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Just came inside and my son told me, shattered, embarrassed, angry, I`m sure they could of arranged something if they really wanted to. My sincerest apologies from one Australian who really wanted it to happen. The rest of the comp this year is going to leave a sour taste in my mouth.

I hope the other 7093 Gavins were better than you.

I suspect that it will have very little effect but here is the submission I made to NRL.com feedback page today. ............................................................ I write to you today as a lifelong supporter of the great game of Rugby League. While I may be based on the other side of the world in the UK, I have always felt a massive connection to the game in Australia, ever since I first saw the great Kangaroo team of 1986 progress unbeaten through England and France and I had the absolute pleasure of watching the likes of Sterling, Miles, Meninga and Kenny ply their wonderful skills in our club competition. Fast forward 35 years and now I am subscriber of WatchNRL who very very rarely misses a single game of NRL. I can honestly say that my passion for the sport of Rugby League in Australia is only surpassed by my love of international Rugby League; that unfortunately all too rare occasion when we get the chance see the best players from competitions from all over the world come together to test themselves. Of course, the elite competition in which the international teams play is the World Cup. The 2021 edition was set to be the biggest, most ambitious and potentially most impactful tournament our sport has ever seen. A tournament that would have allowed Rugby League to reach audiences in both volume and reach that it has never seen before. And then we hear the news today that the ARL and the NZRL have decided to forfeit attendance at the upcoming World Cup. A decision that has been foreshadowed by noises coming out of the NRL about the impact that the competition will have on players and their preparation for the 2022 season. I see that the reasons that have been given for this stand down is player welfare and player safety. But what has become of player choice? The choice that a player has to play in a competition that only comes around two or maybe three times in their lifetime if they are lucky. Let us use Boyd Cordner as our example here. He has had to step down from the game tragically early due to the ongoing effects of concussion. Many years from now, when he reflects on his career, I am sure one of the highlights he will remember most fondly will be playing and scoring in a World Cup final and subsequently lifting the trophy. A potential memory that the authorities have unilaterally taken away from a generation of players by deciding to withdraw them from the competition. As I started with. I have been a player and fan of our sport for 35 years and in that time I have seen Rugby League throw away many opportunities to showcase our great game. But none like today. While other sports move heaven and earth to allow elite players to play in elite competitions, our sport decides that it is all too hard. Come the autumn of this year when I see the Premier League soccer grounds full of passionate fans or the Australian Rugby Union team playing in front of 80,000 fans at Twickenham, I will remember today as the day that our sport threw away yet another chance to show the world it is indeed the greatest game of all. It is the greatest sport and it deserves better than what it received today. I am not even angry, I am beyond that, I am just deeply deeply saddened that the game has once again self destructed. And to finish where I started. I used to love the Australian Rugby League and I was a subscriber to WatchNRL. No more. I have watched my last game of NRL.

I don't honestly know where to start. Given that these countries have sent teams and individuals to the Olympics, where cases are popping up and they are interacting with literally every nation on earth (except North Korea) the safety thing doesn't cut it IMO. Are they going to cancel The Ashes so our COVID riddled cricketers don't take the Omega variant with them? We know what this is about. The NRL never wanted the World Cup, have no interest inInternational RL and run the show. I'm so tempted to tell them to stuff it and regroup as a European/N American international setup. Probably not the best idea done in anger but they've pretty much screwed RL in this country now. The government (however much I hate them) has invested in this, and supported it. They will not like being made fools of. This will hurt our sport badly.

I really think we go all out and deliver a huge festival of RL without these a-holes. I couldn't care about asterisks, or standards, I'll buy more tickets if it goes ahead with smaller teams stepping in.

And the story underneath is about rugby league aiming for the 2032 Olympics as a priority. The game won't be around in 2032 with decisions like this.

Simon Johnson sums it up pretty well I think: Rugby Football League (RFL) chairman Simon Johnson called it a "selfish, parochial and cowardly decision". "Rugby League World Cup organisers have bent over backwards to offer every assurance to the Australians and the Kiwis," Johnson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "We are very unhappy with this decision and we are not prepared to take it lying down."

I missed this earlier but just to say, you're a good man Rocket. I have to say, a message like this from an Aussie really does mean a lot today.

This is the kind if pressure that's needed! This is genuinely great to see regardless of the outcome.

