Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)

[Mr Frisky]

We new this was coming but now its official im gutted.

NRL win again, and it makes it worse they were never in any doubt they would win.

Nothing to stop them pulling out again next year so their clubs can play some friendlys- if I was France I wouldn't touch the 2025 tournament with a barge pole - why spend years organising, getting sponsors and backing for the NRL to cancel it within 4 or 5 minutes..

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by Mr Frisky

[graveyard johnny]

maybe the world will be in a better place covid wise by then - and we can all move onwards and upwards with the international game- the decision has been made - no point moaning about it or chewing the fat on another event in life thats not happening - all good things come to those who wait 

[Hemi4561]

Spineless decision. Now time to leave Australia to their own devices, remove their players from the Northern hemisphere game, and make real overtures to the Island nations that their players would be welcome here, and that as Nations they would be welcomed, but players that chose the NRL would not be considered for their National team. 

 

 

[MattSantos]

3 minutes ago, Hemi4561 said:

Spineless decision. Now time to leave Australia to their own devices, remove their players from the Northern hemisphere game, and make real overtures to the Island nations that their players would be welcome here, and that as Nations they would be welcomed, but players that chose the NRL would not be considered for their National team. 

 

 

Do you realise how daft this is?

[Alan Robertson]

19 minutes ago, Mr Frisky said:

 

NRL win again, and it makes it worse they were never in any doubt they would win.

 

Completely true, we've been bullied and I hate people who bully

[graveyard johnny]

there will be a lot of disappointment but the disappointment will be short term, all the knee jerk reactions full of hot air in the world wont help or change  anything - the show will go on- just a bit later thats all

[Bedford Roughyed]

 

[Dunbar]

As I said on the other thread.  Every other sport looks for ways to continue through adversity while Rugby League defeats itself from within.

Am I convinced that 2022 will deliver a World Cup?... no.  Will I remain the eternal optimist?... it is getting harder and harder.

This sport is great but it doesn't half have a habit of letting you down.

[Damien]

Still not official reading that so much the same as we've been discussing on the other thread. I'm not really sure why they are dragging this out if it's a done deal anyway.

[theswanmcr]

1 minute ago, graveyard johnny said:

there will be a lot of disappointment but the disappointment will be short term, all the knee jerk reactions full of hot air in the world wont help or change  anything - the show will go on- just a bit later thats all

Well let's hope so. No guarantee of that.

I imagine that the NRL will declare the 'post season' women's comp a huge success and say it needs to stay in that position. Or  they will just come up with some excuse.

Aussies laughing at it yet again as they bully us into doing what they want.

[londonrlfan]

Sad that they've caved into the NRL bullies and they've destroyed the sport, confirming the NRL are bigger than the sport. 

Anyone who thinks there will be a World Cup in 2022, or even 2025, is delusional. This was never about covid. 

[DavidM]

7 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

the show will go on-

Hopefully . Maybe . 

[doc]

What a bag of spanners the Aussies are. But, it's done now. I'll get my money back and find something else to do this October.

[graveyard johnny]

1 minute ago, londonrlfan said:

Sad that they've caved into the NRL bullies and they've destroyed the sport, confirming the NRL are bigger than the sport. 

Anyone who thinks there will be a World Cup in 2022, or even 2025, is delusional. This was never about covid. 

to be fair it looked like they had been kings of covid down under in the way the handled it in the first 12 months but in reality they couldnt have got it more wrong and now they are panicking and going round in circles as a country 

[Hemi4561]

1 minute ago, MattSantos said:

Do you realise how daft this is?

It depends on your view of the future. The vast majority of people IMHO are sleepwalking into the future assuming that the world is going to keep bumbling along pretty much as it is now. There are many studies, some new and some decades old, that indicate that in the next 20 or 30 years socio economic and geo political disintegration may be a reality and the global Village will fracture back into a much more insular planet. In short, in this time frame the idea of sports teams travelling half way around the world on a plane to a "world Cup" may have disappeared. I am old enough that I really don't care if the future is Utopian or Dystopian, but caving in to the Australian view of international rugby league as if that was important in the long term is laughable

[moorside roughyed]

It's a shame but if the two powerhouses of the game aren't taking part it wouldn't be much of a competition would it?

[Hemi4561]

6 minutes ago, doc said:

What a bag of spanners the Aussies are. But, it's done now. I'll get my money back and find something else to do this October.

 Bags are of use, so are spanners, Aussies aren't. 

[Hemi4561]

2 minutes ago, moorside roughyed said:

It's a shame but if the two powerhouses of the game aren't taking part it wouldn't be much of a competition would it?

Yes it would, it would be a competition between those who had the guts to turn up, and the winners would be worthy winners. 

[ShropshireBull]

**** the NRL. 4 nations every year bar World Cup with Eng France Jam and Wales. Mid season internationals with NA teams.

After wc in 2022 if they come  (they wont) they must be dead to us. 

Edited August 4, 2021 by ShropshireBull

[frank]

You will need more than fingers crossed for it to take place next year

[Tex Evans Thigh]

 Very disappointing. Classic RL.

Hopefully, they can regroup and put on a tournament next year. I would really try and bring the season forward so we can avoid a clash with the Qatar WC, one of many problems they're going to have here. At least government funding sounds like it is being retained and hopefully covid is more under control by then but I certainly aren't confident about that.

We aren't far off a NRL buy-out of SL which will become a feeder league for the NRL with Gus Gould 'pathways' from SL to NRL clubs. Pretty sad. I can't remember northern hemisphere RL being in a worse state than it is now in the 30+ years I've been interested.

[Tommygilf]

4 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

**** the NRL. 4 nations every year bar World Cup with Eng France Jam and Wales. Mid season internationals with NA teams.

After wc in 2022 if they come  (they wont) they must be dead to us. 

I'd go down to Australia on a 3 match tour, get them to pay for it. Big post world cup apology. Insist on the full bells and whistles - first class treatment. 

Then after we sang GSTQ at the opening game I'd have us walk off and get on the first plane out of there.

[Damien]

2 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

The Australia and NZ teams were used as proxy however by the NRL.

They were shocked when the likes of Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Lebanon, PNG and the Cook Islands, amongst others, did not immediately follow suit. It demonstrates the sheer arrogance of these people that they believe Aus and NZ can beckon these other nations to heel without even explicitly telling them - or perhaps the NRL forgot they exist altogether?

They then started intimidating their employees, the players, over playing for the national governing bodies they hadn't used as a front.

The thing I find funny is that the NRL could have probably got some of the PI countries on board in the first place to withdraw too if they wanted. Their arrogance is such though that they thought they were too unimportant to consult and they just thought it would all be a done deal if just Australia and NZ withdrew. It wasn't and I'm glad the IRL and organisers at least but up a fight and ultimately its only the subsequent threats to other nations players that scuppered things.

[DavidM]

There was a push from a number of high profile players for an Indigenous and Maori team to enter the tournament instead, however according to News Corp, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo held a phone hook-up with several players explaining why all NRL clubs are against sending their players to the UK during a global pandemic.
 

That was nice of him … ‘ Explaining ‘ is one word for it

[Clogiron]

Once Covid took hold (March 20) they were never going to take part, it was their ideal excuse, that a vaccine was developed so quickly was unexpected, but their countries handling of the pandemic has left them in the mire internally and their own comp is all that they are concerned about, the fact that this is going to wreak havoc on the game over here isn't their problem end of.

What a so called sport.