The Guardian: "Rugby League's International Failure is Spectacular"

[Burns]

Rugby league and its devotion to the international game has always promised big and nearly always under-delivered. If the game truly hopes to grow – as those in charge of the purse strings and the big statements often likes to preach – it must be through establishing, nurturing, promoting and investing in the sport around the world.

Rugby league’s near-disdain for internationals is rare – in only a handful of sports is representing your country not the pinnacle of a career. In league, internationals are an afterthought, an inconvenience, just another event that extends the season, to fit around the premiership and Origin footy and money-grabs like the Auckland NinesBut once again laziness has blown out the small fire for international rugby league the World Cup created.

...

And as a game, we wonder why the likes of Sam Burgess and Sonny Bill Williams and Israel Folau choose to defect to rugby union (and that’s before we get to Jarryd Hayne). It is doubtful any of them left because they figured the 15-man code was a superior game. They left because of the opportunities the international-landscape of union presents. They left to earn bigger money, to play in a legitimate World Cup, to wear their nation’s jersey often and proudly.

Wallaby Adam Ashley-Cooper made his international debut in 2005 and played his 100th Test last Saturday. To put that in context, an Australian Rugby League player would have had to play in every Australian Test since the third match of the 1992 Ashes Series to reach 100 Tests. That team was captained by Mal Meninga, who hasn’t strapped on his boots in two decades..

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/oct/24/rugby-leagues-international-failure-is-spectacular

Nick Tedeschi hits the nail on the head, I've chosen choice quotes but the full article is a must read.

Also the bolded section is amazing.

 

[Eddie Lab]

I can see where the author is going with that AAC quote but ARU has gone the reverse where they play too many international games. the wallabies are going over the Europe to play another 5 games on top of the Rugby championship and french tour this year. they must be up to 20+ international games this year. that's crazy.

 

[roughyedspud]

nick who?

 

[miguel de cervantes]

I can't help but think uncompetitiveness killed the international game. If other nations remained competitive with the Australians then the international scene would still be more prominent. So what should the ARL have done when they started pulling away? Is it really their fault that the others couldn't keep up?

I still maintain that the only reason the union international scene got to where it is is through amateurism and the nature of the game - both leading to closer results. With professionalism now here any progress in spreading the game is 1000x harder to achieve - the same goes for league. It all just costs to much.

 

[Brutus]

The Wallabies play too many Tests.

I think RL has a good balance.

 

[deluded pom?]

I can understand the writer's comments regarding SBW, SB and Folau but then he hints at Hayne. What sort of international aspect does American Football offer?

 

[hutch]

I can understand the writer's comments regarding SBW, SB and Folau but then he hints at Hayne. What sort of international aspect does American Football offer?

Maybe because its on a bigger stage. The players before him such as the ones mentioned plus sailor, tuqiri, j Robinson, farrell etc have shown you can leave rugby league for a 'bigger' stage. Perhaps if we had done more to keep those players or to have grown the sport to make it more attractive for other athletes to stay, nobody would ever consider leaving rugby league.

 

[siv]

It starts at the top RLIF is too weak

Rules and scheduling and TV rights are managed locally rather than centrally

But the media doesn't help - always bagging the international and city v country football

Lots a great stories around, starting with the great Irish result

All Euro and Pacific and Tier 1 nation games need to be broadcast and replayed

No reason why they shouldn't ALL be on a You Tube channel

 

[carlosthedwarf]

I can't help but think uncompetitiveness killed the international game. If other nations remained competitive with the Australians then the international scene would still be more prominent.

It would be easier for some of the smaller nations if they weren't losing players to Australia.

 

[Tipster]

The Wallabies play too many Tests.

I think RL has a good balance.

A good balance between little to none?

 

[hutch]

It would be easier for some of the smaller nations if they weren't losing players to Australia.

It would be harder for some of the smaller nations if Australia didnt provide them with 75% of their players.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

The article is spot on, but a few things, it wasn't RL's fault that the game changed in the 90's when it was flying, that's Rupert and kerry's doing. That stopped dead all the gains made in the International game esp the tours of the early 90;s. Then since that time, the same media organisations have done nothing but either ignore the International game, or when they do mention it, rubbish it.

The last few years things have changed, that's why I don't think the article was spot on 100%, this type of article should've been put out years ago when Gallop was running things.

Now that the ARLC has taken over in this part of the world, PNG have a side in the Qld cup and that no doubt will help their national side in the years to come, that's progress and forward thinking. Fiji have just been accepted into the NSW cup, the nation already has plenty of players playing in various comps around Wollongong and rural NSW, this as above with PNG will set these island nations up for International RL in the future. So things have changed quite a bit in the last 3 years.

