Australia and New Zealand withdraw from RLWC

[LeedsRhinos]

This is why Rugby League is a minority sport and will never be top 3 in England or bigger than the AFL in Australia.

Every top football country in Europe just played in front of packed crowds at Wembley at the Euros, Wimbledon went on with mostly full crowds and the British Grand Prix just had 150,000 people at it yet the princesses in this sport can't be bothered to grow the game internationally.

Australia and NZ have become a nanny states terrified to do anything, DON'T LEAVE THE HOUSE!!!

 

[Welsh RL & RU watcher]

This is why Rugby League is a minority sport and will never be top 3 in England or bigger than the AFL in Australia.

Every top football country in Europe just played in front of packed crowds at Wembley at the Euros, Wimbledon went on with mostly full crowds and the British Grand Prix just had 150,000 people at it yet the princesses in this sport can't be bothered to grow the game internationally.

Australia and NZ have become a nanny states terrified to do anything, DON'T LEAVE THE HOUSE!!!

Lol. Idiot.

 

[LeedsRhinos]

Lol. Idiot.

Good luck with your cancel everything strategy, you'll be still doing this in 2022, 2023, 2024.

Vaccine won't stop mass numbers of cases happening.

 

[KaivitiBati]

I don't think the island teams would compete as well... If they do it'll be a very weak side... Most of the island players play in the nrl... Like the article said the players are away from their families for most of the year so they'll definitely want to return to their families once the nrl season finishes

Plenty of Samoans (13 in SL and 5 in championship) & Tongans(13 in SL & 2 in championship) up North probably enough for a starting 13 last I checked. As for Fiji & PNG, they have the Silktails & Hunters which aren't controlled by ARLC/NRL/QRL/NSWRL/NZRL plus few players up North. Yes, it won't be a strong team but would be competitive against some of the other T2 & 3 Nations

 

[RedVee]

Disappointing

 

[Perth Red]

Individual "sports" are totally different. The Lions tour and the Olympics should not be going ahead. It's all down to money. Correct decision by the NRL not to go to England.

By then the players should be vaccinated, what exactly is the risk? Missing out on two weeks leave? soft as. It’s sounds like the players and coaches want to go. Shame on you Vlandys.

 

[Perth Red]

Plenty of Samoans (13 in SL and 5 in championship) & Tongans(13 in SL & 2 in championship) up North probably enough for a starting 13 last I checked. As for Fiji & PNG, they have the Silktails & Hunters which aren't controlled by ARLC/NRL/QRL/NSWRL/NZRL plus few players up North. Yes, it won't be a strong team but would be competitive against some of the other T2 & 3 Nations

Nrl has no say on national sides, in theory. There is nothing stopping players who are eligible and want to represent countries that are going from doing so. I wonder who out of the two origin teams and kiwi side is eligible for other countries? Could be some pretty formidable islander nations going!

 

[Welsh RL & RU watcher]

Good luck with your cancel everything strategy, you'll be still doing this in 2022, 2023, 2024.

Vaccine won't stop mass numbers of cases happening.

Next March it feels to me is when we should be starting to get back to some sort of normality. Those crowds in London during the Euros has spread Covid more than it needed to have been. Most British soccer and rugby league fans are idiots.

 

[Coastbloke]

Time for a SLII. This is a opportunity for the International Rugby League to stand up. For me, IRL has been f***ed for a further 10 years thanks to this POS heading the ARLC...Nothing to lose IMHO..

 

[Welsh RL & RU watcher]

By then the players should be vaccinated, what exactly is the risk? Missing out on two weeks leave? soft as. It’s sounds like the players and coaches want to go. Shame on you Vlandys.

What? The Roos would be up here for 6 weeks, in a bubble, when they are already in a bubble. And the RL authorities are hardly gonna put them up in a spacious hotel.

 

[KaivitiBati]

Nrl has no say on national sides, in theory. There is nothing stopping players who are eligible and want to represent countries that are going from doing so. I wonder who out of the two origin teams and kiwi side is eligible for other countries? Could be some pretty formidable islander nations going!

