Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)

[GeordieSaint]

I haven't read the statement. It's a beautiful day outside so the less angry I am the better. 

[Essex Eel]

I honestly think that I'll be done with the sport after this. I can't believe how RL continually shoots itself in the foot and now we're seeing the jewel in the crown being sabotaged. Normally our sports cock-ups don't receive much media coverage but this is just embarrassing. I just feel so sorry for those players from the developing nations who are denied an opportunity to perform on the big stage. What must the players and supporters from those Nations think of our sport? 

[unapologetic pedant]

49 minutes ago, Scubby said:

They don't care mate, they just want it out of their hair for this year. How often has anyone said I'll do it next week, next month, next year to make something disappear.

If the NRL and clubs can get a World Cup cancelled the IRL is pretty much dead, or at worst mortally wounded.

"Procrastination is the thief of time"

[Jim from Oz]

More lies here:

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/political-football-why-boris-johnson-is-hell-bent-on-rlwc-going-ahead-20210729-p58dyi.html

 

“I understand the changing political fortunes of rugby league in England,” Beattie said, “but we’ve been fighting for two years now to keep the game alive in Australia in the face of a pandemic and the health of the players is more important.”

Yet when Beattie and fellow ARLC commissioner Wayne Pearce sat on an IRL board meeting two weeks ago, they voted for the RLWC to proceed.

Asked on Friday why he changed his view when the ARLC and the NZRL made a joint announcement the Kangaroos and Kiwis would not participate (the ARLC part-funds the NZRL), Beattie said: “The deadly Delta virus, the lockdown in Sydney and the move of the game to Queensland. That was the game-changer, the Sydney outbreak.”

Beattie also expressed concerns that “a lot of the players aren’t vaccinated” and conceded an understandable reluctance from government “to give priority to footballers.”

“We can’t send players to England unvaccinated,” he said. “Sure, the vaccination rate in England is higher than here but so is the infection rate.”

Significantly, the Wallabies plan to be in England in November.

Asked about the potential loss of £25m, together with the lucrative sponsorships tournament organisers have secured, Beattie said: “It’s a big loss. But if the players got sick, think of the long-term damage.”

[Whippet13]

13 minutes ago, Damien said:

And the dirty tactics continue. Nothing the NRL does surprises me anymore. A despicable organisation:

Kick-off in the NRL Telstra Women's Premiership has been delayed until October due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the six-week competition to be held as a standalone event.

https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/07/30/nrlw-now-a-standalone-october-event-after-kick-off-delay/

That is an atrocious decision, disgusting from the NRL.

Allegedly Fiji are up for joining the womens comp tbough, and it won't be hard to find another womens team. Wales would probably bite the RLWCs hand off at the opportunity and it would be a huge boost for the womens game there.

[Jim from Oz]

So before, covid in the UK was the reason.

Now, it's Covid in NSW/Sydney that's the reason:

 

 “The deadly Delta virus, the lockdown in Sydney and the move of the game to Queensland. That was the game-changer, the Sydney outbreak.”

 

[Dave T]

Can we finally put to bed any nonsense about wanting the NRL to invest in SL, or wanting us to follow their model, or believing that they are bastions of international RL. 

They are scumbags. 

[DC77]

10 hours ago, 17 stone giant said:

I was illustrating that it's not only the administrators who have concluded that it's not the right time to travel here to the UK for a world cup.

Some people have been arguing that the decision had nothing to do with Covid. That argument is slightly undermined when the likes of Cameron Smith say that he wouldn't have come either. Presumably he's not part of any conspiracy by the NRL to take over and destroy whatever they're supposed to be taking over and destroying.

Smith is genuine, but few here grasp those concerns.

Listening to the BBC’s RL podcast this week it was interesting to hear a contributor from NRL.com. The Aussies have a totally different approach to this virus than here. 100 people in Aus being diagnosed with covid daily has forced the place into lockdown, while here 50k diagnosed daily and we are open. There’s also a different approach to the vaccine programme which would explain the difference. He pointed out the difference with the Aussie Olympic team who were isolated together before going to Japan as a group where they will stay in a bubble, and they come home as soon as their participation is over). Cricket and RU also just one team, whereas RL it’s over 500 people from the NRL, and they all spread out to different teams, each of them sharing facilities with the general public and play in a country where 50k are diagnosed daily. Basically he was putting forward genuine concerns.