The international game is in trouble now.. the World Cup if moved to next year will be swallowed by the football world cup in qatar... newspapers and tv will be all about that and people will just forget about us. And that is IF it goes ahead. The shot in the arm the tournament would have been for the game on the national consciousness here has gone and they cannot expect it to be as "in your face" as it would have been with a fee pass this year. Sponsors are not going to line up to come on board now, what we have will hopefully stay but not sure we will get anymore because the impact it will have will be less, the coverage they will get will be less. The games will continue to diverge to be almost 2 different sports without an international game to hold it together. Its an utter joke and its the insularity of the NRL at its finest.. No international game and my interest will fall away for sure.. i'll still keep an eye out but wont be as avid a fan as i was.

Phil goulds tweet is everything that’s wrong here, he thinks, just as they do that the NRL is Rugby League. its as insular as it is arrogant.

This is just the culmination of years of the Aussies inward attitude. The annual "will they, won't they" around the WCC, the refusal to host the Ashes, the undermining of the Denver test and now withdrawing from the marquee RL event. Maybe this will be a turning point in RL history. Maybe we will stage it and see that we can stage major events without them and fans get behind it, enjoy it and we move into a new phase in international RL.

“I have been in regular communication with the RLPA and a number of international players and coaches who have been satisfied with the world cup’s biosecurity arrangements and expressed a clear determination to travel to England and proudly represent their nations. "They have expressed to me that they feel their own personal choice to participate or not in the world cup has been taken from them. The RLPA have again committed to continue to work with IRL and the Local Organising Committee towards a 2021 tournament including Australian and New Zealand players who have dual eligibility and who are now keen to play for other nations."

If I believed for a second it was about COVID, I would have some sympathy. But these people are pretty open about their desire to kill off international rugby so they can turn more and more in on themselves.

Respect to Judith Cummins:

A bit if humour to brighten the mood:

RFL chairman Simon Johnson has called the Australian/New Zealand decision to pull out of the Rugby League World Cup “selfish, parochial and cowardly” live on BBC Good for him, showing some balls

Scotland 24 Australia 0 Jamaica 24 NZ 0

This troll has now been banned and all their posts (and replies to those posts) have been removed from this thread. Also, remember that if you want to discuss vaccination efficacy or policy decisions relating to vaccine rollout, do that in the politcs sub forum, not in here, or your posts will be removed. This is a difficult topic, and emotions are running high on all sides, please help me as the moderator to keep it open and available for people to express their views, without dragging it off on a million different tangents, or allowing it to descend into a general slanging match. Thank you.

Anyone else think the swear filter should be removed on this one thread for just this one occasion? We need to vent!

Australia will still have the same attitude if the cup is delayed until next year.

"The majority of NRL players are currently living away from home under difficult biosecurity protocols. They would then be required to remain under protocols and away from home for the duration of the tournament before again quarantining on return to Australia. This is too much to ask our players and officials to do. Have they actually asked the players what THEY want to do??

Doubt I'll add much to what has been said already but... - Worst thing is the method of communication by the Aus/NZ GBs. 4 mins notice is disgusting and not consulting the players is unforgivable. Heads should roll. - If we can go ahead without them, just do it, or replace with players already in Europe in 'select' teams. - This is obviously a NRL/clubs play so cant see any other nations players being released. - Their priority is Origin. Since international RL picked up in quality, they have actively sought to undermine it to retain Origin's credibility and status. Anyone denying that is deluded. - Gus Gould is a myopic, arrogant doylem. Wants to play a 5 game origin series and is apparently a genius because he came up with the wonderful idea of having junior pathways. Pure genius. - The BBC can do one. In 2017 I wrote a complaint to them as the RLWC final was even mentioned on the front page of their sports section, or maybe it was down near the bottom. Aus/NZ pull out and its the headline. Why do we bother?

Calling it now - this is gaining so much momentum we might just get u-turn here people!

No. It was about player welfare.

USA have also declared interest in replacing a team

Simon Johnson's wording is very, very strong I was unsure whether public battles was the way to go, but his rally cry has won me over!

