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Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)


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2 hours ago, Whippet13 said:

I think it's something we should promote more, the origins of the trophy is something we hear nothing about. There are strong emotional and historical links which would probably change opinions in certain areas if they were more widely known.

What would you promote though?  The trophy was inaugurated for a tournament with only four teams, for which the Aussies apparently insisted that their expenses be guaranteed up front and the Great Britain team was weakened by clubs refusing to release players for it, not exactly an auspicious beginning.

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Does anyone genuinely think the pacific island teams aren’t going to fold to the pressure? It’s depressing in a way I never thought I’d say on a RL forum, but Boris Johnson is probably British rugby league’s only hope….my god.

Edited by Tex Evans Thigh
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48 minutes ago, Tex Evans Thigh said:

Does anyone genuinely think the pacific island teams aren’t going to fold to the pressure? It’s depressing in a way I never thought I’d say on a RL forum, but Boris Johnson is probably British rugby league’s only hope….my god.

Yep That is it, the fact the British government has put in so much money to this tournament means the UK government should be putting pressure on those Pacific Island governing bodies.

But equally, the NRL will be ruthless in their pressure to get the Pacific Island nations to fold.

As I have said earlier on this thread, it all comes down to the Monday meeting of the Asia Pacific rugby league Federation. If the five Pacific Island nations commit to the World Cup, then it can be saved!

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I can’t remember if I have posted this or not but just in case I haven’t:

 

This is absolutely laughable! He has just thrown an atomic bomb into the middle of international rugby league with his withdrawal at four minutes notice Of the Australian team from the World Cup!

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/in-with-a-real-shot-why-league-is-confident-of-olympic-inclusion-in-2032-20210724-p58cle.html

 

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16 hours ago, fighting irish said:

We need to change this attitude, right across the world.

We must get beyond seeing fledgling nations as ''Mickey Mouse'' and begin treating the organisations and the people involved with the respect they deserve, given that they are committing to ''our'' game and doing the best they can with the energy they can muster. 

The Aussies have regarded us as "Mickey Mouse" since the 80s. In turn, we regard the French as "Mickey mouse". We even have an attitude to the Kiwis that they`re not the Australians, i.e. not the real deal. What hope for "fledgling nations" to be valued and taken seriously?

There are miserable off-field cultural aspects to all this negativity, but I would also draw a connection to the attitudes expressed on forum threads about blowouts that assert RL games are not worth watching unless the scores are close. And I would attribute those to abysmal levels in understanding of the game, all too apparent in the media coverage.

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6 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

The Aussies have regarded us as "Mickey Mouse" since the 80s. In turn, we regard the French as "Mickey mouse". We even have an attitude to the Kiwis that they`re not the Australians, i.e. not the real deal. What hope for "fledgling nations" to be valued and taken seriously?

There are miserable off-field cultural aspects to all this negativity, but I would also draw a connection to the attitudes expressed on forum threads about blowouts that assert RL games are not worth watching unless the scores are close. And I would attribute those to abysmal levels in understanding of the game, all too apparent in the media coverage.

I see blow outs in just about every sporting tournament but somehow RL must be gauged differently. I view tournaments as a celebration of the sport and all attendees contributors. Hopefully out of this comes more respect and the RFL view internationals in Europe/Northern hemisphere as a vital part of the yearly calendar. 

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Apologies if the points have been made before, but I haven't had time to read all 1.2k replies.

Why don't we turn it round on them? Imply that the Aussies are running scared of losing their status as world rugby's top team (sic). They may have passed off losing to NZ in 2008 as a fluke and forgotten how close they were to losing last time out and getting beat by Tonga in 2019. 

#FearOfLosing

Also, how silly will their covid excuse look if we're down to a handful of cases by the start of the tournament. While clearly this may not be the case, as it's too early to tell whether the government's big vaccine gamble will pay off, it is a possibility. The number of cases has suddenly dipped in the last few days,  but it could be temporary; a new variant could be just around the corner. 

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In my opinion the"number of cases" is a red herring. It all depends on identification,  detection and testing and reporting. We don't know if Vlandis and old man Gould are (capable of?) comparing like with like. 

However, numbers jabbed is much more of an absolute and here Aus has comprehensively failed compared with virtually every other country.  I assume Vlandis and Gould are working hard to ensure ALL players, officials etc are double jabbed. Sadly, there is no cure or innoculation for what those two have.

