from Daily Tele.
TEST captain Darren Lockyer has called for rugby league to revive its own World Cup, as the ARL admits the concept is being looked at to celebrate the centenary of the code in Australia.
After six days of lopsided contests in the Rugby World Cup, the star Brisbane, Queensland and Australian fullback believes league will never truly spread its wings internationally without a global showpiece tournament.
The league World Cup was abandoned after the 2000 tournament in the United Kingdom saw embarrassing scorelines, small crowds and no profit.
"The last World Cup we played they said it was a two-horse race between Australia and New Zealand," said Lockyer, ahead of Saturday night's Test against the Kiwis in Auckland.
"But you've got to start somewhere. If anyone's going to catch the Aussies it's got to happen through something like that. You've got to build the game around the world.
"It has been marketed very well, the rugby World Cup, and we've never really put a lot of effort into that with ours. It's definitely worth having (a World Cup)."
With scores of 84-6, 72-6, 70-7 and 67-14 in early pool games at the RWC, the league community is quietly asking what is the difference to the pool games at its tournament three years ago that saw rugby league considered the laughing stock of international sport.
For the next two years league will play a Tri-Nations tournament in the UK between Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain as a means of consolidating international football after the disastrous 2000 tournament.
However, the idea of keeping France and developing national teams Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands out of the competition does not bode well for the expansion of the game.
Significantly, Kiwis coach Daniel Anderson yesterday criticised the Tri-Nations format and said that Test football was running third in priority behind the NRL and State of Origin competitions.
A revival of the World Cup is an option being canvassed by the ARL after preliminary discussions on how to mark the centenary of rugby league in Australia in 2008.
"We would like to see a major celebration for the game in this country," said ARL chief executive Geoff Carr.
"Lots of ideas have been tossed around, but we haven't decided what it will be as yet.
"We're locked into the Tri-Nations until 2006, which means we have a clean slate for 2008. We're serious about doing something to celebrate by having something we haven't seen here before."
NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley will meet NZRL officials tomorrow night to discuss a Wellington bid for admission into the Telstra Premiership.