Australia and New Zealand withdraw from RLWC

[Foreign Legion]

 

[baggygreen man]

yet does not trust the UK to host a tournament for 4 weeks…

Blame Boris bringing his people out of lockdown with 40-45k new cases every day. I see the decision at best as cautious at worst ill judged..not cowardly... grrr. Our cricketers have also pulled out of Covid ravaged countries. Did the Saffers call us cowards?

 

[Foreign Legion]

 

[The Axe of Druss]

They’ve said it’s for player welfare, the players have said we want to go. Whose lying?
the risk is virtually zero of any danger other than possibly catching a bout of the flu for these guys who are super fit and will be vaccinated. It’s all about the nrl, always has been and always will be, especially under Vlandys and his puppet.

we need another dally messenger to organise a rebel side!!

Issue isnt the players contracting it and getting sick, which is still a risk to even "super fit" people. The issue is them possibly contracting it and bringing it back to family/friends/whoever who is possibly unvaccinated and vulnerable. Even people who are vaccinated can contract Covid 19 and pass it on, their symptoms and risk of servere reaction is just lessened.

Blame the Aust and NZ governments for bottling the vaccine roll out, its ultimately on their heads and one of the biggest drivers here.

 

[baggygreen man]

In short this bloody pandemic has spooked people. We now live in a different world to the one two years ago.

No doubt our 'Roos and RL bosses have not made the decision litely.. as the defending champs we were again favorites.

 

[baggygreen man]

Blame the Aust and NZ governments for bottling the vaccine roll out,

Overly cautious as I see it as we had very few cases and deaths compared to other developed nations such as the UK which had massive case and death numbers and requested special early approval to vax.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Overly cautious as I see it as we had very cases and deaths. Compared to other developed nations such as the UK which had massive case and death numbers and requested special early approval to vax.

Cautious? maybe. Shortsighted? Definitely

 

[clarency]

This pandemic safety statements are just nonsense.

For a comparatively small group of players that can be properly tested, isolated and monitored there is more than enough evidence that it works. There is a growing list of sporting events that have gone ahead since the hit. Euro2020 just took place FFS!!!
This isn't a safety issue... it's an NRL doesn't want to risk their assets and they view this tournament as a liability. THAT is what is going on.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Blame Boris bringing his people out of lockdown with 40-45k new cases every day. I see the decision at best as cautious as worst ill judged.. I dont see it as cowardly... grrr. Our cricketers have also pulled out of Covid ravaged countries.

I don't think it's cowardly. Others have said that though.

I think it's an act of self-interest and protectionism of the NRL rather than the greater good of the sport. And definitely not "player welfare" as suggested by Vlandys - that's a smokescreen to me.

I'm mindful that the NRL would still have financial difficulties after last year, and indeed this year. It's no surprise to me that they've got a Finance bloke in the CEO role now (like a lot of companies do in times of financial hardship). I wouldn't be surprised if they've crunched the numbers and decided it's too expensive to send a team but for PR they've shown the "player welfare" card. Actually I'd be more surprised if they didnt....

Either way - it's a selfish decision in my opinion. Lacks respect to the IRL and tournament directors, the UK game and all the fans over there. And ultimately to the sport.

 

[baggygreen man]

Poms are only pi**ed off because they dont get the chance for WC revenge. When was last time England and the Brit Lions beat us. Get your Covid situation beat and you can bet our 'Roos will be champing at the bit to smash you again. Name time and place.

 

[Parra]

Time for a rebel team to head over to represent us.

 

[Diesel]

The real winners are the NRL clubs

 

[baggygreen man]

Cautious? maybe. Shortsighted? Definitely

shortsited perhap but hindsite is 20 20. We put all our AZ eggs in the one basket.. unbeknowns to us and the world that this vax, of which we made 50m doses, could kill people. As it turned out many people have refused the unsafe vax. You may say we boo booed by not accepting additional Pfizer doses when offered them. But again in hindsite.....

