1) I've been thinking, should there be a world cup for rugby league? now i do love the game, it's my joint favourite sport with cricket. but I'm not sure if there should be a world cup for rugby league (at the moment) because there's only 3 teams that have a chance of winning it (AUS,ENG and NZL). they should leave it until a lot more teams are competitive enough to play in it, and i know that'll take a long time but that needs to happen, by putting a lot of money into developing rugby league countries. they might as-well call it the tri nations. and probably the 2 teams that'll be in the final are AUS and ENG (based on GB victory over NZL in the test series last year) and AUS will probably hammer us.

 

2) will it be as bad as the 2000 world cup? (i didn't watch it but i heard it was dreadful(i didn't watch it because i was only 7/8 years old)). or will it just be a competition that no one cares about. I don't understand why a lot more people watch club league more than club union but don't watch international league (I'm on about the UK) . i hope a lot of people will watch it and realize what a great sport it is and start loving it MORE THAN FOOTBALL/SOCCER! (UK again and i hate FOOTBALL/SOCCER!).

Thanks people, looking forward to some replies :) 

i thing how they put the three best teams in the same group was good so there wont be smashings and the other groups look hard to pick i thing it could be one of the best rugby league world cups,i can see what you sayin but that 2000 world cup they lost alot of money the crowds were down and nearly every game was are blow out or smashin if u dont no what that means lol i thing they have fixed it with how the groups look lets just hope us aussies come out and surport it:)

 i still thing kiwis should play state of origin so then they dont hav to choose so then new zealand would be are stronger force and as you can see in the nrl and super league not 1 team doesent have atleast 1 kiwi or islander

an yeah i cant stand soccer to but least here league is bigger hehe accept for afl (dumbest sport)

alex its a debate we have had on here and other forums before.

1. yes there should be a world cup. Its a celebration of the sport and all it stands for, if all other sports can do it then I why can't we. You say only 3 teams can win it, well that is 30% of the teams competing, if you look at the Rugby (20 teams) and soccer world cups (32) there is only about 5 and 8-10 teams that realistically can win them, which is about 30%, there rest are there to have the chance to compete against the best on the best stage... so I think that its a non argument. Personally for any WC more than 12-16 teams is ludicrous, it relaly does make for a pretty dire tournament whith the other two have shown in the past. I think the cirrent RLWC format is right for this time round. Plus there were 20 teams involved all up for the qualifying. now RL is maybe not as international as soccer, but we are still international, ~40 countries playing the sport with ~25 having domestic comps is nothing to be sniffed at. It brings a warm feeling to the heart knowing that this year on any given weekend I can go to nearly any European country and see a game of RL.

2. It wont be as bad as 2000 it will be a success. I think the 2000 WC hickup (and it was ASAIK) was compounded by two main reasons, not enough marketing and terrible weather. This one already at least has had some marketing going, though I think there should be more, but the most important thing is that its aready broken even with finaces due to sponsorship, so the RLIF is not loosing money on it. The fans comming through the gates etc... will be providing profit which should end up going into the lower tier nations for funding. Still having said that the 2000 WC did produce some spectacular games. The Aus v Wales semi was a cracker, with wales really giving the RL a real shake.

The whole club thing with RL is just a fact of history and geaography really. Its not that surprising, and not really a bad thing. RL developed relatively late in comparison to soccer and Union, and its hearland was in the industrial areas of northern England, so the players worked in the mined and didn't travel much. The spread of the sport stayed like that till the NZ and Aussie touring sides of 1906-7. Soccer had many of its base already in the ports and so the deckhands (working class) when they travelled across the shores would have a impromptue game of soccer the locals would see it, find its easy to play and take it on. The upper class the officers would tend to play RU. So it spread therough the upper classes. RL stayed where it was, but what it did breed was a real sense of place for the players, a pride and tribalism that I think is very rarely emmularted anywhere else in the world. RL in the UK and Aus still holds the record for some of the largest crowds in sport.

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yes it's 30% but don't we want more teams to be more competitive and shouldn't they expand it to like 16 teams in the tournament?

alex_hardy:

yes it's 30% but don't we want more teams to be more competitive and shouldn't they expand it to like 16 teams in the tournament?

One day yes, but at the moment I think they got it right. see how things go in 5 years time, but I'll suspect we'll go to 12 teams and then 16. If a real proper international calendar is set that allows teams to have games they help them develop then definitely we could go to 16 teams, but that means that only about 5 teams would have realistic chance.

As it is i think 5 have a real chance of getting it, If what I saw last year France definitely has to be in there as a contender and PNG as your dark horse. I think you will fiond things will be quite close this world cup and not as uncompetitive as people think.

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Druzik:

alex_hardy:

yes it's 30% but don't we want more teams to be more competitive and shouldn't they expand it to like 16 teams in the tournament?

