Have the RFL ever taken responsibility for developing France? Wales, Scotland, Ireland? There is a good argument to say they should, but they haven’t, so you can’t really hold the British to account for that.
Not sure about France, but they used to give the home nations and Ireland annual grants.
With the debateable exception of Ireland, grassroots development basically died in all those nations once that source of funding was cut. The sport has been effectively dead on the ground in Scotland for a while now for example.
Not as if the NRL has done anything of relevance to develop Tonga, Fiji or Samoa, so it seems a bit of an illogical argument you are making.
For all intents and purposes RL effectively wouldn't exist in those nations if it wasn't for the NRL.
None of those nations would be able to field competitive international teams and the sport would have no traction on the ground in those nations at all if it wasn't for the NRL. They'd all be fielding teams of local RU players who get pumped by 40+ points every time they play a competent RL team.
You can argue that the NRL could be doing things differently or that they should be doing more, but to say that it's 'not as if the NRL has done anything of relevance to develop Tonga, Fiji or Samoa' is just wrong when RL effectively wouldn't exist in the way that it does in those nations if it wasn't for the NRL.
True, crowds were aweful at some RLWC matches last year and the organisers are predominantly responsible for that. There were equally as many in Aus 5 yrs earlier. Again, I don’t think Australia has anything to crow about over England in this subject.
As the NRL looks to expand and expand again, it will need as many pathways to the NRL as possible. Nursing the second largest professional RL pathway in the world is of course of major importance to the NRL.
If anything, the NRL should have an eye on a controlling merger with the RFL and FFRXIII to become the global governor of the sport and look to develop the SL into a league which could rival the NRL.
The Poms would never willingly agree to that and they'd fight against every major change the NRL attempted to make the product profitable. They'd basically only agree if the NRL were acting as angel investors, with no power over the sport or it's administration in the UK. In other words it'd be a giant money sink with little upside for the NRL, and France would be even worse.
It'd also further cement the current status quo between the two bodies where the RFL and ESL seem to approach every interaction with the NRL with a goal of getting something out of them, instead of trying to work together toward mutually beneficial outcomes. Their attitude always seems to be "we have this idea that will benefit us and you're rich so you can afford to lose your ass on it, and it's okay if you lose tens of thousands of dollars on it as it still benefits you in some amorphous sense because you'll be helping to grow the international game" instead of looking to create business plans that result in an equitable return for both parties.