A very interesting IRL statement here: “Every sporting organisation, every industry, government and family globally have been impacted by this pandemic. RLWC2021 and IRL only recently stated that we fully appreciated the challenges facing us to run a successful Rugby League World Cup with player and officials’ safety our priority and we have met every request regarding this issue made of us by ARLC, New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) and the Rugby League Players Association (RLPA). All designed to mitigate potential risks and satisfy the demands of ARLC and NZRL. “I have been in regular communication with the RLPA and a number of international players and coaches who have been satisfied with the world cup’s biosecurity arrangements and expressed a clear determination to travel to England and proudly represent their nations. They have expressed to me that they feel their own personal choice to participate or not in the world cup has been taken from them. The RLPA have again committed to continue to work with IRL and the Local Organising Committee towards a 2021 tournament including Australian and New Zealand players who have dual eligibility and who are now keen to play for other nations. Statement from International Rugby League Chair Troy Grant regarding RLWC2021 (intrl.sport)

It’s not the fact they don’t want to come that’s annoying its the way they have gone about it, giving the organisers 4minutes warning is absolutely scandalous

The competitions postponed because of Covid were postponed to this year

This is not a surprise and I don’t actually blame them. Our own government appear to have made a decision to open up just as the rest of the world are making decisions to lock down harder and there’s even talk about the Olympics being cancelled at this late stage. what concerns me is that this decision comes so close to the announcement that the competition was going ahead. It’s almost as though their concerns were ignored, and an announcement made to crack on regardless in an effort to force their hand. But that would never happen in RL would it. Some much bigger sporting competitions that the RL World Cup have been postponed by COVID. I see no embarrassment or concern in RL doing so until next year and that should have been decided months ago, rather than waiting on decision making which is looking increasingly shaky.

I think this is an emotional decision. I suspect it's made by Vlandys and it's a response to the organisers decision to announce that it was going ahead. I believe he will have interpreted the announcement as a challenge to his authority and Australia's status in the world game. He will have seen it as an ultimatum....'' we're going ahead anyway, so make your mind up''. My guess is he will have been crimson with rage. This is a typical aggressive reaction from a bloated, yet fragile ego, embarrassed by the very public challenge to his self image. His willingness to wreak havoc in the world game, to powder his blushes is a real indication of the true nature of the beast.

If it goes ahead i'll be buying more tickets to more games, this isn't about safety it's about how small minded the NRL and that's saying something considering our own governing body.

In the spirit of 1895, I agree. ###### 'em.

I really hope the players stand up to be counted now. If they want an international game at all worth playing then I feel they are now going to have to make a stand and fight for it. They are the ones with the power to do that. This is much bigger than just the World Cup this year, its mid season internationals, tournaments and the entire international game going forward that is at risk.

Seems like the players had no consultation:

The only thing that will change this is player power. Interested to hear what their view is - if they'd rather have an extra couple of weeks pre-season than play in a World Cup then the game is doomed anyway.

Unfortunately we now have to act as if Australia and NZ no longer exist in the international game. It will be difficult but it must be done. We can no longer depend on them to act as a friendly partner.

A clearly very angry Claire Balding live on BBC 1 Breakfast TV this morning. She says it's incomprehensible. She says if the All Blacks and Wallabys can come here this autumn, why not kangaroos and NZ.

I should be angry but I just haven't got the energy … after 46 years of lavish devotion to the game since age 11, I think this time it's defeated me for good. This "decision" by Peter V'landys is a complete and utter disaster for the game. Maybe I'll write a polite but firm email to him and the ARLC … but I'm just too over it all to do it now.

Absolutely pathetic, disgusting from those nations who have no interest in the players and only self interest in their clubs. Cut all ties with them, let them have their ###### little sport "down under" and invite all the other countries into a fully integrated international calendar for each year, no entry for the pathetic NZ and Australians. Honestly I hope we just tell them to sod off then, carry on the world cup with 2 invite teams made from any players from their pathetic competition that has the balls to come and play.

NZ signed a conditional participation agreement ? Was it simply to do what the ARL told them

The flimsy holes in the "player welfare" argument are there because this isn't about Player Welfare at all. This is entirely about players quarantine time being part of their holiday time or NRL clubs' pre season - and that it would regardless be impacting on the latter.

I knew we could rely on Bateman to get into them!

In all honesty Australian Rugby League is not interested in international competition and for them the SOO is the be all and end all

Just seen this now ..... think I am in shock. Just starting to read through some of the posts here, and the depth of feeling that has gone into them shows what this comp means to so many of us.

I know this isn't germane to the topic at hand, but just wanted to jump in and offer some support on this. You're right that this is a hugely disappointing decision, but most of the kids you're coaching are probably happy throwing a ball around with their mates and having a great time, regardless of the wider game issues. You (and all grassroots coaches) are doing a great job and it's an important job even if the national bodies are ###### around. Not just because you're teaching them rugby but because sport for kids is so much more than that.

Thread - Grant claims (as I expected) players have not been consulted

Would you trust Aus to take part in 2022. I wouldn't.