True, but am currently assuming PI players won't be allowed to go due to pressure from clubs & PI having to source players domestically or up North. Samoa & Tonga are stacked with NRL players with many playing Origin. Fiji has enough NRL players to form a team & only 3 having played Origin this season & 1 whom has previously played Origin. Don't know much about PNG NRL/SOO players

 

[Perth Red]

True, but am currently assuming PI players won't be allowed to go due to pressure from clubs & PI having to source players domestically or up North. Samoa & Tonga are stacked with NRL players with many playing Origin. Fiji has enough NRL players to form a team & only 3 having played Origin this season & 1 whom has previously played Origin. Don't know much about PNG NRL/SOO players

maybe but there is nothing stopping the players making the decision to go, and I reckon rlpa would back them 100%. I mean tonga could add Fifita, Pangai jnr and kaufisi to their pack plus many others! The opportunity to win a World Cup for Tonga would be massive for some players!

 

[Perth Red]

What? The Roos would be up here for 6 weeks, in a bubble, when they are already in a bubble. And the RL authorities are hardly gonna put them up in a spacious hotel.

And? That should be up to each player if they want to represent their country in a World Cup and go through being in another bubble.I’ve got no problem if a player doesn’t want to go, but to not give them an option is disgraceful,

 

[Diesel]

I understand player welfare and the 8 week break, but the NZRL must have got some coin to follow suit

 

[LeedsRhinos]

Next March it feels to me is when we should be starting to get back to some sort of normality. Those crowds in London during the Euros has spread Covid more than it needed to have been. Most British soccer and rugby league fans are idiots.

We're still getting 45,000 cases a day with over half the population completely vaccinated, as soon as you open up the cases will explode no matter how many people are vaccinated.

It does massively reduce the death and serious illness but if you are going to cancel everything anytime a case pops up then you will be doing this for years.

You can postpone this World Cup to 2022 but there's no guarantees it will be any better.

 

[Perth Red]

I understand player welfare and the 8 week break, but the NZRL must have got some coin to follow suit

They get most of their funding from the arlc, Vlandys says jump and they ask how high bro?

 

[Matterhorn]

They get most of their funding from the arlc, Vlandys says jump and they ask how high bro?

Such a dumb decision - for the first time since I can remember I can't be bothering watching the NRL on tv tonight.
I remember as a kid staying up after midnight watching the Kangaroos in England - playing in front of 60-70k crowds thinking this is rugby league at its best the pinnacle of our sport.
That has changed so quickly - for the first time a world cup this year with so many great games even in the pool matches on offer.
Is it because of a fear that they may be sending Australia B , NZ B after injuries & a few pull out for personal reasons after the G/F & this may be England's best chance to win.
I would of preferred a joint statement from Aus/NZ that said 'We are committed to sending our best possible squads to the world cup but we will leave it up to the players to decide for personal reasons if they want to attend or not. At the end of the day we want to celebrate rugby league in the country where it was born & are confident whoever comes it will be the best world cup ever'
Whatever happens after today you will think Rugby League has taken a massive hit internationally.

 

[Perth Red]

Good luck with your cancel everything strategy, you'll be still doing this in 2022, 2023, 2024.

Vaccine won't stop mass numbers of cases happening.

As long as Origin is ok they won’t give a sht tbh. Two state game just about sums up Australian RL.

 

[The Great Dane]

I really don't understand why people are so surprised and upset by this.

As long as the risk isn’t worth the return clubs are going to be reluctant to participate in internationals that impact on their season, and as things stand internationals aren't really a big money spinner for either the clubs or the NRL, and that's without even factoring in covid and it's impact.

It is what it is and there's no point whinging about it. If you want it to change then you need a few countries (particularly in the Northern Hemisphere) to get their shit together and start producing drawcards that make internationals relevant to the mainstream culture again, how you go about doing that is debatable, however one thing is for sure, that growth starts locally.

 

[Perth Red]

Surprised no, upset yes. The game has worked damn hard in uk, where it faces enormous challenges, to get govt and corporate support for this tournament and to be spat on by the arlc is a disgrace. Especially given the only reason was their concern about having to delay the start of nrl by a couple of weeks.
If you want to see growth of the international game and get it back to where it was in the 90’s the last thing it needs is it’s credibility constantly undermined by the strongest nation. Imagine the backlash in union of the all blacks behaved like the arlc does.