Foreign quota
A CEO has finally been appointed to run the2017 Rugby League World Cup: former Cricket Australia chief*Michael Brown. One of his first tasks will be to select the World Cup venues and confirm the dates. The NRL’s International Development Manager, Tas Baitieri, told me that Papua New Guinea will definitely host at least two group games and, consequently, now qualify automatically as a host nation.
Whether they will be given a quarter-final remains to be seen but the 15,000 spectators packing out BSP Stadium in Port Moresby for the*PNG Hunters’ Super Cup game againstSouths Logan Magpies*last Saturday night won’t have done any harm. Baitieiri expects the Kiwis to play all of their games in New Zealand apart from possibly a semi-final or the final. The host city for the final is a three-way fight between Auckland, Brisbane and Sydney. Expect the two cities that miss out to be given the semi-finals instead.
It will continue rugby’s tendency for World Cups to be spread over several countries. The only Rugby League World Cup since 1972 to all be held in one country was 2008 in Australia. The 2013 edition was spread across four countries (England and Wales were joint hosts but they still gave games to France and Ireland). The shambolic RLWC in 2000 was spread so thinly across six nations that it had no chance of taking hold.
Brown and his colleagues will need to find a balance between sharing the event and ensuring there is enough interest – and sufficient investment to provoke that interest – in every host community. Major games in major cities, with smaller ones in league-loving communities, seems to be the formula.
Goal-line drop-out
In*a fascinating interview with Kevin Ferrie in Glasgow’s Herald newspaper*last week, new RLIF chief David Collier repeated his desire to introduce a second international tournament and also hinted that more teams would have to qualify for the 2021 World Cup. This makes sense. He mentioned cricket’s Champions Trophy as an example.
Something similar for league could see the Four Nations replaced by an expanded event with the world’s top six or eight nations playing in a tournament over four weekends (two groups and a final). It should work and could take place every two years, starting in 2018 or 2019.
Collier is also keen that more nations should play qualifiers for the World Cup, knowing that they help establish the RLWC brand commercially and should have saleable broadcast rights. I predict a compromise: the 2017 semi-finalists will qualify for 2021 (thus almost guaranteeing the three major crowd and TV-pulling nations) with the European Championships and Pacific Cups doubling up as well-marketed World Cup qualifying tournaments.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/no...wigan-warriors-super-league-rugby-london-2015
