Premier Sports appear to have binned Pacific Tests - Gutted?

[guess who]

Cheers Scubby.

[USRLFAN]

The Samoa Tonga match had probably the best atmosphere at a game in Australia so far this season!.  NRL fans please take note:  It's ok to chant and sing!

[guess who]

Cheers Scubby.

[hutch]

yeah good on em...but like i said....why do the NRL have to have their name plastered on it??

i'll tell you...when this NRL pacific strategy was announced a few of us "internationalists" wondered is it actually a strategy to grow international RL in the pacific..or is it a strategy to grow the NRL brand in the pacific??...im still not sure....

Why not both? We absolutely should be growing the NRL brand in the pacific as well as international rugby league. The NRL is on th 30 weeks a year in the pacific islands, kids naturally want to play for their favourite NRL team. The sad reality is that there has still never been a rugby league junior from Tonga or Samoa make it to the NRL. We want kids to want to play rugby league, for their local team, an NRL club and their country.

[Man of Kent]

https://youtu.be/_1eYm4GHQV8

Thanks for posting these. Particularly enjoyed the Samoa-Tonga game. Very intense. Crowd was 15,000 but sounded more like 150,000. Good stuff.

[DoubleD]

So much to be pleased and depressed about in equal measure in that article.

We have learnt nothing if we are relying on goodwill of the Aussies to stage internationals that they should have literally no involvement in. A test match between Samoa and Fiji in Samoa has zero to do with the NRL and expecting them to fund and arrange this is laughable.

This is not a criticism of the NRL, it is of the RLIF and sport overall. We are seeing what is happening in the likes of Scotland now the RFL have decided to stop funding and organising things for them.

Id rather see the RFL and ARLC funding the RLIF to be a proper organisation and them independently organising the international game than pet projects.

Itll be interesting to see what happens if the RLIF manage to organise something other than the RLWC as part of tgeir latest strategy to allow them to attract income, as without that we are relying on goodwill from the ARLC and RFL which is not a model which will drive the world game forward.

Whilst I agree with a lot of what you are saying Dave, we need to look at the reality/facts. The RLIF is a token organisation without any or few full time employees. Both the RFL and NRL have whole departments geared up for organising these sort of events. To get to that level you'd have to replicate the number of employees in RLIF which costs ££££ and takes money out of the development side of the game. Throw in the internal politics of each side too. We are where we are. But things are moving, slowly and too slow for most but that is the nature of the beast. As you say it'll be interesting to see how the confederation cup changes things if it goes ahead. Getting an official mid season international break is also key but the RFL really needs to reduce the SL games then