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Time for a rebel team to head over to represent us.

Maybe get Kepler Wessels to suss a few blokes out....

 

[The Great Dane]

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.

Here's the problem you, and apparently a lot of other people, don't want to face; the NRL and clubs have significantly more to lose both financially and in competition with their local competitors from delaying the NRL a couple of weeks and risking a covid outbreak in their playing group, than they have to gain from participating in the WC. It really is that simple, and sooking about it isn't going to change it.

Also the idea that the NRL are the ones that constantly undermine international footy is just short-sighted BS. The only reason that international RL still holds any relevance at all is because the NRL and clubs have pumped resources into developing NZ and the PI eligible players for the last 20-30 years and kept/made those nations competitive as a result.

If you want to point fingers at people for undermining internationals look no further than the English RL establishment, whom for at least the last 30 years, and despite tens of millions of pounds in investment in late 90s and early 00s, have self sabotaged so often and so consistently that they've effectively allowed English RL to slowly rot away to the point that it's not only a good chance of going semi-pro again, but that they've been totally uncompetitive on the international scene and have basically no locally developed drawcards and star players to draw the average punter outside of England through the gate. On top of that they've totally failed to help develop the game in their local region, particularly the Home Nations and France, to the point that they basically gave up and cut funding and any meaningful support about a decade ago.

You have to fix that if you want to fix internationals, and you don't do that by frivolously pumping money and resources into a short term one off event that will almost certainly have little to no long term impact on the sport's growth and sustainability in England and surrounding region, and then trying to shame the rest of the world into participating in the middle of a global pandemic and without any hope of reasonable compensation for the risk they are taking to participate.
How you do go about it is by investing in bottom up growth across the nation and increasing exposure of the top tier club competition. Now how you go about that in English RL's case specifically is debatable, but that is what's got to happen if you want to turn things around and for international RL to become relevant again.

 

[baggygreen man]

Time for a rebel team to head over to represent us.

I reckon a composite team of Aussies playing in the Super League would make a decent fist of our defense. Instead of bellyaching Pom RL do something positive like approaching the clubs that have Aussies on their books. Imagine the thrill those blokes will take out of slipping on the Aussie colors in a WC.

 

[The Great Dane]

Well done NRL Clubs. They basically control Rugby League and are ruining it. Yes there are risks, but when cricket, football, yawnion are all touring it beggars belief that they can’t see how daft it makes them look. As one MP said today, “Never thought I’d see the day when Rugby Union players were harder than Rugby League players.”

Cricket, football, and union all make significantly more from international competition than RL does.

In other words they have more to lose from not participating where as it's the opposite for the NRL.

 

[Matterhorn]

Have people not also thought about the sponsorship $$$$ that have already been invested in the event so far. A lot of companies would of paid money already to get there logo on a world cup 2021 piece of merchandise. That's ok we'll just cross out the 1 and replace it with a 2 for next year. Do you think they will want to invest next year if there is a risk of high profile countries aus/nz pulling out at short notice? A lot of companies are already having tight budgets already so i can't imagine them banging on the door to chuck some money for 2022 when more high profile sports will be clashing at the same time. It's the same situation in Australia now people are having to cancel there planned holidays at a days notice & then reluctant to book again. Will the British public have the appetite to buy tickets/book travel/accommodation all over again next year. Remember Australia pulled out of a tour at the end of 2020 to the UK because of COVID which people understood at the time & on the flipside they thought oh well at least we can see all the teams at the world cup in 2021.
People need to look at the full picture - not just she'll be right mate cancel it for 1 yr what's the diff.

 

[Pretty Penny]

the English should work with the Australian and Kiwis

It is the English who are wrong here.

 

[Coastbloke]

I often wonder why some on here post in the International forum, particularly when their support for the ARLC's bogus excuses is so evident.

Then there's the daily thesis' from others. So many words and so much more whataboutery BS..