England and France on the other hand have to finally sort out what they want their club game and structure to look like and stick with it, they need to make up their minds if they want to be known as the English Super League, the UK Super League or the European Super League.

Maybe that's what it should be

European SL for the very top

UK SL for the expansion locally in the UK to eventually play in the ESL above and

the English SL where clubs in the pyramids now that don't want to or can't afford to play in the bigger tiers instead help in feeding the system for new players each year that need to step up a level.

You can't have semi pro French clubs playing in the lower tiers in an English comp, there's no money in it. France needs to sort out its own proper Television deal and take it to the RFL so they can work out what they want and how they can achieve what they all need.

 

[Sgt. Kabukiman]

Yes, but Adam Ashley Cooper is rubbish, and if he'd kept playing rugby league there's not a chance in hell he would've managed to play 100 NRL games. He might be a rugby union legend, but he could walk down any street in the world and not be recognised. An absolute plodder like Ben Creagh would struggle to go out to dinner without a bunch of people coming up to him for photos. Rugby league means something, rugby union doesn't. Any player who crosses over is either doing it for the money, or is a softcock.

Playing 100 matches for the Wallabies is like playing 100 matches for whatever the Aussie badminton team is. Nobody gives a shit, and if you dedicate that much time to playing a shit sport, you're a f**kwit.

 

[hutch]

Yes, but Adam Ashley Cooper is rubbish, and if he'd kept playing rugby league there's not a chance in hell he would've managed to play 100 NRL games. He might be a rugby union legend, but he could walk down any street in the world and not be recognised. An absolute plodder like Ben Creagh would struggle to go out to dinner without a bunch of people coming up to him for photos. Rugby league means something, rugby union doesn't. Any player who crosses over is either doing it for the money, or is a softcock.

Playing 100 matches for the Wallabies is like playing 100 matches for whatever the Aussie badminton team is. Nobody gives a shit, and if you dedicate that much time to playing a shit sport, you're a f**kwit.

Boom! Get that man a beer!

 

[insert.pause]

The international game is supposed to be run by the RLIF, not the NRL, and they are only now getting their first CEO and dedicated staff, thanks to the direction of Grant and Smith, who have been on the RLIF board only two years, so to blame them for decades of inadequate governance is ignorant, but not surprising coming from Tedeschi.

Moreover, complaining about the 4 nations ending in a predictable "parade of Australia’s dominance" ignores the fact that in the last 10 years NZ has won 3 tournaments, including the 2005 tri-nations, the 2010 4 nations and the 2008 world cup, that equates to NZ winning 3 out of the 7 tournaments played in the last 10 years.

 

[Glen]

The same media that says more internationals need to be played will be there to shit on it when Australia vs Fiji draws a 12K crowd. Or when Australia wins a series they will say it is boring and predictable Aussie dominance. It's hard for Australia to do a lot more to grow the international game itself.

And using the Wallabies as a yardstick is laughable given their current status in Australian sport and the ARU's empty coffers

 

[LeagueXIII]

Shame the same media that gushes over the Australian netball team doesn't do the same with rugby league as the netballers win moreso than the Kangaroos, infact they have won 10 out of 13 world cups and were runners up on the other 3 occasions, yet never a negative word spoken................

 

[Wilson1]

It's pretty obvious that the article is not using the "Wallabies as a yardstick." They are using international rugby union as a yardstick. Say what you say but international rugby union is a far better organised sport and is a growing at a quicker rate. Most people here would love for league to have that sort of international presence.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

It's pretty obvious that the article is not using the "Wallabies as a yardstick." They are using international rugby union as a yardstick. Say what you say but international rugby union is a far better organised sport and is a growing at a quicker rate. Most people here would love for league to have that sort of international presence.

Plenty of other better run bigger sports to look up too than that lot.

 

[docbrown]

Wallabies have won 4 out of the past 24 Bledisloe cup matches.
Kiwis have won 4 out of the past 24 Anzac/Australian matches.

BUT -- if the Kiwis weren't forced to play the Kangaroos mid-season with the Roos benefiting from the previous year's Origin combos and match fitness from the first few rounds of the NRL it'd be a closer result.

PNG, France & Wales ended up with anywhere from -110 to -136 in their 4 nations final tables standings. Samoa after one game are on -6, they're looking to be the best 4th nation so far.

Unless France & Ireland score massive upsets it looks like Scotland will be in the next 4 Nations.

And apparently that crowd last night was the largest non-world cup test match crowd since the 1994 Ashes series.

All that has happened under a rabble.

Money + Resources + Organisation + Time = A prosperous future for International Rugby League