What's the point of having a rugby league world cup ?

Question

We all know who'll win it,don't we ?.

Would it help if we played as GB again instead of seperate home nations ?.

Answer 1

owiginalwabbit makes a great point.  I have nothing against Rugby League and enjoy watching it from time to time.  But if the organisers honestly think the sport has the necessary popularity for a worldwide championship, they are having a laugh.

The last World Cup (held in Britain, Ireland & France) was an absolute joke.  The football World Cup is contested by about 200 nations and there is nationwide excitement every time a national team qualifies.  Other sports like athletics, basketball, rugby union and even cricket can justify having a world championship, but rugby league?  No way.  It is a minority sport even in England and New Zealand.  In countries like Scotland and Ireland it's practically unknown.

  

The world rankings in rugby league are as follows:

(1) The Sydney/Melbourne districts of Australia

(2) A few enthusiasts in New Zealand's major towns

(3) Yorkshire and Lancashire

(4) Emmmm......

Some of the teams in the 2000 RL World Cup included:

- New Zealand Maori as well as the full NZ team.  Explain that one somebody.  That's like the Brazilians entering a full Brazil team and an Amazonian Pygmies team into the World Cup.

- Lebanon, made up entirely of fourth-generation Lebanese Australians who had probably never visited the country in their lives.  They Lebanese government didn't recognise the existence of the team by the way.

- Russia, which owiginalwabbit has mentioned already.

- Irish and Scottish teams made up entirely of northern Englishmen who happened to have names like O'Reilly and McKay.  The GB team was indeed divided into 4 seperate entities purely to make the number of teams up to 16.

- Plus, 8 of the 16 teams were from Oceania which kind of defeats the purpose of a "World" Cup since Oceania is the planet's least populous continent.

For anyone who cares, the 2000 WC saw Australia winning the final infront of a half-empty Old Trafford without breaking a sweat once during the tournament.

Australia, NZ and GB should continue to contest the Tri-Nations cup (which is actually quite entertaining by the way) and the RL powers-that-be should stop kidding themselves that their minority sport has anywhere near enough international appeal to warrant a world championship.  The thought of watching Tonga vs. Lebanon in Australia 2008 holds about as much appeal to me as shaving my armpits with a septic meat cleaver.  Now if you'll excuse me I've got a Ryman League Division Two South game to watch...

Answer 2

You could say the same about football! There are only a hand full of teams that can win that. Rugby union is the same, it shows how poor England is when Italy competes!

And your right there are only only three good rugby league countries who can really compete, so we have a try nations.

I think the answer is the same for all the mentioned sports, we are just trying to encourage the emerging nations so that when they start to produce good home grown talent we in this country can go and raid it at no cost to ourselves!

Answer 3

Still they said that with other sports and look at them develop eg the Olympics.  Everything needs a beginning, watch out for rugby league in the future.

Answer 4

To compete against the Aussies (and Kiwis) we would have to compete as GB, yes but don't suggest that for the REAL rugby game (Union), it's more fun supporting your own country.

Answer 5

To try to promote the sport in areas that dont know much about it & try to get them involved to get more participants & supporters of the game.

Answer 6

There is no point, because the "world" of rugby league is a handful of dull provincial towns on the M62 corridor of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the eastern seaboard of Australia. It is just a pointless minority sport. The majority of the UK regards a ball as round. A sphere. Rugby league has diminished in recent years and will continue to do so so long as the RFL try to impose the game on areas which don't really care for it (London, Paris, Catalonia(?)) The truth is if it wasn't for the fragmentation into national sides there would be no world cup. It would just be a GB v Australia test series. At one RL world cup I was amazed to see nations such as Lebanon and Russia participate. Naturally, team Russia was made up of Australians with Russian sounding names, and the people of Russia had no idea they had a national team in the RL world cup, and the few who did know didn't really care.

Bru - lmao@ "watch out for RL in the future." The game is over 100 years old and still can't break out of Wigan, St Helens, Leeds and other naff northern towns with nothing going for them.

Answer 7

It's just like the "Superbowl" the world championship of American football.  Who else competes but America.

Answer 8

Agree with loads of the other comments posted. The Rugby League World Cup in its current format is a joke, although I'd have to say that the Rugby Union World Cup isn't much better - any takers for a winner outside of NZ, Australia, SA, France and England? (and I'm probably being generous with those last two). At least they manage to get crowds for the games at the Union version.

I'm not sure what the value of pitting the League minnows against the Kiwis, Kangaroos and Brits really is. The Tri-Nations can throw up some pretty good matches, but a World Cup doesn't hold any interest until the semifinal stage at the earliest, plus there's usually three blokes with their shirts off and a dog called Norbert which constitutes the entire crowd.

Answer 9

Many many points,

to Celebrate the sport,

to ram it down the throats of the nasty kick-and-clap bigots who still harp on (112 years after the Northern Union was formed)

to see how much closer we all are to the Aussies.

It would help 'our' chances of winning to compete as GB, but it helps to promote the sport to compete as the home Unions.

(Quick note to owiginalwabit - Catalunia has played rugby for generations Union & treiziste. It was trying to put it into Paris that was a mistake.  Have a look at the names in the Summer conference - when was Gosport on the M62?)

Answer 10

I've never heard of the Rugby League World Cup, being an Australian we really are the ONLY ones qualified to host such an event. As it is "our" game, no one in the World can consistently compete with Australia, only very occasionally the Poms and Kiwis cause an upset ! Sydney and Brisbane are Rugby League, nothing else really matters ! If it's not in Sydney and it's Rugby League, than it just doesn't count !