Bad crowds and scandal. But Nines boss says World Cup was a glorious success
NRL Premiership
- October 20, 2019 12:35pm
- by George Clarke
- Source: FOX SPORTS
Australia took out the World Cup Nines, but the tournament drew poor crowd numbers.Source: Getty Images
Despite poor attendances over two days and an ineligibility scandal that threatened to derail the competition, IRL (International Rugby League) CEO Nigel Wood declared the inaugural World Cup Nines a success and said the game would explore taking the event to the Middle East.
Just 12,528 people turned up on the Friday night, while Saturday’s crowd of 15,684 was slightly underwhelming given Bankwest Stadium’s capacity is 30,000.
The NRL, to their credit, must be given praise for the professionalism in which they ran the IRL event, especially so soon after the end of the season.
A Nines World Cup will return in 2023, following a 13-a-side event being hosted by England, but Wood says he is happy with the first edition of the tournament.
“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect,” said Wood.
“In this kind of event with pass-ins and pass-outs you’re never actually sure how many people actually turned up during the day. All I know is that the people who are here have really enjoyed it. It’s a tribute to the athletes and I think it’s a very exciting time for the sport.”
The NRL is set to bring back a pre-season Nines tournament next year in Perth, but Wood predicted that more events would spring up around the world.
He argued that the format - owing to the shortened format gave the “smaller” nations a better advantage of winning as opposed to the Test environment - and an opportunity to expand into new areas.
“We’ve got an agreement to stage it again in 2023 but I think it’s capable of even more than that,” he said. “Frankly we’ve seen it is popular and how it can present the game in a slightly different way.
“I think the high turnover of matches, the skills on show, makes it a really exciting innovation. We’ve used Nines before but it remains one of our best opportunities to take the sport to more countries.
New Zealand celebrates victory during the Rugby League World Cup 9s Womens Final match between New Zealand and Australia at Bankwest Stadium.Source: Getty Images
“North America is a possibility, the Middle East is a possibility, and certainly Europe (for the 2023 World Cup).”
Wood, meanwhile, was at pains to shift the blame for the embarrassing fiasco regarding eligibility rules.
Lebanon picked two youngsters under the age of 18 - Jacob Kiraz and Jordan Samrani - with the former playing in their win against France on Friday. Under NRL rules players participating in an adults game must be 18. But in the case of IRL rules, players over 16 are free to take part, providing they have the written consent of a parent.
To cloud matters further, Kiraz, 17, had also played in the Pacific Test against Fiji earlier this year, and did so legally as the event was run by the IRL (which was then known as the Rugby League International Federation - RLIF).
Samrani, meanwhile, was about to take the field for the Cedars’ final pool game against the Welsh, but was reduced to tears when he was told he wouldn’t be allowed to play. Lebanon then had two points deducted for the win over France, and thus their stunning victory over England made little difference as the loss to Wales meant they could not qualify for the knockout stages.
The issue was only raised when Papua New Guinea’s women were forced to replace two players - despite them having written consent and following the IRL guidelines - because they were under 18 on Friday.
Wood insisted players had to be 18 to play in the World Cup Nines and that this had been communicated to all participating nations. That was despite no issue being raised during the pre-tournament registration. The Lebanese Federation rubbished Wood’s claim, saying: “The tournament manual provided to all nations prior to the tournament commencing clearly stipulates no age restriction in the RLIF eligibility rules for International Matches.”
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Wood responded by saying: “That’s why the decisions have been taken… you’d prefer to be looking at the on-field action and not off-field stories. It’s regrettable and something that everything has to learn from. At the end of the day, nations have to pick players eligible.”
“The rules for this tournament were clear and unequivocal. You had to be 18. We are looking at that generally, because I think there is a little confusion. So we are working through those rules because it’s in everyone’s interest to be as clear as possible – and this tournament it was absolutely clear.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...s/news-story/45275d91277c4c7b53a23ab10feb8032
Grant Trouville/NRL Photos
