Widnes Vikings to play in World Sevens.

[yakstorm]

The Rugby Football League (RFL) can confirm that Widnes Vikings will
participate in the 2004 Rugby League International Federation World Sevens competition in Australia.

The decision has been taken to allow a club side to play in the World Sevens after consideration had been given to the possibility of sending a representative team. An England Select side comprising 12 players from each Tetley's Super League club took part in last year's tournament.

Wigan Warriors were the last British club to take part in the tournament and finished as winners in 1992.

Widnes Vikings' entry has been approved after the club indicated both a strong desire to take part and confirmed that it would be staging its pre-season warm weather training in Australia from mid-January onwards.

Commenting on the decision, RFL Executive Chairman Richard Lewis said: "We are delight that Widnes Vikings will fly the flag for British Rugby League in the World Sevens. It is fitting that one of our leading clubs should be competing against teams from Australia's NRL competition in what is a tremendous event.We certainly hope that Widnes can emulate Wigan by winning a spectacular and exciting tournament.

He added: "The Sevens also provides great opportunities for many developing Rugby League nations and these teams certainly contribute to the overall festival feel. Colin Love [Chairman of the Rugby League International Federation] and I discussed all the various possibilities for British entries in the World Sevens and we agreed that for 2004 Widnes Vikings were the most appropriate option".

Widnes Vikings Director of Football Neil Kelly hoped the club could be the latest team from the UK to bring back a trophy from Down Under. He said: "After two seasons in the Tetley's Super League, it is great for the club to be playing in a competition such as this. Participating in the Rugby League World Sevens gives Widnes the kind of international recognition we feel the club deserves".

Kelly added: "We will represent Britain with pride and I am sure we will give a good account of ourselves".

The Vikings have also confirmed that the World Sevens will be the first time that Aaron Moule - recently signed from Melbourne Storm - will be in action for the club.

The tournament takes place in Sydney, Australia on the weekend of January 24th and 25th 2004. The qualifying competition takes place earlier in the week.[/code]

 

[The Colonel]

Bewdy...... another Pommie team for the Eels to thrash!

 

[DIEHARD]

This is a dead set disgrace! The second biggest RL nation wont even be fielding a team in the 'world' sevens. Even after the RUWC and need to work on our international calender they persist in doing dumb arse stuff like this.

JESUS CHRIST! :x

 

[East Coast Tiger]

An England or Great Britain team would have been much better. I'm sure it money that's decided this. The RFL don't want to play to send a rep team, so they've taken the easier option. And it's not as if it's even a good club side, Bradford or Leeds maybe, but Widnes, they'll need to be grouped with international sides just to make the cup quarters.

Plus there's bound to be several Aussies in the Widnes team too.

Let's hope Scotland pull a rabbit out of the hat and win the qualifiers, just to show the RFL that even a poor, amateur organisation can send a successful team if they make the effort.

 

[League Freak™]

Let's hope Scotland pull a rabbit out of the hat and win the qualifiers, just to show the RFL that even a poor, amateur organisation can send a successful team if they make the effort.

Widnes fits that description!

 

[mono_mal]

its dissapointing that yet another position gets filled by a club side at the expense of international teams.
what may be worse though is the inclusion of the magpies, bears, balmain tigers and newtown jets in the sevens qualifiers.
these teams could steal the remaining position from the likes of Japan, USA, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Singapore... as could the Aboriginals and NZ Maori.
although not affordable at the moment it would be ideal to have a 32 team comp made up of 16 clubs and 16 international teams.

 

[dimitri]

i also think it is a disgrace

after a world cup (no matter how boring and disappointing it was)

i thought it was vital that england, ireland, scotalnd and wales all come out

either individually or as GB&I

 

[Jeffles]

A cost cutting move and a backward step. Wigan tested the waters for an English side a decade ago. It should have always then gone to a rep side. Poor choice.

 

[yakstorm]

The difference is, when Wigan came out in 1992, the World Sevens was still all club based.