One day yes, but at the moment I think they got it right. see how things go in 5 years time, but I'll suspect we'll go to 12 teams and then 16. If a real proper international calendar is set that allows teams to have games they help them develop then definitely we could go to 16 teams, but that means that only about 5 teams would have realistic chance.

As it is i think 5 have a real chance of getting it, If what I saw last year France definitely has to be in there as a contender and PNG as your dark horse. I think you will fiond things will be quite close this world cup and not as uncompetitive as people think.

Yeh never discount France or PNG, both will have great sides full of ESL and NRL players plus the best from the home domestic comps which are both strong. In saying that the other 5 teams will be strong too, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji will have some talented NRL and ESL players there aswell as the best natives. Scotland and Ireland have many stars playing in the ESL and NRL. Scotland have the likes of Brough, Heckenberg, MacGillivray and many more, McManus from the Knights, Logan from the Raiders, too many to name. On ireland they have been scouting players and the uncovered some great players who are eligable, Pat Richards has confirmed and there are several players eligable like Jarrad Hickey. Chris Bridge, Simon Grix, Gavin Clinch, Brett White and many more. I think Ireland and France will contest the SFQ, and IMO France will be favorites but Ireland will have a great side so it's a toss up, luckily I'll be at the great looking Skilled Park to see it all go down. Even if it's Samoa V Fiji or Scotland V Tonga I'll Be Happy.

OOOPS! i forgot to say number 3) do you think that anybody in the UK will watch it like they did for the RU world cup?and do you think it will be more popular outside the heartlands after this?? because i think it's way more exciting and better than soccer/football.

note: England football is starting to go down hill because of promotion and relegation. i hope that footballers realize that another sport is better than theirs.I am glad the rfl have decided to get rid of the promotion and relegation because it slowly damages the international game (look at the franchise system in the NRL and then look at australia!(amazing!!) then look at the premier league for football and then look at England soccer/football(rubbish!!)). and i think that the rfl are looking closely at football and seeing what's going wrong and the rfl are avoiding the mistakes that football is trying to hide. 

Who agrees?? :) 

3. Well not sure how many watched the RU WC, the final was big, but i think the other games did not have that large a TV following. The rule of thumb is what ever TV numbers the RU use divide by 10 and thats closer to the actual figure :D... around the forums its known as the Union Calculator. ANYWAY yes I think it will have a much larger following as the RLWC this year is the only competition where England are competeing. they have failed in all other codes. But the RFL needs to get out and promote it like hell.

English soccer is going down for other reasons I think. The P&R system works well for soccer but not league, just because of the nature of the sport, I used to think it great as well, till I saw what it was really like in the UK. I think they have the franchising right there now. But the main issue with Soccer, not only in the UK but Europe in general, is that in each country you have a few clubs with ALL the money, ALL the talent and ALL the trophies and there are highly over paid, overrated pre-madonas. Intrest is waining becasue just no one can compete with that... and in england especially many fans are switching to the rugby codes because the games and the competitions are more like what the EPL used to be. The clubs at least care about the fans. The soccer clubs have lost this. Even in France many are switching to the rugby's for the same reason.

 RL just needs to get on the wider TV channels in Europe to thrive. Not sure what the external forces are that stop this.

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and finally ( maybe not...lol) do you think that people will go away from soccer/football and follow rugby league because it is a better sport? football/soccer is ***!!!  i hate it  RL gets no media attention and even the Dwaine chambers one wasn't that big and even 3-6 soccer games would be bigger than it ( that's  what the media think)  why doesn't RL get as much media attention as other sports like RU (more people watch RL!!) or soccer/football??

 quote

 "and in england especially many fans are switching to the rugby codes because the games and the competitions are more like what the EPL used to be. The clubs at least care about the fans. The soccer clubs have lost this. Even in France many are switching to the rugby's for the same reason."

I don't think that's happening...?? 

The latest news in oz would be that papua new guinea want to get into the nrl by 2016, they are going all out to acheive this which is good for the sport, the oz government has giving them some funding for the sport and the only problem for them is the immagration and quarutine laws, these will have to be relaxed over the next few years for this to happen, but i can see this happening with further trade with P.N.G. They have some fantastic talent over there and the tigers often recruit them.

alex_hardy:

and finally ( maybe not...lol) do you think that people will go away from soccer/football and follow rugby league because it is a better sport? football/soccer is ***!!!  i hate it  RL gets no media attention and even the Dwaine chambers one wasn't that big and even 3-6 soccer games would be bigger than it ( that's  what the media think)  why doesn't RL get as much media attention as other sports like RU (more people watch RL!!) or soccer/football??

 quote

 "and in england especially many fans are switching to the rugby codes because the games and the competitions are more like what the EPL used to be. The clubs at least care about the fans. The soccer clubs have lost this. Even in France many are switching to the rugby's for the same reason."

