Tri Series, 2008 World Cup Confirmed

[SP]

Tri-series, 2008 World Cup confirmed
25 January 2004


A 2008 World Cup and 2004 Tri-Series involving Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand were confirmed by the Rugby League International Federation in Sydney today.

ARL chief executive Geoff Carr today said it was "still early days" on World Cup details but promised a "festival of football" as part of the southern hemisphere's rugby league centenary celebrations.

"We've had positive feedback on holding a schoolboy world cup, a varsity world cup, a combined services world cup and at the top, the international elite level world cup," Carr said.

Carr said the international talent displayed at last weekend's World Sevens tournament at Aussie Stadium boded well for the 2008 World Cup.

"You look at the number of Polynesian players at the top level already in the game ... so teams like Tonga, Samoa and Fiji by 2008 will be more than competitive.

"PNG is strengthening - add that to the already established nations and we have a creditable elite competition to show."

PNG and Tonga were the surprise packets of the World Sevens, winning their respective pools before bowing out in tight quarterfinal losses.

PNG's Ricky Sibia was the second-highest pointscorer of the Sevens with 37 points, just three behind Parramatta's Luke Burt.

Maxime Greseque of France finished joint third with Cronulla's Nathan Merritt with 34 points.
And Wests Tigers NRL coach Tim Sheens has offered pre-season training and trial matches to Evgeny Bojoukov and Sergey Dobrynine after they starred for Russia at the World Sevens.

Carr said the seven game Tri-Series would be held at the end of the NRL season with the first round held in New Zealand and the remainder completed in the UK.

Each nation will play each other twice with the final played in England.

"Included in the plans is a United States visit by the Kangaroos to assist the growing American competition being conducted by former St George first grader David Nui," he said.




"It has also been agreed that the Tri-Series nations will conduct a separate tournament for developing players in New Zealand at the end of 2004 season."

Carr said the ARL had received an invitation to play the US as part of the recent Kangaroo tour but was "impossible to factor in" due to late notice.

He said plans for a world youth championship were also unveiled today with the Russian Rugby League confirming that the Moscow City Council was keen to host the event and to assist financially.

Meanwhile, ARL chairman Colin Love was today re-elected unopposed as the RLIF chairman while England's Rugby Football League and Super League executive chairman Richard Lewis was elected unopposed as vice-chairman.

He replaced Maurice Lindsay who was elected as a RLIF life member and did not seek reappointment as RLIF vice-chairman.

New Zealand's Selwyn Pearson was appointed to the RLIF executive, replacing France's Jean-Paul Ferre who did not seek re-election.

NRL chief executive David Gallop was re-elected as RLIF secretary and the fourth member of the RLIF executive unopposed.






Brought to you by AAP

 

[CanadianSteve]

Kangaroos in the US? I hope this comes true, I will make a point of going to see them. It should be in the northeast US as that's where the strongest teams are, right.

 

[AuckMel]

ARL chief executive Geoff Carr today said it was "still early days" on World Cup details but promised a "festival of football" as part of the southern hemisphere's rugby league centenary celebrations.

I'm a great believer in the "festival of football" concept rather than a World Cup.

I just don't believe we have enough quality teams to have a World Cup, and would rather have it re-named "Rugby League's Festival of Football"

It's long I know, but it encompasses everyone who has contributed to our great game in the Southern Hemisphere for those 100 years.

 

[Alan Shore]

We can easily have a 12 team World Cup, with three groups of four teams. Schedule one Kangaroos match at Telstra Dome in Melbourne, for example, and it would sell the 52,000 stadium out.

 

[Misanthrope]

I like the idea of twelve teams, provided the groups are weighted so we don't eliminate a contender early on.

Have Australia, England, and New Zealand in separate pools. Put the fourth seeded team in the fourth group.

Chris

 

[DIEHARD]

I'm a great believer in the "festival of football" concept rather than a World Cup.

What would your "Festival of Football" involve?

 

[incredible_holc]

hahaha how gay does that name sound.
Just call it the world cup to attract more interest.

 

[ibeme]

Well, they've got about four years to make this thing a success. Hopefully, they've learnt from the union WC, but they really need to focus on getting those fringe nations up to a competitive standard. They showed promise in the sevens, but it's a long way to test match rugby league from there.

I just hope they don't drop the ball on this, and leave everything til the last minute. They need to start preparing now.

 

[DIEHARD]

We need to start preparing now as well. We got 4 years, lets not waste em. ;-)

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Sounds like a good plan.

One thing Im hoping is more test matches in Australia, and warm up games before test matches.

But theyve done well to plan this out, I hope its a success. Well done.

