WCC - Leeds Rhinos v Melbourne Storm

[Harrigan]

Week 2 was played in torrential rain for the most of it. Cas muscled up and deserved the win. Lising 2 forwards in the first 20 minutes on a bog didn't help though :lol:

For anyone doubting the quality of the new Leeds pitch though, watch the highlights of wek 1.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/rug...e-to-be-held-in-australia-20130213-2edhw.html

 

[roughyedspud]

open question to you aussies...

would you rather a expanded WCC be

A - a 4 team comp featuring 2 semi finals , nrl winner v esl runner up & esl winner v nrl runner up.....then a final

or

B - a 6 team 'nrl v esl series', 3v3 , 2v2 & 1v1...with the 1v1 game playing for the wcc trophy..

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Hate the expanded WCC idea. It's ridiculous. If you can't win your own comp you can't play in the WCC. And if it ends with a final between teams from the same comp like in 1997 it will suck even more, which is bound to happen. I can see it being a failure and scrapped before the end of this six-year period. Switching between two and six teams is also ludicrous.

 

[some11]

Hate the expanded WCC idea. It's ridiculous. If you can't win your own comp you can't play in the WCC.

Yep, gonna backfire on them.

Why would you send your best players to get potentially injured in a nothing game, only the premiers would take it seriously.

 

[mattystans000]

I don't want to see the Champion of Champions Match lost to Rugby League from 2015 onwards... It could be our greatest club match on the calendar simply if they rotated host nations as they now plan to & play it 2 weeks after the Grand Finals. Leave it as NRL 1 v SL 1.

If they want a money grab international club tournament tho, then by all means take the GF Runners Ups & the Prelim Final Losers (Other 3 of Top 4) from both NRL & SL, and play them against each other in any format, at any time, and in any nation they want! Just leave us the WCC (oh, and rename it World Club Championship, but that's only a small nitpick).

 

[roughyedspud]

Hate the expanded WCC idea. It's ridiculous. If you can't win your own comp you can't play in the WCC. And if it ends with a final between teams from the same comp like in 1997 it will suck even more, which is bound to happen. I can see it being a failure and scrapped before the end of this six-year period. Switching between two and six teams is also ludicrous.

we very nearly agree on something for like the first time ever lol....


id got to 4 teams as described above.....6teams though is bloody stupid....the 3v3 & 2v2 games are utterly pointless...

 

[Perth Red]

Really makes you wonder about how the leaders of our game come up with these ridiculous ideas and why they would think it would be succesful?

I agree no need for this nonsense, NRL winner v SL winner, two weeks after GF for the World RL Club Cup is what the fans are crying out for. Have a World Nines involving clubs from both hemispheres pre season if they want. Mind you with the way the salary cap is going in both countries the Sl clubs won't have a chance of being competitive in years to come.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

And that's another reason why it's a bad idea. It would ruin any hope of a pre-season comp like a Nines or Sevens. Assuming that's when they are going to play it. If it's at the end of the season it will f**k with internationals. Either way it's f**ked.

 

[Broncos thats my team]

yer 3 Vs 3, 2 Vs 2 and 1 Vs 1 sounds stupid, if your gonna do 6 teams I think it would be better if you had the 2 comp winners have a bye in first week then just a randon draw of the other 4 teams and winners play the top teams in week 2 with final in week 3.

While this is going on there is a pre season comp featureing the 13 teams teams that are not playing the WCC.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

It doesn't matter how you do it. It's still stupid.

If Melbourne beat the Bulldogs in the GF (for example) and Manly was third, and Leeds beat Warrington and Wigan came third, there is every chance you would end up with Melbourne playing the Bulldogs again in the final. Pointless. Or you might have Manly playing the Bulldogs, two sides that couldn't even win their own comp. Equally stupid.

Even if you keep the teams apart to ensure an NRL v SL final you are just having the same teams pley each other as played each other in the competition. No matter how you do it there is something massively wrong with it. The whole concept is just geniused.

If one day we have a pro league in France and one in the USA and they were at least in the ballpark in terms of competitiveness with the NRL and SL we could maybe, possibly think of having a champions league with the winners of each. But that is a long way off and may never happen. Meanwhile keep the WCC as it is but play it at a proper time and in a fair way.

 

[Perth Red]

Maybe the 13 non involved NRL teams and the 11 non involved SL teams could join 8 National teams to particpate in a World Nines at the same time in the opposite hemisphere?

 

[Canard]

instead of worrying about the weather id worry about the UKAD drug testers if i where them...

Don't worry the storm have paid off all the right UK match fixers :sarcasm:

 

[PaddyBoy]

minor premiers and premiers play each other, 4 team comp. If they're the same, second place or grand finalists.

Champions League has 4 teams from one comp and next to none from others and its awesome.

 

[God-King Dean]

pmsl

What a bunch of sooks.

It's gonna be f**king awesome.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

Some people are jumping the gun badly here... Complaining before we've even had an official announcement ffs.

Update from Steveis.

Changes afoot for World Club Challenge
February 14, 2013 - 12:07PM
Steve Mascord


Every year Leeds play in the World Club Challenge, their CEO Gary Hetherington offers to play it in Australia and calls for the concept to be expanded.
Every year, nothing of the sort happens.

But things are different this time. In the middle of last season, South Sydney chief executive Shane Richardson flew to England for talks with Hetherington, Warrington "pop impresario" Simon Moran and Wigan's Ian Lenagan.
They agreed to play the WCC in the opposite hemisphere to internationals in each season for the next five, and to trial an expanded competition every second year.

The six-team comp in 2015 does not mean six teams have a chance of being crowned world champions. It means the game will be played as part of a Super League v NRL "Test" series.
On a single weekend in February 2015, Super League will be paused and on Friday night the third-finishing teams in each comp will meet, followed by the second-finishing on Saturday – with the WCC on Sunday.
This concept has the backing of NRL clubs – but the key is selling it as a separate television product and building it up to the point that states and cities bid to host it.
Playing the WCC in Australia next year will have no impact at all on the All Stars or the planned Auckland Nines – instead the pre-season will start to generate some real momentum (throw in the Charity Shield as well).
Although the clubs support these ideas, they still need to be signed off on by the Australian Rugby League Commission and the Rugby Football League.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...b-challenge-20130214-2eeho.html#ixzz2KrGCeVQD

Would love to see Wigan in Brisbane again

 

[East Coast Tiger]

You better hope they both win their comps then because this plan is not going to allow six teams to play in Australia. It will only be played in England. And to call it anything like a "Test" series will make the game a laughing stock. 3 v 3 and 2 v 2? Who gives a shit.

 

[roughyedspud]

3v3 & 2v2 are still pointless games...played for nothing..


also does that say wigan,leeds & warrington have agreed to go down under....or are they representing all of ESL in the talks?

 

[Lockyer4President!]

This may come as a shock but some of us just like watching rugby league, especially when they're unusual match ups. Maybe time to tone down the whinging, yeah?

 

[mattystans000]

Thank Gus Gould's Football God's for that! I could care less about the 2v2 & 3v3 matches, however will be generally interested in them as SL v NRL matches are rare fixtures.

But they've kept the Champion of Champions match that is and always has (except for 1997...) been the World Club Challenge! And further to that they've finally agreed to rotate host nations. So good on them and now just need to work out how smart an idea it would be to play it 2 weeks after the Grand Finals with the GF winning squads!