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World Cup in Doubt…Again


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Just now, Hela Wigmen said:

100%. It’s staggering that you think being confined to a hotel room won’t effect fitness. 

Confined to a hotel room in November will not effect a top level athletes fitness 3 months later,to thinking it will shows your complete ignorance on the subject.

The Australian Open tennis contestants did it & and played the following week.

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2 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

100%. It’s staggering that you think being confined to a hotel room won’t effect fitness. 

You think 2 weeks will have that much impact? I'm expecting they won't be sat about playing xbox, drinking Coke and eating pizza the full 2 weeks. The hotel will most likely have a gym where they can have a cardio programme. It's a truly pathetic excuse and is blatantly just more of the NRL's insularity and flagrant disregard for the game outside if their own bubble. Sod em, If they don't wanna play then build a team from players who want to come, they can't imprison a player who wants to be involved. 

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4 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

How much training do you think players normally do in the two weeks following the end of the season?

Yeap those boozy weeks in Bali are vital to their fitness 3 months later 😂

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Come on guys , you’ve played all year then gone to the World Cup . The next day you want to get right back into training and not lie around doing nothing for , oh , at least 2 weeks 

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Just now, Davo5 said:

Yeap those boozy weeks in Bali are vital to their fitness 3 months later 😂

Indeed. Being in quarantine instead of on the booze cruises would actually help their fitness.

In fact,with all the trouble NRL players get up to in the off season you would think their clubs would jump at the chance of having them confined to a hotel room.

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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13 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Obviously just an opinion but I think he is teeing us up for a delay because of the Aussie problem. They could have delayed 6m ago if full stadia was a problem - but things are looking better than 6m ago based on crowds in the UK etc. 

It’s about getting the sequencing right though. Firstly we consult with the UK government about the likelihood of being able to utilise the stadia effectively. That outcome enables a decision to be made from a commercial perspective.

If they say it’s low probability of a full scale competition then we cancel on commercial grounds. Nobody can complain about that, the last thing we need is a repeat of the 2000 RLWC.


But if they say they anticipate we can go ahead as planned then that puts the ball fairly and squarely in the court of our Antipodean colleagues and puts a bit of pressure on them. If they still don’t want to participate then there’s not a lot that the organisers can do about that. 

I’m not prejudiced, I hate everybody equally

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1 hour ago, Derwent said:

It’s about getting the sequencing right though. Firstly we consult with the UK government about the likelihood of being able to utilise the stadia effectively. That outcome enables a decision to be made from a commercial perspective.

If they say it’s low probability of a full scale competition then we cancel on commercial grounds. Nobody can complain about that, the last thing we need is a repeat of the 2000 RLWC.


But if they say they anticipate we can go ahead as planned then that puts the ball fairly and squarely in the court of our Antipodean colleagues and puts a bit of pressure on them. If they still don’t want to participate then there’s not a lot that the organisers can do about that. 

They have just managed to get 45k signed off at Wembley, I suspect the crowds issue is less of an issue than the Aussie problem. 

They are not going to want to play hardball, certainly not publicly, they will need to show some unity if they postpone, hence why I think this capacity point is being brought to the forefront. It will be the most professional excuse for delaying the tournament to fans, sponsors and partners. One of the issues the game has is that funding has already been spent in certain areas, we need to be really careful. 

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Let's hope the tournament can go ahead as planned. I don't see why it shouldn't.

Postponing by a year puts it in direct competition with football's World Cup held in Qatar in November & December 2022.

I don't see us winning that particular battle. It's this year or not at all.

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I just hope the decision to host the WC is not based on whether it suits the 2022 NRL season. There may be other factors that make the tournament a no go but kowtowing to those who put the club game above the WC shouldn’t be one of them.

My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/

It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course.

It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. 

 

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5 minutes ago, RayCee said:

I just hope the decision to host the WC is not based on whether it suits the 2022 NRL season. There may be other factors that make the tournament a no go but kowtowing to those who put the club game above the WC shouldn’t be one of them.

That’ll be the reason, the NRL have said as much all ready, but other factors will be used as an excuse

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8 hours ago, Derwent said:

Unfortunately for us we do not have the same influence as the multi-billion industries of F1 and soccer.

I dont understand your point, so lets say Arsenal for example will play infront of capacity crowds but then for the world cup game the stadium will only host 100 fans?

I really dont see what your downtrodden attitude has to do with anything, and lets remember that the UK govenment have underwritten the tournament so will loose money if its not a success

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8 hours ago, AB90 said:

The world keeps turning but circumstances are very different. 

Russia or USA pulling out of an Olympic Games is 1 out of roughly 200 participating countries. 

It’s a different situation here as 70% of all players participating in the upcoming rugby league WC are going to be from Australia and New Zealand. The WC is dependent upon the players in this region of the world. 

The football World Cup equivalent would be if say all the players from Europe and South America potentially withdrawing from a WC.

 

1 or 2 countrys that participate in the majority of events and are both top 3 in medal haul tables, out of the 200 a lot only send a handfull of athletes to compete in very few events..

