Cook Islands RL express disappointment at denial of 2018 Pacific Test

[Burns]

http://www.cookislandsnews.com/sport/league/item/67167-disappointment-over-pacific-cup

Cook Islands Rugby League Association is disappointed that the national side has been denied participation in this year’s Pacific Cup.

The Kukis narrowly lost to Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the Pacific Test last year and were confirmed to compete in this year’s competition.

CIRLA president Charles Carlson said they were supposed to be part of the Pacific Test 2018, only to be told PNG is playing Lebanon, with the Cook Islands and Fiji not getting a game.

Cook Islands don’t get many opportunities to play at this highest level of international games because of cost of hosting games, Carlson said.

“I don’t really know how this works, when Lebanon is not even part of the Pacific and we have certainly expressed our disappointment about the decision.

“Unfortunately, there are factors that are beyond our control so we just have to find a way to create our own opportunity to allow us to keep playing at this level.”

Cook Islands will be playing in the 2021 Rugby League World Cup qualifiers in 2019 after missing the chance to play in last year’s World Cup.

Carlson said it was important to play a few games leading into the qualifying match.

“This (qualifying game) is made easier with all the Pacific teams automatically qualified for the World Cup 2021 after all of them made the quarter finals. So we may have to qualify in the Americas pool,” he said.

“The Pacific pool is the pool of death with so many strong teams, but we are not taking anything for granted here, playing in a different pool to qualify.

“We want our very top players to be available for this game to ensure our participation at the World Cup 2021 in England.”

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As someone who spent a month in the Cook Islands and was able to see the enthusiasm for Rugby League, this is very disappointing and risks further alienation towards Rugby Union etc.

Interesting tidbit there on Fiji as well. Which I guess leads into the question, When will we know what is happening next year for Fiji, New Zealand etc?

 

[Robert B]

Sounds more likely to me it will be Fiji v NZ in Auckland for the mid season test.

 

[clarency]

I came here to say tough titties but after reading that they were already confirmed to take part, and that they are being replaced by a non Pacific Island team.... Kinda BS...

 

[Perth Red]

Ridiculous, it would cost very little to wrestle the Cook Is away from union and at a time Union is trying to ban joint code players from representing Cook Is at Union to dissuade them from playing RL the game there needs all the help it can get.

We desperately need to stop playing PI tests in Australia and get them played in their countries for them to have benefit.

 

[roughyedspud]

Its because the NRL controls the Pacific tests!!

The NRL needs to hand over total control of the concept to the APRLC/RLIF asap..

 

[Disinterested third party]

Rugby league dominates the Cooks.

 

[Perth Red]

Rugby league dominates the Cooks.

Not really from what I saw whilst on Rarotonga it seemed pretty equal. Seems most players play both, though as I said Union are trying to dissuade that through threats of rep selection. Big plus was the women in the RL world cup last year, Unions had a womens 7's national side for a long time so great to see RL matching them. Cook Is also play a lot of International Union 7's, something that hopefully will also be matched if we can ever get a decent and consistent world nines format up and running. Cook Ils have never participated in a Union WC but have been to two RLWC's, chalk one up for us!

 

[titoelcolombiano]

I said on another thread that Lebanon should not be playing in the Pacific Tests. I understand that they are trying to capitalise on the Sydney based support of the World Cup team but they haven't even done this by the time you throw in Tongan and Samoan supporters there won't be much room left in the stadium to capitalise on the extra fans attending. If clubs releasing players to play anywhere in the world on this mid-season rep window becomes a reality, it would be better for Lebanon to send their WC side to play a home game in Lebanon to try and build on their world cup efforts and the efforts of those running the domestic league there.

What is wrong with Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and PNG being confirmed every year? They don't actually have to be double headers but I understand that they do this to keep costs down but maybe rotate the venues because it has definately outgrown Campbeltown. Hold it in New Zealand until the new Paramatta Stadium is ready then rotate it between Para, New Zealand and the Islands (when each is ready to host a profitable event).

In terms of the Cooks, I think they could definately play a part as a triple header, but pick another Pacific nation to play them, not a European nation.

 

[Disinterested third party]

Not really from what I saw whilst on Rarotonga it seemed pretty equal. Seems most players play both, though as I said Union are trying to dissuade that through threats of rep selection. Big plus was the women in the RL world cup last year, Unions had a womens 7's national side for a long time so great to see RL matching them. Cook Is also play a lot of International Union 7's, something that hopefully will also be matched if we can ever get a decent and consistent world nines format up and running. Cook Ils have never participated in a Union WC but have been to two RLWC's, chalk one up for us!