You had Wigan (England), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Red Arrows (CIS), Wainuiomata (New Zealand). All club sides rather than national sides.

The only representative sides in the competition where Fiji, France, Oceania and USA and originally it was going to be a club side from France as well.

 

[expansionist]

when I heard this my first reaction was one of just a deep sigh and a feeling of 'here we go again'

It really makes me wonder if anyone anywhere in the halls of power has any interest in RL being more than a club game. This is disgraceful.

The other point I agree with is that with the qualifiers being competed by more and more club sides, it dilutes the whole 'world' appeal. I know the NRL's opinion is that without NRL club sides no one will watch- but is that really true? Do we really need all NRL clubs and premier league clubs also?

 

[yakstorm]

Depends who you ask.

If you ask people in this section, they will tell you it could work if Nation based.

If you ask people in the club section, most will tell you they are only interested cause their club is there.

Everyone likes the international sides there, as it adds to the flavour of the event, and makes it a fun and interesting day, but if it could survive with international sides alone, I don't know.

 

[dimitri]

it certainly could

it just needs to be marketed well

it is also the best chance of australia continually getting beaten

nz, gb, fiji and many other nations im sure would go better against aus in 7s then what they would in the 13 a side version

im sure this would increase headlines and interest

 

[DIEHARD]

I think having the NRL teams gives it a good base and with the added international sides, it gives it a great international flavour. And they get to rub shoulders with the best league players in the world.

 

[ali]

We have the right balance with the NRL sides and nations up against each other. But this is crap from the RLIF and RFL. The sad thing is that a full strength England could win, and would go a long way to getting rid of their reputation in this country that English Rugby League is of a poor standard. Someone should start a petition about this. Many people would sign, as the poms are just as pissed off as we are.

Nothing against the famous club of Widnes, but they aren't going to make the tournament any more attractive.

 

[roopy]

The more the merrier I say.
I hope all 12 ESL sides eventually send out squads and we have 64 teams playing as high a standard as possible, with every fast and skillful player in the world getting a run.
I'd like to see it be like the Hong Kong sevens used to be where anybody from anywhere can put together a side and have a go.
It doesn't have to be Nations and it doesn't have to be clubs IMO. If John Singleton could convince clubs to lend him a dozen players from all over including maybe Cliff Lyons, Tricky Trindall and whoever else, and he entered them as a team from his local pub I wouldn't care, just so long as some good tries were scored.

 

[Jeffles]

64 teams is too big and too difficult.

Anyway, I agree with ali. NRL sides and the rest as nations. It is a good balance. NRL clubs bring in the fans, nations bring in the World feeling and give s the chance to develop RL internationally.

I've advocated a UK Sevens with RSL clubs and other nations.

dimitri, I think an Aussie Sevens side would still be on top of the world, similar to how we are now (save NZ and GB the odd time). We have big, fit and fast players. We'd easily beat Fiji's part timers.

 

[The Observer]

It is important that the competition is financially viable and builds up its supporter base and sponsorship etc, so Yakstorm is right when he says the clubs/international mix provides for a fun and interesting day ATM and will help it grow. However we have seen in the past that RL can stage tournaments of the short game and that international teams will bring supporters through the gate.

In 1997, the nations only World Nines attracted very respectable crowds of 12,000+ (Is the capacity of Dairy Farmers Stadium 30,000) on both days when the competition was staged slap bang in the middle of the Super League war AND staged on the same weekend as the ARL World Sevens in Sydney. No ARL players, not that many English based players too (except for the Great Britain team). People in Nth QLD had just watched Cowboys had won a whole 2 games from 22 in 1996.

In 1996 the World Nines attracted crowds of around 2500-4000 to a 12,000 capacity National stadium. The fact that there was heavy wind and rain, practically a cyclone didn't help. I have watched footage of the Australian Super League team taking on the USA Patriots at the time and I am surprised ANYONE was there given the weather.

