Spotty Herbert

How long before the NZRL use this as a reason to refuse to come to the 2022 world cup? Or will they wait till the NRL tell them to withdraw? Massive sympathy for the players and their families who must be wondering where "home" is.

Adam Elliott will be on the list soon!

Sorry, but it was known RTS was going to the dark side very early in the year and he was never going to be allowed to play in the RL world cup.

So your lot will cut short the NRL season to enable that to happen? Yes, sure ....

Spot on. We must have a multi million $$$ bond IF we are going to see it postponed to next year.

And Phil Gould thinks the NRL should run the IRL? The arrogance is breathtaking.

I have taken 24 hours away from the topic to try and calm down. Unsuccessfully. I can't escape the belief that a few jumped up autocrats believe it is more important to pander to the whims of the clubs who play on the eastern seaboard of an underdeveloped country at the a*se end of the world over the needs of the rest of the world and the desires of its own players. They would rather compete with AFL in Queensland and NSW than other sports across the world because of their insularity and pig headedness. About 30 or 40 pages ago I suggested that the NRL players should sue the NRL for restraint of trade and / or breach of their human right to represent their nation at the highest level. The only way to change the attitude of the NRL is to have them defeated in court by the people they dishonestly claim to be trying to protect.

The key word is SOME. Some is not many and certainly not most. Everything we read suggests that around 75% of eligible players want to take part in the 2021 world cup in 2021. Their wishes have been ignored, their human rights are being abused and they are suffering a restraint of trade because a bullying administration doesn't want there to be any disruption to its 2022 pre season. The collateral damage to the womens and wheelchair games is disproportionately high and the NRL's position is indefensible. Full stop. End of argument.

The event cannot be postponed for a year because the finances and logistics make it impossible. You cannot run a rugby league world cup at the same time as the build up to the FIFA world cup. There would be no broadcast hours to compare to what can be achieved this year and much of the government money that is dependent on the event going ahead in 2021 would disappear. The NRL administrators know this and are trying to hide behind this to avoid being honest about the reasons they don't want to take part. You have made an extremely strong attempt to defend the undefendable, but I am sorry to say that you cannot win the argument because it is undefendable.

I have no doubt there are current players who are concerned. I believe Jahrome Luai has said today that he is likely to stay at home rather than represent Samoa and that is absolutely fine. However, more players have said they want to come than have said they would rather stay at home. They are being bullied into losing the chance to represent their country. At least give them a chance to make a decision for themselves.

Cameron Smith is perfectly entitled to his opinion, just as you are. However, just because he is "Cameron Smith" it doesn't mean his opinion carries any more weight than the RLPA and those players, personalities and pundits who believe it is perfectly viable to run the world cup this year. The fact that he may be involved with coaching Queensland in SOO going forward also suggests it may be in Cameron's interests to toe the NRL line rather than think independently and with consideration to the greater good of the game. Potentially.

At the expense of having empathy with the RLPA, Christian Welch, Jason Taumalolo, numerous senior Australian international players, the entire northern hemisphere rugby league community, all those Pacific island players who are desperate to be able to follow through on their human right to represent their nation, the wheelchair players who were going to have an opportunity to play in the greatest tournament of their careers to date? The only empathy you are showing is with the parochial interests of the NRL clubs who are worried their 2022 pre season may be a little bit disrupted and their power over world rugby league may not be as strong as it has been. You should be ashamed of yourself, but your posts to date suggest you don't understand the concept of shame - just like the NRL administrators you are trying to defend.

We aren't demanding they come. We are demanding the NRL gives the players a chance to decide for themselves instead of being bullied into not coming.

And whether the £10m already received would have to be paid back if the tournament does not take place in 2021. None of us have sight of the contract (that I am aware of) so perhaps you would be prepared to understand why those of us who have to live with the UK government every day might believe their "northern powerhouse" plans are treated with suspicion.

Levelling up is just political rhetoric. The cash is for promoting the UK as being open now. It will not be available next year, just as the NRL will not want their players to play again next year. It's now or never.

The whole idea of the government offering cash to big events is to show that the UK is open for business NOW, not next year (rightly or wrongly, whatever your opinion of the UK government).

Should we be encouraging the RLPA to take legal action against the NRL and ARLC for restraint of trade? They get paid for appearing in a world cup, so V'Landys is preventing the players from earning money and that is illegal. Similarly, they could go for the human rights angle. It is a sportsman's greatest ambition to represent his / her country at a world cup / Olympics / whatever event is the pinnacle of the sport. To prevent this could be argued to be a breach of their human rights. This would particularly be relevant to the women and wheelchair players who couldn't have a state of origin argument used against them.

But you continue to ignore the real reason, which is what Phil Gould and all the other Anzac commentators are saying : this is about not disrupting the NRL pre season and nothing else.

Has anyone seen any reaction from the Australian / New Zealand women or wheelchair players? Was V'landys just talking about the men or all competitors? Wouldn't it look funny to the population of one of the (allegedly) most macho nations on earth if the women and disabled players arrived in the UK to play but the big, butch Aussie men weren't brave enough to?

Or the Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Lebanese, PNG etc etc

I already have. I may use the wife's e mail address to give them a second blast as well. I hope all contributors to this thread do the same.

The key will be the attitude of the Pacific island nations and their players. If they still say they are coming and the (large number of) dual qualified players choose to come with their heritage nations we will still have most of the world's best players. NZ players are almost entirely dual qualified and half the Australian team too. If this remains an RLIF sanctioned event I believe the NRL clubs have to release their players as the laws stand at the moment. That just makes the NRL and their lackies look even more feeble than they currently do. IF the players come out and over 50% say they don't want to travel, then we have to accept postponement is necessary.

I dislike Bellamy because of his role in salary cap manipulations, the promotion of techniques that slow the game down and (potentially) lead to more injuries for the players and his demeanour in general. He has also coached and encouraged some of the most unpleasant and grubbiest players of the last 20 years. Having said that, nobody (even Wayne Bennett) has done a better job for the team he has coached, its just that the game as a whole is worse off for his influence.

Much as I dislike him they desperately need Craig Bellamy to come in and sort the whole club out and rumour has it they are prepared to offer him a lot of money to do it. Bennett would be past it and I don't think there is anyone else who could impose his will the same way Bellyache would.

So long as its more than Ryan Matterson is offered, anything is fine. If it is true that Matterson is trying to get out of the third year of his Eels contract, meaning it would be the third contract he had negotiated an early release from, I would hope that nobody would offer him a cent as he (or his advisors) are clearly unable to commit to anything beyond one year!!