Only one is the national sport.

 

[playdaball]

The Cooks probably have the best organised domestic comp in the Pacific, yet are penalised as don’t have enough players are are able to take advantage of the GP rule (AKA heritage players)

 

[latingringo101]

Why the cooks couldn't play Lebanon and Fiji play PNG is beyond belief. NZ should play England in the rep weekend

Playing it at the SFS would have been a good decision, Lebanon got 20 K there vs Oz so imagine what a Pacific triple header would have done

 

[Coastbloke]

Lets be clear. The only country England should be considering playing on rep weekend is France. After the last club match on the Sunday before rep weekend Graham, Burgesses et al should be boarding a plane to Europe.

Just before the WC, the NRL.com site had a big chinwag on nations to watch out for and Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and even Lebanon got a mention. (mainly because Fittler was coaching) It was as if France wasn't even there and that is sad given their status in the 50s and 60s.

Personally, I still think the Kiwis and Australia should be playing, but it's not happening and so be it..

NZ v Tonga or Fiji and Samoa v Cooks/Lebanon in a Eden ParkHamilton stadium double header.

PNG v Samoa or Fiji in Port Morseby.

France v England in Europe..

 

[deal.with.it]

If Lebanon is growing domestically as much as it's reported, it's time to schedule an annual test against France every June. The support they got from sponsors and Gov should mean this is possible. And if money is an issue, only send 10 Aus based players to combine with 7 lebanon based players.

 

[roughyedspud]

Lets be clear. The only country England should be considering playing on rep weekend is France. After the last club match on the Sunday before rep weekend Graham, Burgesses et al should be boarding a plane to Europe.

Just before the WC, the NRL.com site had a big chinwag on nations to watch out for and Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and even Lebanon got a mention. (mainly because Fittler was coaching) It was as if France wasn't even there and that is sad given their status in the 50s and 60s.

Personally, I still think the Kiwis and Australia should be playing, but it's not happening and so be it..

NZ v Tonga or Fiji and Samoa v Cooks/Lebanon in a Eden ParkHamilton stadium double header.

PNG v Samoa or Fiji in Port Morseby.

France v England in Europe..

Let's be clear....France,more specifically Catalan dragons,have made it very clear they have no interest in getting leathered by England mid season

 

[roughyedspud]

This is what I'd do....

Friday 22nd June

NZ v England at Mt smart,auckland

Saturday 23rd june

Samoa v Tonga at Mt smart,Auckland
PNG v Fiji at NFS,port Moresby
Cooks islands v Lebanon at belmore,Sydney
Wales v Scotland at Wrexham
France v Ireland at parcel des sports, Avignon
England knights v Jamaica at a dunno..Leeds ideally as there's a large west Indian community there..but there's no suitable stadium in Leeds at the minute..
Canada v USA at BMO field,Toronto

That would be amazing..

 

[Coastbloke]

Let's be clear....France,more specifically Catalan dragons,have made it very clear they have no interest in getting leathered by England mid season

Do you reckon they might change their tune after the WC?
Seems ridiculous that the French would risk being left behind by ignoring international competition.
With more players in the ESL system with other clubs maybe it's time to resurrect the Test between the 2 while the southern hemisphere do their thing?

 

[roughyedspud]

Stubborn bunch the French so no...

They said they'd happily play us at the end of the season..just not mid season

 

[Coastbloke]

Fair enough. Frustrating, but if they won't turn up not much one can do..

 

[adamkungl]

The French situation might change when Catalans don't source the majority of the players.

England should play Ireland in a full strength test, as I've said earlier, in Denver. NZ or Ireland makes no difference to American audiences.

Back on topic - it's labelled (this year at least) a Pacific "Invitational" not a Pacific Cup. I have no problem with the Pacific island nations playing non-Pacific ones. They do need to play teams other than each other, over-repetition is one of International RLs biggest flaws. However not staging a game for Cook Islands is a huge fail, as is playing it as a double or triple header in Campbeltown when Tonga could draw a huge crowd in NZ.

The rep weekend would look a lot better as something like this for Pacific nations:

Double header:
Cook Islands v USA or Philippines as curtain raiser for
Fiji v NZ @ Rotorua

Tonga v Samoa @ Mt Smart

PNG v Lebanon @ Campbeltown

A proper Pacific Cup should be staged in November in cycle years 1 and 3.

 

[Perth Red]

Eng v France in Sth of France, or even better a triple series with Lebanon would be better.
Pacific cup should always be the top 4 PI nations surely?

Aus should be playing NZ in NZ every year

adam how does PNG playing Lebanon in Sydney help the game in either country?