Interview with Troy Grant, Head of the IRL

[Keithwarriors1]

Hi Guys,

We've just released an interview with Troy Grant, Chair of the International Rugby League. Some interesting comments, especially around the World Cups and prospective hosts.

 

[Vlad59]

Listening now. Excellent interview

 

[Jim from Oz]

Can somebody please sum up the main points?

And any info yet on the 2025 Pacific Cup?

Thanks !

 

[Vlad59]

Can somebody please sum up the main points?

And any info yet on the 2025 Pacific Cup?

Thanks !

Bit hard as it’s over an hour but I’ll have a go

1. The days of people grifting the game are over. Governance and self sustainability are key for new and developing competitions and nations.
2. PNG is being looked at separately to the NRL team. Pathways and development under the PNGRL are key and separate.
3. France should not be playing at the top level and need to play countries that build their skills. Kicking off to the opposition and standing under the goal posts 1 minute later achieved nothing.
4. The World Cup - see 3 above. To sell it you need competition every game. 10 countries at this time gives this a much better chance.
5. Covid held international development up badly but the future will be better with sustainable growth.
6. France, Wales, PNG and ‘an African nation’ will be focussed on for the next few years. The player pool is there if getting there and they represent the best opportunities for growing the skill base.
7. The qld labor government kiboshed nines at the Olympics. They are trying again with the new government.
It was a very positive interview but he’s no fool and under no illusion how tough the task is.

 

[taste2taste]

Hi Guys,

We've just released an interview with Troy Grant, Chair of the International Rugby League. Some interesting comments, especially around the World Cups and prospective hosts.

Great listen, Troy and his team are doing a great job.

interested to know, are there any countries where rugby league is growing significantly enough that they could challenge the top counties ? I know we are 50 yrs away from that happening …. but is league growing fast enough any where that we could we see someone like Jamaica, Lebanon , USA, Serbia or France win the WC in 2050 ?

 

[Vlad59]

Great listen, Troy and his team are doing a great job.

interested to know, are there any countries where rugby league is growing significantly enough that they could challenge the top counties ? I know we are 50 yrs away from that happening …. but is league growing fast enough any where that we could we see someone like Jamaica, Lebanon , USA, Serbia or France win the WC in 2050 ?

Find a Club - Wales Rugby League

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wales appears to have quite a few clubs in the south

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Great listen, Troy and his team are doing a great job.

interested to know, are there any countries where rugby league is growing significantly enough that they could challenge the top counties ? I know we are 50 yrs away from that happening …. but is league growing fast enough any where that we could we see someone like Jamaica, Lebanon , USA, Serbia or France win the WC in 2050 ?

Wales, France, PNG and Fiji are all low hanging fruit for the game AND the best chance we have of creating another top line (able to compete with and beat Australian, NZ, Eng, Samoa & Tonga) international team over the next few decades.

 

[Last Week]

Wales, France, PNG and Fiji are all low hanging fruit for the game AND the best chance we have of creating another top line (able to compete with and beat Australian, NZ, Eng, Samoa & Tonga) international team over the next few decades.

For the love of God, a European country needs to step up and compete with England!

 

[Vlad59]

For the love of God, a European country needs to step up and compete with England!

That’s what Grant said. They need strong European competition. There just isn’t one right now.

 

[Vlad59]

He noted that the Super League clubs lost 20 million pounds last year. Leeds united playing in the EPL second division lost 60 million pounds.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

For the love of God, a European country needs to step up and compete with England!

That’s what Grant said. They need strong European competition. There just isn’t one right now.

Surely France is the one with some focused investment over the next couple of decades. Rugby country, long history in League and Union, domestic league probably higher standard than any other their 2 nation and they already have a professional pool of players.

Maybe some of the investment can help support Catalans and Toulouse in the Superleague along with French pathways for both plus elite coaching development as part of the FFRXIII for a core squad of their best pro players.

