A column that starts with “actually, that’s not bad” is not going to attract a lot of curious readers, I guess.
But in assessing the decisions handed down by the Rugby League International Federation meeting in Singapore at the weekend, that’s about as honest a reaction as I can offer.
Thankfully, most of the reheated suggestions of the Australian Rugby League Commission were rebuffed.
The one they’ve kept, a Pacific tournament that starts in the middle of next year and finishes at the end, is a good one.
But there is a problem inherent in it, as I’ve written before. On a vacant NRL weekend, the Australian administration is seeking to control which countries can play Tests and which can’t.
They are leaving the door ajar for more Denvers even as they attempt to dictate to the promoter of the 2025 World Cup where he should play games in his market.
According to NRL.com, “there is likely to be more support for the annual Test if it moves to California – possibly San Diego, Los Angeles or San Francisco – and is played at the end of the season”.
Once more, an authority in Australia is trying to influence where England and New Zealand play a Test in America!
Your columnist might appear to be someone in favour of playing any game in any far-flung destination at any time. But when Brisbane and Penrith tried to stage an end-of-season game in Hawaii in 2015, I was against it.
One, the end of the year is for internationals and two, Australia players through the RLPA had already demanded and received that post-season off, forcing the last proposed Great Britain Lions tour to be aborted.
If they’re not willing to represent their countries, they can’t go on an all-expenses-paid jolly and represent their clubs – that was my position.
Likewise, I am not in favour of the Australia-Tonga Test in New York.
The NRL clubs complained for months that Denver needed a longer lead-in time and the sport might only get one shot at the US so surely they can’t support a fixture that’s just three months ago and not confirmed.
We have to get out of being a sport that makes it up as it goes along when it comes to fixtures. The events don’t have time to do themselves justice and failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Sam Burgess would be the first picked for Great Britain (AFP PHOTO / GLYN KIRK)
I’m glad Great Britain are touring at the end of next year and it’s not a Kangaroo Tour.
In Australia it’s hard to appreciate the gravitas the Great Britain name carries among rugby league folk in England. Watching some footage of the 1982 Kangaroos, it was apparent that there was no difference to Rex Mossop, who called GB “England” throughout.
How many Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish will make the team? Probably Welshman Regan Grace – unless Wayne Bennett wants to delve into Home Nations heritage players like Lachlan Coote and Tyson Frizzel!
But Great Britain hasn’t played since 2007. The colours and logo form IP that is valuable to the RFL and powerfully nostalgic to fans.
England and Great Britain were isolated under the ARLC international plan. If Denver is retained, they’ll now have a very competitive build-up to their bid to lift the World Cup on home soil in 2021.
Australia, meanwhile, seems ready to try to make rugby league “a thing” at home in October and November, when the market is traditionally soft.
If the Nines World Cup is there in 2019, it will take some selling. If surely can’t go back to Oz in 2023 but then again, it’s getting cold int he northern hemisphere about then.
Regardless of your thoughts on the personality politics, the use of independent directors is surely overdue. Having a world governing body made up purely of national representatives is like having an ARLC consisting only of club nominees.
You can’t make any progress if no-one in the room is charged with putting the game first.
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