[Jim from Oz]

“We can’t send players to England unvaccinated,” he said.

 

Again … how difficult is vaccinating a few hundred players going to be? The start date is 3 months away.

Lie after lie after lie … it's just extraordinary.

[gingerjon]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Can we finally put to bed any nonsense about wanting the NRL to invest in SL, or wanting us to follow their model, or believing that they are bastions of international RL. 

They are scumbags. 

I'm sure you can find some people who believe that the NRL are beneficent custodians of the greatest game.

We call them useful idiots.

They will respond to this by some whataboutism about the RFL. 

[Jim from Oz]

1 minute ago, DC77 said:

Smith is genuine, but few here grasp those concerns.

Listening to the BBC’s RL podcast this week it was interesting to hear a contributor from NRL.com. The Aussies have a totally different approach to this virus than here. 100 people in Aus being diagnosed with covid daily has forced the place into lockdown, while here 50k diagnosed daily and we are open. There’s also a different approach to the vaccine programme which would explain the difference. He pointed out the difference with the Aussie Olympic team who were isolated together before going to Japan as a group where they will stay in a bubble, and they come home as soon as their participation is over). Cricket and RU also just one team, whereas RL it’s over 500 people from the NRL, and they all spread out to different teams, each of them sharing facilities with the general public and play in a country where 50k are diagnosed daily. Basically he was putting forward genuine concerns.

And all those concerns would have been mitigated by the RLWC's organisers' protocols/bubbles to be put in place.

it's yet another false argument

[Toby Chopra]

3 minutes ago, rlno1 said:

We did have an international board who sanctioned rules and tours etc. We have tried to get an organisation to control the game like FIFA but the NRL won't allow them full control.

Sort of, but the context matters.

That international board was still entirely dependent on the approval, support and funding of its constituent members, the ARL, the RFL and the NZRL. They were just largely on the same page. 

And those governing bodies had, relatively, more power than they do now becasue the game wasn't fully professional. 

Once players could earn themselves (and others) decent full time careers, their employers (the clubs) would inevitably become more powerful. It's happened in other sports too, and indeed also applies in England.

We've seen the English clubs do things that many others have objected to, such as trying to block mid season tests down under, just not on this scale. It's massively in the English clubs' interests for this world cup to go ahead, but let's not claim they wouldn't or couldn't try something similar. 

[Whippet13]

31 minutes ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

Interesting by issuing the statement, South Sydney are at odds with the opinion of their current Head Coach....

And also the opinion of their players, Souths players are at the heart of the push for an Indigenous team touring.

[GeordieSaint]

3 minutes ago, Jim from Oz said:

“We can’t send players to England unvaccinated,” he said.

 

Again … how difficult is vaccinating a few hundred players going to be? The start date is 3 months away.

Lie after lie after lie … it's just extraordinary.

I think the RLWC have offered to vaccinate everyone who wants it (with Pfizer).

[Whippet13]

5 minutes ago, Jim from Oz said:

“We can’t send players to England unvaccinated,” he said.

 

Again … how difficult is vaccinating a few hundred players going to be? The start date is 3 months away.

Lie after lie after lie … it's just extraordinary.

And they arent sending them, they are coming of their own free will.

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I'm sure you can find some people who believe that the NRL are beneficent custodians of the greatest game.

We call them useful idiots.

They will respond to this by some whataboutism about the RFL. 

Without taking it too far down that route, I genuinely believe much of the RFL's issue is that they are skint, which leads us to make short term bad decisions. 

Aussie Rugby actually has money, and makes worse decisions than the RFL. 

[gingerjon]

Just now, Dave T said:

I genuinely believe much of the RFL's issue is that they are skint

I think it has much the same issues because they are, to a large extent, mirrors of each other.

