https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sp...eagues-first-fifa-window-20171112-gzjojq.html
There's been an off-field milestone in the past couple of weeks to compare with Tonga's amazing victory over New Zealand on Saturday, but you won't have read about it anywhere. When Super League announced its draw for 2018, it left the third weekend of June without fixtures. That's the same date as the NRL rep weekend. That's right. We finally have our first "FIFA International window".
One of the reasons no-one is spruiking this is the logical implication that all NRL and Super League players should be free to fly anywhere to represent their countries, like their soccer counterparts. But NRL clubs are far from sold on that idea and even the RLPA has welfare concerns.
It's doubtful any rugby league playing country can afford to hire and fit out a Qantas jet as the Socceroos do. The clubs and players argue league is much tougher than the round ball code and so negotiations continue. "Clearly the Pacific Tests are scheduled for that weekend," RLIF chief executive David Collier said.
"What we'd like to do is work on other Tests that weekend. They are bilateral decisions. But we are very, very cognisant that there are [club] games later on in the week and we want to make sure that's feasible for everyone. We would definitely take player welfare into account but we need to find a solution so we can have the maximum number of rugby league players involved."
After drawing with Scotland and losing to Tonga inside 12 months, New Zealand coach David Kidwell is undoubtedly the coach under most pressure in the World Cup. He started his post-match media conference at FMG Stadium not by taking questions but by asking to make a statement about what he thought the Kiwis did well and what they didn't. "We're still in the quarter-finals," he said, when he did take questions.
"The path's changed but our focus hasn't. We had a really good talk in the dressing room with all the players and all the staff and we still believe in this camp and what we've built here. This one game's not going to change our mindset. We need to get back to our Kiwi footy. Full credit to Tonga, they forced us into not playing that Kiwi style. You look at the crowd out there and that's what we want for international footy. Yes, it just happened to be me [on the wrong end of the result] …"
It's been a long time coming but Tonga almost toppled New Zealand at the very first World Cup to which the Mate Ma'a were invited, the King Of Tonga fainting at Warrington as Matthew Ridge kicked a late field goal for the Kiwis in 1995. I remember New Zealand players reacting churlishly afterwards when questioned about how lucky they'd been. "You can write that if you want, mate," Ridge said to me. How much have things changed in 22 years?
More details are coming to light about the proposed Nines World Cup in 2019. It will involve 12 teams over three or four days, it will be invitational since there is no form-line for national teams playing nines and it will be played at the start of the proposed Great Britain tour of Australia.
"It works absolutely perfectly," RLIF chief executive David Collier said. "One of the things we're waiting for is the bilateral agreement to be reached [for the tour]. Then we can work through with the Nines World Cup to complement it. It would almost certainly need to be invitational. We could look at world rankings but we all know nines is different to 13s. We could look at who is eligible to play." In other words, invitations may be issued based on how good each team's likely line-up will be, a novel approach to say the least.
There's been an off-field milestone in the past couple of weeks to compare with Tonga's amazing victory over New Zealand on Saturday, but you won't have read about it anywhere. When Super League announced its draw for 2018, it left the third weekend of June without fixtures. That's the same date as the NRL rep weekend. That's right. We finally have our first "FIFA International window".
One of the reasons no-one is spruiking this is the logical implication that all NRL and Super League players should be free to fly anywhere to represent their countries, like their soccer counterparts. But NRL clubs are far from sold on that idea and even the RLPA has welfare concerns.
It's doubtful any rugby league playing country can afford to hire and fit out a Qantas jet as the Socceroos do. The clubs and players argue league is much tougher than the round ball code and so negotiations continue. "Clearly the Pacific Tests are scheduled for that weekend," RLIF chief executive David Collier said.
"What we'd like to do is work on other Tests that weekend. They are bilateral decisions. But we are very, very cognisant that there are [club] games later on in the week and we want to make sure that's feasible for everyone. We would definitely take player welfare into account but we need to find a solution so we can have the maximum number of rugby league players involved."
After drawing with Scotland and losing to Tonga inside 12 months, New Zealand coach David Kidwell is undoubtedly the coach under most pressure in the World Cup. He started his post-match media conference at FMG Stadium not by taking questions but by asking to make a statement about what he thought the Kiwis did well and what they didn't. "We're still in the quarter-finals," he said, when he did take questions.
"The path's changed but our focus hasn't. We had a really good talk in the dressing room with all the players and all the staff and we still believe in this camp and what we've built here. This one game's not going to change our mindset. We need to get back to our Kiwi footy. Full credit to Tonga, they forced us into not playing that Kiwi style. You look at the crowd out there and that's what we want for international footy. Yes, it just happened to be me [on the wrong end of the result] …"
It's been a long time coming but Tonga almost toppled New Zealand at the very first World Cup to which the Mate Ma'a were invited, the King Of Tonga fainting at Warrington as Matthew Ridge kicked a late field goal for the Kiwis in 1995. I remember New Zealand players reacting churlishly afterwards when questioned about how lucky they'd been. "You can write that if you want, mate," Ridge said to me. How much have things changed in 22 years?
More details are coming to light about the proposed Nines World Cup in 2019. It will involve 12 teams over three or four days, it will be invitational since there is no form-line for national teams playing nines and it will be played at the start of the proposed Great Britain tour of Australia.
"It works absolutely perfectly," RLIF chief executive David Collier said. "One of the things we're waiting for is the bilateral agreement to be reached [for the tour]. Then we can work through with the Nines World Cup to complement it. It would almost certainly need to be invitational. We could look at world rankings but we all know nines is different to 13s. We could look at who is eligible to play." In other words, invitations may be issued based on how good each team's likely line-up will be, a novel approach to say the least.