 

[joshreading]

They need to start by encouraging players like Civoneceva and Tuqiri (when he comes back) to play for Fiji. In the mean time, they need to form a Pac side as well and put them into the Tri Series say in 2005 to give the elite players that the NRL and Suepr League ask to Play for their home nations BIG games rather then small games.

They need also to make a hit list of Union players from the these weak countries that might be interested in makign the switch to try League in the top flight.

That fijian winger would be a good option, it would also gain the attention of Fiji in a year when the RL and RU world Cups go head to head.

By the way, I have decided it might be a good idea to go head to head against the Union World Cup as we can show up directly the insufficencies of RU. It is also in France we are in Australia.

 

[tHe_MaC]

Rupeni would be too lazy to sign a contract to play league..........

 

[griff]

A lot of the reason for having a 2008 World Cup in Australia is that it will be in the 'Centenary Year' of Rugby League in Australia.

We had a World Cup in Australia in 1957 to celebrate 50 years of Rugby League in this country, so how can we have a competition to celebrate 100 years of Rugby League 51 years later?

Because the game started in 1908, that was season 1, not season 0. Season 50 was in 1957, and we had 90 years of the Premiership celebrated in 1997. 100 years must therefore be in 2007.

The AFL had their centerary in 1996, after starting in 1897.

No doubt there will be celebrations, special replica jerseys etc in the 100th season of the Premiership in 2007. It is going to be a bit hard to convince people that 2008 is also the centenary year.

A better idea would be to have the World Cup in 2009 and have a 100th anniversary Kangaroo Tour in 2008 - starting with the first test at the New Wembley.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

this is really great news.
made my day and most ppl i know.
lets hope they get in early and get all the work done so we can enjoy the sport like it should be enjoyed.
as long as we have more than 10 teams,12,14 or 16 would do very nicely please.

 

[burley griffin]

Good point griff.

Furthermore, the first matches played by the professional rugby body (the rugby league) in NSW were played in 1907. It was a test series between the newly professional rugby players from New Zealand (en route to Britain) and the new recruits to professional rugby in NSW. Though the matches were played under rugby union rules, the players were paid, and it was organised by the NSW rugby football league.

Nonetheless, the club competition started in 1908, so 1908 plus 100 equals 2008. I really don't think anyone would notice, or care, about this minute detail, so i guess it really doesnt matter if the WC is held in 2007 or 2008 (though 2008 is a better option to avoid going head to head with the RUWC).

And joshreading, if the RL world cup was held in 2008 (as planned), then it wouldn't be going head to head with the union WC, since the next union one is in 2007. (By the way, the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be held in August).

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Yeah I don't think it would have to worry about clashing with the Olympics, not many people would make the choice between those two..

But on that note, I think a big part to making the WC successful is attracting overseas supporters. the NRL only averages 15,000 a round and not all those will go to the WC so we need to instill some passion into the Irish, Scottish, Welsh and England to travel out here like they did for the RU WC.

How to do that I dont know.....

 

[iggy plop]

15,000 a game not a round. Give TGG more credit.

 

[ouwet]

Hopefully the 10,000 English supporters who came for the last ashes in Australia can be matched!!
Matches involving Lebanon if promoted too the Lebanese community here will get huge crowds no doubt!!!

 

[bender]

"PNG is strengthening - add that to the already established nations and we have a creditable elite competition to show."

PNG and Tonga were the surprise packets of the World Sevens, winning their respective pools before bowing out in tight quarterfinal losses.

This is a big call to say that PNG are strengthening. By 2008, they will have no Adrian Lam or Marcus Bai, two NRL quality players. They will also presumably lose Stanley Gene and a couple of others who had previously Had NRL and/or Superleague experience. I dont think you could say that PNG are improving. They are staying dormant because the ARL have not done anything to help them harness their talent.

Their form in the 7s was good, but in the mid 90s, they made the semi finals (without the aid of being placed in the international group) and in the same year they pushed the Kangaroos all the way in a full test match. I dont think you could say that they have improved too much in the last 10 years. (That isnt to say that they cant improve dramatically by 2008 if they are helped properly.

 

[yakstorm]

However Bender, the type of players they have coming up through their junior system at the moment are the best they have ever been, as shown by their success against the Junior Kangaroos at the end of last year.

PNG will always have players floating around the NRL/Super League, even with Bai and Lam gone, there is former Dragon, and now in SL, Wilshire, and a few from the Sevens are being looked at by NRL clubs.

The biggest help PNG need is regular matches, and they need time to train together. They were blown off the park in Townsville in 2000 simply cause they had not had any time to train together, hopefully the regular matches between PNG, Melbourne and Brisbane planned for the next few years will help raise the standard.