rugby league was banned due to pressure by the RU authorities to the Vichy Min of Sport,assets seized.The report by the Commission looking at Sport Under Vichy,spelt out in 2002 ,quite clearly RU's involvement in removing a competitor, they saw as a threat.Prior to Dec 1941 rl was making huge inroads there. Any other sport that was banned and there were a couple of others (pros),were not a competitor to ru.RU did not involve itself in banning other sports.Just one.The Commission spelt it out. I can provide names of the RU officials involved. You suggesting the Govt Commission in 2002 was wrong. Are you suggesting the code was not banned in schools for 5 decades at least. Are you suggesting there was no seizure of assets and handing over to ru. Are you suggesting Rugby league could retain the name rugby in its title and access Govt grants. Ask yourself why it took til about 7 years ago for the code to access primary and secondary schools. If you agree with the above, you live in denial. Funny you mention professional sports.RU there had no trouble in flashing the cash in the so called amateur years.
Yoda
Guest
Please explain fred
Yoda
Guest
Cross coder did the Vichy government just ban Rugby league or was all pro sport at that time banned as it was seen as a corrupter of the youth?
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Never called French rugby 13,Iin Brief.That's where you're wrong from the outset.and an expected deflection. It was called Game of X111 or the French equivalent. IT was not recognised as a rugby code by the Gaullists after WW2,and did not get any real recognition till the late 90s -to 2000s. The French team of the late 50s/early 60s was made up of the youth of the 40a to 50s,then the youth realised to get anywhere ,they would need to play the officially recognised ( by Govt, receiving funding from Govt Rugby (union).They could not play the code in schools. Access to fields was hard to come by.They lost their financial assets and physical assets in Dec 1941. The so called amateur code ,had no trouble in paying money for players. If you dispute this, then you are in direct opposition to the 2002 findings of the French Commission into Sport under Vichy.It received very little press coverage ATT. Funny that. It's only in the last few years, rl has been accepted into primary and secondary schools.Imagine then, private schools in this country not being able to play rugby union for decades.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Never called French rugby 13,Iin Brief.That's where you're wrong from the outset. It was called Game of X111 or the French equivalent. IT was not recognised as a rugby code by the Gaullists after WW2,and did not get any real recognition till the late 90s -to 2000s. The French team of the late 50s/early 60s was made up of the youth of the 40a to 50s,then the youth realised to get anywhere ,they would need to play the officially recognised ( by Govt, receiving funding from Govt Rugby (union).They could not play the code in schools. Access to fields was hard to come by.They lost their financial assets and physical assets in Dec 1941. The so called amateur code ,had no trouble in paying money for players. If you dispute this, then you are in direct opposition to the 2002 findings of the French Commission into Sport under Vichy.It received very little press coverage ATT. Funny that.
Fred
Guest
"French rugby 13" hahaha you mean the name the sport had to call itself when AFTER the war the government made it illegal to call itself "rugby league". Thanks for proving the point!
Fred
Guest
More recently look at what happened in the UAE!
In Brief
Guest
The heyday of French rugby 13 was the 1960s - were these guys still hanging on from 1935?
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
London Broncos just need to sort out a permanent home base instead of wandering all over the capital.
Fred
Guest
It's great to see London, Toulouse and Toronto all likely to make the top 4 of the championship, to be in a place to fight it out for Super League. How good would it be if all three went up!
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
yoga Barriers means hurdles to make things difficult, some barriers are higher than others, seemingly almost impossible to break. All boils down to professionalism v amateurism.Pretty obvious. Italy late 50s early 60s.Rugby league was growing there.Because it was a professional sport , it is alleged rugby union authorities applied pressure via the Italian Govt (due to 3rd party insurance issues) which resulted in the code fading away.The animosity toward the pro code, was overt. Morocco latter part of the 20th Century.Trying to establish rl there ru authorities applied pressure to Govt,to ensure they would not use grounds that ru used. It has stagnated since. Need I go into what happened in December 1941 in France,when rl was banned.The washout under a Govt Commission into Vichy in Sport, in France in 2002,pointed the finger directly at ru authorities for applying pressure to the Vichy govt to have their competitor banned.For over 50 years the French rl could not secure Govt grants ,teach the code in schools, not even call itself rugby league, but game of X111. The 50s had some decent French rl players left over from the banning, but as RU was the official and financially benefited rugby code, youth gravitated and/or was guided toward ru. The British Armed services ,for decades rl could not be played officially (cept the very odd occasion)RU was the official sport.It took the mid 90s with pressure from parliamentary rl followers in the Govt to make rl available in the Armed services.The old school tie brigade held sway there for yonks. Since then it has now grown substantially. South Africa.When rl tried to establish itself Danie Craven( of the ru,) who hated rl with a passion, pressured the Govt to ensure they were not going to get established.Even today the code had difficulties to get SASCO ??recognition,which enables sports to have the ability to receive grants..The sport is still struggling there. The issue is nowhere near as great now, but the mould had been cast . Of course rl authorities have shown incompetence in the past at times not trying to hide that fact, but barriers are barriers.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
Rugby league in London is way stronger than AFL. I was very impressed in a recent trip where the roots of the sport are much more solid than at any time before in the region. The schools comps are the most impressive incl girls teams & growing. Plus who wants to watch London AFL clubs with logos directly copied from Australia when you can watch the Hoists hang em high ;) http://www.rugby-league.com/leagues__competitions/london_and_south_east http://www.londonrugbyleaguefoundation.org/
Fred
Guest
Michael - this is the kind of code war comment I can put up with lol, at least it's a little bit respectful. As there's probably more Australians in London than Poms, I'm not surprised you can round up a few AFL players there. I don't know why league has never got a firm foothold in London, but regardless London is not and has never been the vantage point to judge the strength of league in England.
Yoda
Guest
Cross coder could you explain what the barriers put in place by another code,via govt pressure actually means?
Andrew
Roar Guru
London Broncos are a full-time professional team are they not? Potential for them to get promoted as well, although their home ground in Ealing might not be up to scratch.