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45 minutes ago, Wholly Trinity said:

Also, how silly will their covid excuse look if we're down to a handful of cases by the start of the tournament. While clearly this may not be the case, as it's too early to tell whether the government's big vaccine gamble will pay off, it is a possibility. The number of cases has suddenly dipped in the last few days,  but it could be temporary; a new variant could be just around the corner. 

This is the thing isn't it? The cases are dipping at the moment and the death rate is nowhere near what it has been in other spikes and with the tournament still 3 months away the pattern of other spikes would suggest it will definitely be right down by that point. We are one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, 36million second doses is the number I saw yesterday. In terms of a new varient coming along, there is no way anyone can know whether that can happen, certainly not a few morons running rugby league in Australia so using that excuse they might as well say, we are never coming to your country ever again just in case a deadly virus strikes.

We could say the same about them, maybe a new varient will spring up in Aus or NZ, we just can't know can we? Of course, the excuse of never coming over here again just in case would really suit Aus RL from what we've seen. It's a bit like that whole situation of when something bad happens to someone and they never want to do it again but you have to just get out there and get on with it or you never will.

To give an example, at the start of the pandemic elderly relatives of mine were of course isolating and not going out, we were doing their shopping for them. When they were told to stop isolating, they would not go out, basically scared to after all the fear that the media had instilled into them. They just would not go out. So we just plain refused to do their shopping and stopped picking up their prescriptions for them. Suddenly they were going out fine because they had to and they realised immediately that everything was fine and they weren't gonna just walk out their front door and drop dead. The elderly relatives are the Aussies running scared. Come over here and you'll realise this isn't a virus ravaged dystopia!.. Well maybe Leigh but you know.... 

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59 minutes ago, Wholly Trinity said:

 

Also, how silly will their covid excuse look if we're down to a handful of cases by the start of the tournament. 

They won't care because covid is an excuse.

There are valid concerns and, as noted a fair few pages back, the 'biosecure' bubble described isn't as tight as for other sports. So maybe, just maybe, there's a point there.

But, it's not the reason. They know it's not the reason. Nobody should pretend it's the reason.

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9 minutes ago, JohnM said:

In my opinion the"number of cases" is a red herring. It all depends on identification,  detection and testing and reporting. We don't know if Vlandis and old man Gould are (capable of?) comparing like with like. 

However, numbers jabbed is much more of an absolute and here Aus has comprehensively failed compared with virtually every other country.  I assume Vlandis and Gould are working hard to ensure ALL players, officials etc are double jabbed. Sadly, there is no cure or innoculation for what those two have.

Correct, the number of jabs is far more important because the number of jabs is what is making the virus less deadly. As you say, cases is a red herring because yes there are about 35,000 cases a day at the moment but those figures never tell you how many of those cases are massively serious. The majority of those cases as far as I understand it are mild and it is people getting jabbed that is ensuring that. 

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3 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Correct, the number of jabs is far more important because the number of jabs is what is making the virus less deadly. As you say, cases is a red herring because yes there are about 35,000 cases a day at the moment but those figures never tell you how many of those cases are massively serious. The majority of those cases as far as I understand it are mild and it is people getting jabbed that is ensuring that. 

This is getting close to political but you can follow the number of hospitalisations and ICU/Covid beds in use.

For example, one available chart:

image.png.cfd0aaae0af9a8bf89a6f63df5b99377.png

Edited by gingerjon
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Thought I was finished on this topic, just saw this on my news feed.

Wayne's 'double standard' warning for NRL rivals (msn.com)

"South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett believes it's not his right to "deprive" any of his Rabbitohs players of competing in the Rugby League World Cup and has warned rival NRL clubs of being guilty of "a double standard"

Given the tireless efforts of clubs to keep the NRL and State of Origin alive during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bennett says it'd be a matter of double standards if clubs banned players from travelling to England for the showpiece event."

Bennett`s pretty fired up in there, he`s basically saying everything that everyone has been saying on these pages, hopefully this is the public kick-up-the-###### the NRL need.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

This is getting close to political but you can follow the number of hospitalisations and ICU/Covid beds in use.

For example, one available chart:

image.png.cfd0aaae0af9a8bf89a6f63df5b99377.png

Yeah, not meaning to stray the discussion too close to the political, just using facts and figures to back up the argument that its not about player welfare in relation to covid. Sorry mods! 

So you can see on that chart that the hospitalisations are at a much lower level and are increasing much more slowly than in the second spike. Halfway through September there you can see a sudden rapid upward turn in hospitalisations, campared to this July and it is just gradually increasing. This would back up the suggestion that cases now to them are much milder and the drop in cases over the previous 5 days or so would suggest we are past the peek of this current spike. By the end of September most people having a second jab will have had it and by the end of October when the tournament gets goigg the figures should be rock bottom again. 

