Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)

[Sports Prophet]

One outcome of this will be the hysteria and interest around the evil Aussies when the tournament does proceed. There will certainly be a very partisan atmosphere.

[DI Keith Fowler]

1 minute ago, Derwent said:

Look, if the NRL don't want their players to come they will find the ways and means to do it. That could range from the draconian, to gentle coersion, to paying them not to. Bottom line is they will get their own way somehow. If you think otherwise you are being naive.

I don't think it needs to go that far, you need to threaten them to a point where they decide it's easier for them to come than to fight it. 

[Archie Gordon]

We really need official public commitments from Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, PNG. If the IRL could get those today, the ARLC and NZRL would be isolated.

We are 9th 'most read' on the BBC site - that's the whole site. 

No to invitational sides. NGB-backed teams or nothing.

[Damien]

1 minute ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

Completely agree - very much like the European Super League in football, until an actual player comes out and says it, some will just perceive it as fans and journalists going overboard in their reactions. Players need to step up - especially ones in the NRL. 

Oh for a player like Cameron Smith or a Darren Lockyer from teams gone by to stand up and speak out against this. I'm not even really sure who the leaders or players of their stature are in the current Australian team because they barely play.

[Adelaide Tiger]

11 minutes ago, rlno1 said:

And V'landys needs a good middle finger. Overrated muppet.

Can we create a Go Fund page to pay John Hopoate to administer the middle finger?

[Derwent]

13 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Pressure will be applied but this is where the players and fans need to push back harder. We can't just keep letting Australia get away with this kind of thing. Kiss goodbye to SOO, fair enough but none of the best players will be playing in it then will they? That will certainly diminish that product a bit and if fans decided they weren't interested in going of watching a second rate product then the NRL would have to concede something. The NRL is only at the level it is because of the players and fans, without them there is nothing they can do. The players need to make a stand. 

History says otherwise. During the SL war in Oz many of the game's best players were not eligible for either SOO or the official Australian national side. It didn't do any long term damage to the game down there or the SOO concept.

[Jim from Oz]

2 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

We really need official public commitments from Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, PNG. If the IRL could get those today, the ARLC and NZRL would be isolated.

We are 9th 'most read' on the BBC site - that's the whole site. 

No to invitational sides. NGB-backed teams or nothing.

Agreed, the international rugby league (IRL) and the Rugby league World Cup organising committee need to act fast – and get players, other teams, to back them up. They have a few days window to do this I reckon, then it will be a fate accompli for PVL And the clubs

 

 

[JohnM]

6 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

If you read the statement, player welfare was the main point of the entire release.

Just saying something does not make it true. Player welfare isn't something that has been at the top of the sports agenda in Aus. 

[hunsletgreenandgold]

4 minutes ago, Damien said:

Oh for a player like Cameron Smith or a Darren Lockyer from teams gone by to stand up and speak out against this. I'm not even really sure who the leaders or players of their stature are in the current Australian team because they barely play.

Yep either of those, who have been quoted many times saying top international games are as tough if not tougher than Origin, would certainly make waves - sadly I think they're both tied to contracts with NRL broadcast partners, so I doubt they'd go against the grain. In the current crop i'd take a Tedesco/Mitchell/Trbojevic type player to make a murmuring of discontent as a win. Again, I just don't see it sadly. 

[Damien]

Damien Cook yesterday:

But Cook isn't worried about that, telling the media that he is keen to play.

“Look, it is going to be a long time away from home, but I’m not passing up the opportunity to possibly be a part of the World Cup that is for sure,” Cook said.

“The opportunity to play in a World Cup if I was selected I’d want to be a part of it.

“I understand they have to go through the right things to make sure they protect the players, but if it is a chance to go to the World Cup and I’m picked, I would be wanting to go over there.”

https://www.zerotackle.com/id-want-to-be-part-of-it-damien-cook-not-interested-in-backing-out-of-world-cup-107406/

[JohnM]

13 minutes ago, Derwent said:

Look, if the NRL don't want their players to come they will find the ways and means to do it. That could range from the draconian, to gentle coersion, to paying them not to. Bottom line is they will get their own way somehow. If you think otherwise you are being naive.

They already put pressure on New Zealand to welch, so if they can do it to a whole country, no matter how enslaved they are to Australia, the can do it to individual players. 

I'm really coming to the conclusion the only was to go ahead is to include Aus and NZ in the fixture list, then mark them as forfeit and award the result to their opponents 

[Spotty Herbert]

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.

[Hela Wigmen]

Poor from us that we haven’t yet had ex-NRL players, Kristian Woolf and Shaun Wane calling them out for running scared and bottling it. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

rlwc trending on twitter. Always seems when RL is trending on there it is for something negative......

[The Rocket]

16 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

If you read the statement, player welfare was the main point of the entire release.

That`s the NRL equivalent of  `patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel`.

[Smudger06]

Jesus what a kick in the teeth for this sport, from amongst its own! 

[gingerjon]

5 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

rlwc trending on twitter. Always seems when RL is trending on there it is for something negative......

Main headline and biggest story by far on the BBC Sport website.

Like I say: brilliant.

[Chrispmartha]

Michael Mcguire has said he would have been happy to go to the World Cup.

Don't think the ARL or the NZRL will come out of this without looking the insular organisations that they are.

[EastLondonMike]

I think for this to happen the Governing bodies will need to be on board. Not sure players like Jack Wighton and Damien Cook will play for an invitational side. I'm sure player insurance would come into it also.

It's likely there will be a tournament arranged down under to appease any possible player disquiet. Even if it's solely for this purpose.

I'm getting sod all work done because of this announcement though!

[Smudger06]

There is zero cooperation or even good will at this point. The laws of the game will diversify. There's nothing holding our sport together. 

[Wakefield Ram]

Their participation should have been confirmed one way or another before announcing the WC was on. 

[DI Keith Fowler]

1 minute ago, Wakefield Ram said:

Their participation should have been confirmed one way or another before announcing the WC was on. 

To be fair New Zealand's was apparently and they've reneged.

[Damien]

1 minute ago, Wakefield Ram said:

Their participation should have been confirmed one way or another before announcing the WC was on. 

At what point do you expect the organisers to wait till? The Aussies are just one nation out of 16, the other 15 did confirm.

[Lowdesert]

26 minutes ago, DavidM said:

Ask them for their own opinion , let them make their own risk assessment and bring a team that wants to come 

This is what Grant (IRL) is indicating.  He is saying 

"I have been in regular communication with the RLPA and a number of international players and coaches who have been satisfied with the World Cup's biosecurity arrangements and expressed a clear determination to travel to England and proudly represent their nations," Grant said in a statement.

"They have expressed to me that they feel their own personal choice to participate or not in the World Cup has been taken from them.“

[gingerjon]

2 minutes ago, DI Keith Fowler said:

To be fair New Zealand's was apparently and they've reneged.

*makes bitingly satirical point about international agreements*