I think the competition could work with a greater focus on representative teams. It was discussed in another thread.

http://www.leagueunlimited.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5518

In 1996 & 1997, Super League ran the World Nines competition in Suva and Townsville respectively. Only national teams took part, like in RU. Australia got dumped out in the semis twice in a row. Even Fiji and PNG managed to make the final in those years, and the Australian team was FULL of past and future rep players.

http://www.rugby-league-world.com/1997/Results/RepMatches/nines.html

http://users.hunterlink.net.au/~maajjs/res/wnines.htm

So the result would be no foregone conclusion.

The RLIF should be looking to gradually build towards inviting all international teams only. Of course, it may take a couple of years to build up the tournament though, but it will be an excellent way to show that RL is an international game and will be a vital development tool for RLWC.

If Sydney can attract 30,000+ people to see the Kangaroos take on the Kiwis and the Lions in test matches, the same fans could go to watch the Australian representative teams play in the short game against these teams and more?

The next step could be to replace the NRL club teams with Australian representative teams (say in 2005/2006):
* City and Country teams from both NSW and QLD
* the Aboriginal Dream team which would represent the indigenous people of Australia
* club team Melbourne Storm in order to give the World Sevens necessary exposure in Victoria.

The rep teams would get first pick of players, then the Storm, then the Dream Team. Australia's contribution would be reduced from 16 teams out of the 24 to 6.. The Warriors could be replaced by the NZ Kiwis and Aotearoa Maori.

Why the representative teams? People might still get the impression that the Kangaroos would be unbeatable at Sevens, but the inclusion of the rep teams make it seem far more open. Also, you could still promote a friendly rivalry between Australian supporters.

POOL
A - Sydney Origin, England, Russian Bears
B - NSW Country Origin, Wales, South African Rhinos
C - Brisbane Origin, France Chanticleers, USA Tomahawks
D - QLD Country Origin, PNG Kumuls, Ireland
E - Melbourne Storm, Mate Ma'a Tonga, Scotland
F - Aboriginal Dream Team, Fiji Bati, Italy
G - NZ Kiwis, Toa Samoa, Greece
H - Aotearoa Maori, Lebanon Cedars, QUALIFIER

QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT - from Cook Islands, Holland, Japan, Morocco, New Caledonia, Serbia & Montenegro, Australian Emerging States team, South Asia Bulls/West Indies Exiles/Nigeria/Argentina/Singapore

I'd put some teams up, but is there a way to put them up in Excel format (instead of putting a list line by line that fills the page)?

 

[Fampa]

I was quite happy with this years format. Why change it? I would have thought that England would have jumped at the chance to have a crack at a league title after the success of the rugby team. I mean, they got pretty close this year.

Is Widnes the best they've got to offer?

 

[In-goal]

the clubs are a very important part of the 7's as they hold the key to the fans, next years W7's will be watched buy even bigger crowds than this years and who knows were we go from there.

I don't have a problem with England not taking part as they are not a development nation, although i would have prefferd to see the Bradford Bulls the Widnes Vikings should compete well. I still remeber there WCC win in 89, hopefully they can sell a few jerseys at the event.

 

[griff]

I agree, the mix of clubs and developing nations is what makes the World Sevens so good.

It gives the event a great carnival atmosphere, and it's the only time you get Parramatta and Canterbury fans side by side both supporting Russia.

It is so successful that to turn it into a nations only event would be a risk that isn't really worth taking. I think it is better as it is, as it gives the average club only fan a re-introduction to international football.

The only problem is the qualifying tournament, which strikes me as a shocking waste. All these developing nations come all the way to Australia, yet only one gets into the World Sevens?

May as well have them all in the World Sevens, and rather than a few thousand people watch them at St Marys, they would get 30,000 at Aussie Stadium.

I think it would be better to have a bigger tournament, with more developing nations and more invitational teams - eg have the Army, Navy and Air Force field teams. Have the event take place on the 3 days over the Australia Day long weekend.