I don't think that's happening...?? 

You based in UK or Oz alex? many of the wires I see comming through Europe certainly express a disgruntledness in the UK and France. I am not including germany or Spain in here becasue they seem not to have the rediculous kinds of player fees that the UK does and despite Germany's national team playing a "boring" style of football, their club teams generally are regrded as some of the more exciting, so it certyainly strong there. But many fans are in the UK and france are sick of the fact that their associations are going after only the big bucks and neglecting the fans, for instance the EPL recently saying they'll take matches overseas... a huge outcry was heard in the UKL and the FA ignored the fans. M<any soccer jurnos are comming out in their papers and ststing publically they have switched to watching the ESL. If you believe the sky figures, RL is about 2-3x the RU viewers and only lacking by a few 10,000 from EPL matches, we are taliing around 300,000 viewers per match here.

The SL clubs at the moment shoot themselves in the foot a bit with antiquated stadiums, many will tell you that St' helens and the old Salford grounds are terribble, with the Franchising this will help one hopes. Leeds is a great example, big stadium, over 20,00 can get in and they regularly get 18,000 coming out to games. One other issue RL has, and its an unfortunate outcome of the fact its such a great game is that its spectacular on TV. Soccer is not. You are better off going and watching a live game of soccer than seeing it on TV. Where as RL is fantastic live or on TV. You need to convince people to come out of their houses and pubs and into the grounds to watch the games. RU does this to a degree, they market their games not as games but as events... many RU fans will tell you they dont do to games for the match but for the fact its an event to bee seen at.

Look amny other reason why RL in europe does not get a large circulation, some due to external others due to internal... many topics and threads on forums about this. The best forum I have found on where there is a great mix of not only aussie fans, UK fans, but international RL fans and RU fans but objective ones is on http://www.totalrl.com/forums its the Rugby league world magazine forum... you will learn heaps on there... but try not to get sucked into some of the personal gun slinging that occassionaly happens.

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where do you find these figures(if you can then give me a web site that i can check regularly)?and there needs to be more money put into the game,for stadiums etc. and there should be more coverage of the ESL on sky sports because if ESL figures are  10,000 behind the EPL then why isn't there as much coverage? but i think the world cup should be shown on normal TV (BBC,ITV,CHANNEL 4 AND FIVE) because  more people will watch it (look at the ashes,cricket series of 2005,everyone got into it) like they did with union on ITV. i do find that annoying that its on sky,they should've given it to BBC and provided the commentators!!! 

and btw I'm from the UK. 

alex_hardy:

where do you find these figures(if you can then give me a web site that i can check regularly)?and there needs to be more money put into the game,for stadiums etc. and there should be more coverage of the ESL on sky sports because if ESL figures are  10,000 behind the EPL then why isn't there as much coverage? but i think the world cup should be shown on normal TV (BBC,ITV,CHANNEL 4 AND FIVE) because  more people will watch it (look at the ashes,cricket series of 2005,everyone got into it) like they did with union on ITV. i do find that annoying that its on sky,they should've given it to BBC and provided the commentators!!! 

and btw I'm from the UK. 

http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/weekreports.cfm?report=weeklytop30&requesttimeout=500&flag=viewingsummary

You can choose which week ending you want.

So week ending 16 March

Sky Sports 1, at #3 Gillet soccer saturday at 378,000, #9 Live super league at 203,000

Sky Sports 2, at #1 UEFA Champions League 1,395,000 (no surprises there), at #4 Live Super League 129,000, at #8 Rugby Union Premiership 87,000

Sky Sports 3, at #2 Rugby Union 64,000

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Ok thanks :) but i just think that the RFL/RLIF won't promote it enough to make people watch it (in England). and when the world cup is over and if England do win it then nobody will care and it won't get any media attention (i bet if you ask anybody "do you know there's a rugby league world cup this year?" i bet they would say no, i'm talking about asking anybody who doesn't really follow the sport) . if nobody watches the England friendlies against France (June) and Ireland (August or October...?) then how do you expect them to watch the world cup?

i know this sounds weird but i'll be quite annoyed if it doesn't get any media attention and if nobody cares because it's the greatest game in the world. i can see why it's Australia's national sports :) 

I think because its a world cup people will watch. Anyone who follows league will watch for sure, and the games will be very tight and close, so the interest will continue through till the end. It gives people more of a idea of how much faster and harder rugby league is, the good thing about this world cup hopefully will be the crowds will be good and the games will flow. This all equates to good rugby league. The n.r.l has been the best i have seen and the super league is becoming just as good, with the standard on show you will get many more followers, even if its only by watching on t/v.