I would also think 70% is an over estimate..

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6 hours ago, dkw said:

The hotel will most likely have a gym where they can have a cardio programme.

Without wanting to defend the Aussies, you can't use the hotel gym under a room quarantine.  

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

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13 minutes ago, yipyee said:

1 or 2 countrys that participate in the majority of events and are both top 3 in medal haul tables, out of the 200 a lot only send a handfull of athletes to compete in very few events..

I would also think 70% is an over estimate..

If so it won't be over by much.  I count 10 teams which will be pretty much all antipodeans and two which will be at least half antipodeans.  The first 10 are Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Lebanon, Italy and Greece and the other two are Ireland and Scotland.  11/16 is .6875 or a mere shade under 70% and it leaves out any antipodeans with Welsh ancestry who might play for Wales.

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FFS! Just call it off. Postpone till next year. By then all the countries involved will be 100% vaccinated (or close enough) and all the currently necessary faffing around will be gone.

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38 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

If so it won't be over by much.  I count 10 teams which will be pretty much all antipodeans and two which will be at least half antipodeans.  The first 10 are Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Lebanon, Italy and Greece and the other two are Ireland and Scotland.  11/16 is .6875 or a mere shade under 70% and it leaves out any antipodeans with Welsh ancestry who might play for Wales.

Easy fix, remove all the heratige players and raise teams from UK based players and players who are not soft and will isolate for 2 weeks like most human beings have had to do at some point over the last 18 months..

Its shocking that people are coming up with excuses why not to play for their country instead pf finding solutions how things can be done, its just not very British!

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28 minutes ago, yipyee said:

Easy fix, remove all the heratige players and raise teams from UK based players and players who are not soft and will isolate for 2 weeks like most human beings have had to do at some point over the last 18 months..

Its shocking that people are coming up with excuses why not to play for their country instead pf finding solutions how things can be done, its just not very British!

Then you'd have France and Jamaica at more or less full strength, but apart from England and (maybe) Wales all the others would be much weaker and a few of them would be unable to field a team at all because they don't have enough eligible players (Cook Islands, Italy, Greece and Lebanon all come to mind here and those are 1/4 of the teams) who don't play down under.  As Canadian newscaster Peter Trueman used to say back in the day, it's not news but that is reality.

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25 minutes ago, Farmduck said:

FFS! Just call it off. Postpone till next year. By then all the countries involved will be 100% vaccinated (or close enough) and all the currently necessary faffing around will be gone.

Why? Other events are being held successfully, NZ just won the World Test Cricket and the Euros are being played in countless countries. Are Australia not going to the Olympics? Only RL has these small time factions pursuing their own interests. 

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1 hour ago, Big Picture said:

Then you'd have France and Jamaica at more or less full strength, but apart from England and (maybe) Wales all the others would be much weaker and a few of them would be unable to field a team at all because they don't have enough eligible players (Cook Islands, Italy, Greece and Lebanon all come to mind here and those are 1/4 of the teams) who don't play down under.  As Canadian newscaster Peter Trueman used to say back in the day, it's not news but that is reality.

If Greece and Lebanon cannot field a team of home grown players then they shouldnt be at the world cup finals

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

Why? Other events are being held successfully, NZ just won the World Test Cricket and the Euros are being played in countless countries. Are Australia not going to the Olympics? Only RL has these small time factions pursuing their own interests. 

Lions tour going ahead also

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5 hours ago, Farmduck said:

FFS! Just call it off. Postpone till next year. By then all the countries involved will be 100% vaccinated (or close enough) and all the currently necessary faffing around will be gone.

Ah but that’s not the reason the Aussies don’t want to come. They value trial games over the World Cup. It’s there in black and white in the original article

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8 hours ago, Farmduck said:

FFS! Just call it off. Postpone till next year. By then all the countries involved will be 100% vaccinated (or close enough) and all the currently necessary faffing around will be gone.

Another year of salaries and marketing, cost of refunds, cost and effort of reorganising 30-odd events will all be very substantial. 

We should remember we have history of this tournament almost bankrupting the RFL. Thus isn't a case of making £200m profit instead of £300m 

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4 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Another year of salaries and marketing, cost of refunds, cost and effort of reorganising 30-odd events will all be very substantial. 

We should remember we have history of this tournament almost bankrupting the RFL. Thus isn't a case of making £200m profit instead of £300m 

The very related part of this is that we were told a part - not specified how much - of the initial government loan to the RFL (the one we got ahead of other sports) was because of the need to deliver the World Cup.

That is money that we have also been told separately is now being repaid. The RFL made, in total, a £25,000 profit last year but to protect itself it did take on a lot of additional debt and cut a lot of costs.

Another year without a World Cup is another year of paying not just those things you mentioned but also debt servicing and *not* putting any new investment into the sport.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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15 hours ago, yipyee said:

If Greece and Lebanon cannot field a team of home grown players then they shouldnt be at the world cup finals

Without their heritage players all they could manage is fielding teams of RU players who just play RL in the RU off-season.  Would you really want that?

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