 

[Vlad59]

Surely France is the one with some focused investment over the next couple of decades. Rugby country, long history in League and Union, domestic league probably higher standard than any other their 2 nation and they already have a professional pool of players.

Maybe some of the investment can help support Catalans and Toulouse in the Superleague along with French pathways for both plus elite coaching development as part of the FFRXIII for a core squad of their best pro players.

To sum it up he said:

France is not capable of competing with the top 6 right now so they need to play against countries who won’t give them 100 point drubbings in the near future till they improve.

France will get investment along with Wales, PNG and ‘an African country’ as a priority to help lift their standards in order to provide England with decent European competition

 

[Coastbloke]

Which ‘African country’ should be targeted?

Stick with SA? Nigeria? Ghana?

For me, SA seems obvious, but I can’t stand that SARU has to much say with the Government in League’s affairs..

 

[Vlad59]

Which ‘African country’ should be targeted?

Stick with SA? Nigeria? Ghana?

For me, SA seems obvious, but I can’t stand that SARU has to much say with the Government in League’s affairs..

The interview threw those names around but nothing specific at this stage.

 

[taste2taste]

Which ‘African country’ should be targeted?

Stick with SA? Nigeria? Ghana?

For me, SA seems obvious, but I can’t stand that SARU has to much say with the Government in League’s affairs..

South Africa would be a waste of money.

Union is too strong and will put up too many roadblocks. In the unlikely event that league can produce any talented youngsters they’ll be poached by Union. Similar to what currently happens in France.

The best countries to invest would be where Union hasn’t spread its tentacles and countries that have a decent per capita income and GDP.

 

[Last Week]

Surely France is the one with some focused investment over the next couple of decades. Rugby country, long history in League and Union, domestic league probably higher standard than any other their 2 nation and they already have a professional pool of players.

Maybe some of the investment can help support Catalans and Toulouse in the Superleague along with French pathways for both plus elite coaching development as part of the FFRXIII for a core squad of their best pro players.

France have been given opportunity after oppotunity since the early 2000's. Whether it be via Catalans, Tolouse, England generously having pointless tests against them, favourable pathways to World Cups and light draws in World Cups, it is on them to develop now.

They deserve no additional investment over Wales, Scotland, Ireland, etc etc.

The onus is on the French to improve their pathways and start developing talent that can make their way into NRL and Super League teams on merit. That is the only way they will ever compete with the top tier.

 

[RedVee]

Which ‘African country’ should be targeted?

Stick with SA? Nigeria? Ghana?

For me, SA seems obvious, but I can’t stand that SARU has to much say with the Government in League’s affairs..

Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Kenya are the ones I’ve seen reports of activity from over the last decade.
Maybe Kenya might be the one???

 

[titoelcolombiano]

France have been given opportunity after oppotunity since the early 2000's. Whether it be via Catalans, Tolouse, England generously having pointless tests against them, favourable pathways to World Cups and light draws in World Cups, it is on them to develop now.

They deserve no additional investment over Wales, Scotland, Ireland, etc etc.

The onus is on the French to improve their pathways and start developing talent that can make their way into NRL and Super League teams on merit. That is the only way they will ever compete with the top tier.

It depends, do we want 6th big (highly competitive) nation as a game or not? If we do, France is the easiest country to get there and we unlock a wealthy economy for the benefit of RL.

If we don't, then leave it as is and we'll never have a second RL powerhouse in Europe.

 

[Growthegame]

Can somebody please sum up the main points?

And any info yet on the 2025 Pacific Cup?

Thanks !

Sounds like a job for ChatGPT

 

[England87]

I've always believed you could solve the France 'problem' within a 4 year world cup cycle by doing the following.

1. Toulouse and Catalan ring fenced into Super League with the aim of 30 - 40 Super League standard players playing top division footy every week. Supported by a National team high performance program with regular training programs.

2. Hosting regular high profile test matches against whatever team is having a test series against England in England. Games to be played in Perpignan, Toulouse and Avignon to build a profile and base.

3. Committing to a Southern Hemisphere tour against a PNG or Fiji.