But, yes, not having enough money to do things well has been a constant problem for the RFL. The NRL's issue is that they are Scrooge McDuck with a rugby shirt.

[dkw]

All along we have seen the NRL and their clubs for what they really are, self serving ignorant morons. But this latest statement takes the biscuit. IF this ends the World Cup then I`m all for us cutting ties with them entirely, for me its a completely different sport to the one we have in our country and is as dangerous to us as Rugby Union. They care nothing for the game on the whole, the dont care for any country/club outside of their own little manure filled cabbage patch, all they see is the Aussie dollar and they want more and damn the rest of the sport. They are vermin and need treat like vermin. 

[Scubby]

The game in this country is facing the prospect of never being able to secure UK government funding for a major project again.

[Dave T]

5 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I think it has much the same issues because they are, to a large extent, mirrors of each other.

But, yes, not having enough money to do things well has been a constant problem for the RFL. The NRL's issue is that they are Scrooge McDuck with a rugby shirt.

Indeed, it is a vicious cycle. 

[Damien]

4 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:

Why would you let the selfish behaviour of some Australian businessesmen take away one of your life's great pleasures?

It's probably too late to save this world cup, but longer term we can rebuild. 

There are two rugby leagues now, one based around Sydney and one around Northern England. Players may move between the two but too all intents and purposes they're separate sports. It's schism 2.0 without the blacklisting.

I feel much the same as Dunbar. The game for me is no longer is one of lifes great pleasures and my enjoyment of it is shrinking by the year. The last few years decision making has seen a serious short sightedness and self interest that is destroying the game and shrinking its footprint. The game is blindly walking down a path, both domestically and internationally, that many of us have seen coming for years.

Literally from being incredibly optimistic a couple of years ago I see little to be enthusiastic about. Toulouse are still treading water stuck in the Championship and France 2025 now looks like a sick joke after it was pushed by the NRL (to get them out of hosting it). Im not even going to talk about Toronto and the lost opportunities I'm Canada. On the field there is less and less to enjoy about the sport with it being constantly changed by adding gimmicks for TV, funnily enough led by the very man intent on destroying the World Cup.

Your third paragraph sort of answers why we can't rebuild in your second paragraph. International RL is what I have enjoyed more than anything, the 2008 World Cup elevated it to a fantastic event after the 2000 disaster. Yet we have single handedly failed to capitalise on anything that has taken place in that time and instead look intent on destroying it all. Carrots get dangled now and again, new plans drawn up like clockwork but nothing gets done. There's no progress. Now with the push the scrap mid season internationals and the attempt to destroy the World Cup things are getting worse. Much worse.

Blind loyalty has kept me in the game the last 5 years or so. Now I'm just thinking if those in the game don't give a toss about saving it why should I.

[Scubby]

34 minutes ago, Damien said:

And the dirty tactics continue. Nothing the NRL does surprises me anymore. A despicable organisation:

Kick-off in the NRL Telstra Women's Premiership has been delayed until October due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the six-week competition to be held as a standalone event.

https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/07/30/nrlw-now-a-standalone-october-event-after-kick-off-delay/

That is disgraceful! For once I have no response.

[Hela Wigmen]

There’s some fair and valid concerns in that statement from the NRL clubs in relation to a few things. That said, its a convenient deflection to use for what is yet to come. 

[The Rocket]

12 minutes ago, DC77 said:

Smith is genuine, but few here grasp those concerns.

 

I saw those comments from Smith and my thoughts were he`d be better off keeping his trap shut, or at least think before he opens his mouth.

He`s experienced WC finals and playing overseas so what right does he have to undermine the right of blokes and girls who haven`t. He should be fighting for them.

He`s talking with his NRL hat on. I say to him, ######-off and find some other way to deal with your relevancy deprivation syndrome.

[Whippet13]

The NRL statement is a joke and indicates to me they are getting desperate, it is full of lies, omissions and half truths.

Yet again there is absolutely no reference to say they have spoken to their players, nor does it indicate ANY support for the ARLC decision from players.

Should be easy for the RLWC to issue a reply both publically and via the RLPA to every NRL player debunking it.