Anyway, let's get back into the realms of ridiculing Aussies and not straying into politics! 😉

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4 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

Thought I was finished on this topic, just saw this on my news feed.

Wayne's 'double standard' warning for NRL rivals (msn.com)

"South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett believes it's not his right to "deprive" any of his Rabbitohs players of competing in the Rugby League World Cup and has warned rival NRL clubs of being guilty of "a double standard"

Given the tireless efforts of clubs to keep the NRL and State of Origin alive during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bennett says it'd be a matter of double standards if clubs banned players from travelling to England for the showpiece event."

Bennett`s pretty fired up in there, he`s basically saying everything that everyone has been saying on these pages, hopefully this is the public kick-up-the-###### the NRL need.

 

 

Good to have you back Rocket, your contributions are enlightening

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There is a Sydney Daily telegraph story I can see via a google search but it's behind a paywall; can anyone open it?? As we all know, the NRL want to torpedo the RLWC:

 

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6 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

Thought I was finished on this topic, just saw this on my news feed.

Wayne's 'double standard' warning for NRL rivals (msn.com)

"South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett believes it's not his right to "deprive" any of his Rabbitohs players of competing in the Rugby League World Cup and has warned rival NRL clubs of being guilty of "a double standard"

Given the tireless efforts of clubs to keep the NRL and State of Origin alive during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bennett says it'd be a matter of double standards if clubs banned players from travelling to England for the showpiece event."

Bennett`s pretty fired up in there, he`s basically saying everything that everyone has been saying on these pages, hopefully this is the public kick-up-the-###### the NRL need.

 

 

My prediction is that this will make not a blind bit of difference.

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I keep monitoring Phil Gould's tweets via the web; it's utterly sickening what he says most of the time, but I'm trying to find clues as to the NRL's next moves … he's mentioned a few times now about "just wait and see" "it's coming" "the NRL will do international RL  better" "8-year rolling international RL calendar" vis-a-vis the NRL's "big" plans for international football etc


Of course, the fact that the IRL has been working on an "8-year rolling international RL calendar" is irrelevant to the NRL 

My guess is It's all part of the NRL coup to destroy the IRL and grab the $$$ available from broadcasters for international RL.

I'd say the NRL is moving hard on the Pacific Island nations this weekend … offering serious $$$ to "defect" from the IRL and APRL, so to speak … and my gut feeling is at tomorrow's meeting of the Asia-Pacific RL they will resign from the body – thus torpedoing the RLWC.

the NRL will then announce end-of-season RL tests in Australia

I'm of course hoping all this  won't eventuate but I just see a lot of clues as to that happening.

I'll also add that I feel quite sickened at the lack of support for the IRL / RLWC 2021 among Australian players/figures/identites etc but maybe there's a lot going on behind the scenes at the moment …
 

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14 minutes ago, Henson Park Old Firm said:

 

 

 

in other words Super League War 2

I am totally lost as to what all this is about. I have never heard of Sportsflick. Did they get the Australian rights to the 2021 RL World Cup? something else RL-related??

Also, as we don't know who/what "Jaco" is, I'm a bit wary of placing much store on this info …

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1 minute ago, Jim from Oz said:

I am totally lost as to what all this is about. I have never heard of Sportsflick. Did they get the Australian rights to the 2021 RL World Cup? something else RL-related??

Also, as we don't know who/what "Jaco" is, I'm a bit wary of placing much store on this info …

It's a online sports website, they televise serbian rugby league

https://www.sportsflickglobal.com/

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27 minutes ago, Jim from Oz said:

I am totally lost as to what all this is about. I have never heard of Sportsflick. Did they get the Australian rights to the 2021 RL World Cup? something else RL-related??

Also, as we don't know who/what "Jaco" is, I'm a bit wary of placing much store on this info …

They`re a small mob based out of the western suburbs of Sydney, made the headlines when they won then lost the rights to the UEFA soccer competition after they couldn`t back up their bid with financial backing.

One of their owners has ties with Serbian RL, got a number of niche sports on their books.

They were probably going to make a bid for the RLWC rights, and hopefully do what Sparks bid in NZ to the rights value over there, unfortunately the rights are probably pretty worthless at the moment. 

Either way Nine or Foxtel wouldn`t have been happy with another bidder in the mix. V`landy`s has a long history of looking after his mates and crucifying his enemies.

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