Looks like the NRL have made the decision www.theroar.com.au/2016/06/17/ru ... challenge/

Looks like the NRL have made the decision www.theroar.com.au/2016/06/17/ru ... challenge/

After 2 f£cking years. Little wonder the sport is as small as it is.

The article doesn't make it clear whether it is scaling down to just two teams or whether it is two teams per league so four teams in total, it actually says that in the article cos the article is just commentating on what someone else said so we will just have to see.

If it is true then it is just another example of rugby league's inability to stick anything out and let it develop so nothing new really and I aren't that surprised to be honest.

Seems to me that a few years back the games were a genuine contest, however the results turned out. But the poor displays by SL teams (including mine) since the expansion of the WCC have dealt it a body blow. From the Aussies' point of view,why should they bother with it? It's a walk in the park for their sides.

I agree there is very little intensity in Superleague compared to the NRL, we can also say the quality of player is still falling in Superleague. If we judge the performance of the 2 top teams in Hull and Warrington last week they would have probably be closer to the bottom 2 in the NRL.
Shame really it was a good concept but the Aussie sides this year were just using it as a pre season warm up game built into there training schedule, think it was Robinson who made the comment on how they treated the WCC.

But much like the international scene, if we don't stick with it it's never going to grow.
The results in 2015 proved we can compete. As did the previous WCC results for a long time previously.

Yet again, the Aussies shortsighted insularity holds the game back.

Sod them we will take on the French the welsh the Scots the Irish at least we might win then

The gap between the NRL and SL is a chasm and sadly that chasm is widening.

The WCC in its current guise serves no purpose apart from exposing our top SL clubs and the SL competition as a whole to ridicule.

Correct decision IMHO if true.

Don't often agree with you but, you're right on this one.

We were very good against the Aussie clubs when they were still in pre season, had to travel halfway round the world and treated the games as friendlies.
Now, we have expanded the fixtures, the Aussies have taken the games far more seriously and they have begun treating the fixtures more seriously, The result of this is that, we can all see the difference in the standard of the two hemispheres.
Clearly, the Aussie clubs are better.
If we are to continue with an expanded competition, it should be a round robin competition with a clear winner, instead of 3 "random" fixtures, which ateotd are nothing more than cash generators, albeit a good thing for us to see some great Aussie teams.

In 2016 the Aussie teams overall were significantly better, in 2015 they weren't.

We're ditching a concept after 1 years results. It's Rugby League battedry at its finest.

Dead right. But I would leave the showpiece event as champions v champions.

But I would send the 2 bottom NRL clubs (15&16th place) to play SL 2nd and 3rd best teams.

If we can beat those the year after they send the teams in 13th&14th.

Why ?

Stick with Champions vs Champions
What does anyone gain and what is the concept of 2nd & 3rd in SL playing an even more meaningless fixture.

The idea of the top 3 of SL vs the top 3 of the NRL was ridiculous to begin with. Should always be champions vs champions and I'm glad it's being reduced. There'd be less embarrassing score lines for a start.

To develop the concept.

Yawn. The original "concept" was fine as it is. No need for additional fixtures that are utterly meaningless.

They mean clubs can earn an extra game's gate receipts

How is the concept "developed" by having Champions vs Champions (which I agree with but then, playing 2nd and 3rd against lower and lower ranked Aussie clubs ?
This renders meaningless fixtures even more meaningless, absolute utter nonsense.

The concept just about hangs together if we have 1st vs 1st, 2nd vs 2nd and 3rd vs 3rd. However, it appears that the Aussies are not too keen on this so we just make up some extra games and pretend that they are significant ??

IF we are serious it has to be the top 3 clubs from each comp or, reduce to champions vs champions

Yeah, who needs two commercially successful fixtures that attract 15,000-20,000 crowds? If there is anything the sport doesn't need right now, it's events that showcase the sport's best players and encourage people to spend money on RL.

You said "to develop the concept" and not "to generate cash".
Money coming into the game is never a bad thing. However, the concept is flawed and our wealthy relations in Aus don't share our view of the "concept".

Whilst I agree with you that ideally it should be 1, 2, 3 v 1, 2, 3 or Champs v Champs, rather than 2 and 3 v random whoever can be bothered to show up I did enjoy Warrington's game against St George in 2015 despite our spurious route into playing in it as well as the other games.

Apart from making up fixtures for the sake of it I would like a two or three game format as you suggest, does anyone think that it would be viewed or contested differently if the games came at the end of the season say two weeks after the GF rather than the following February?

It must give these matches the chance of becoming the sport's pinnacle rather than an odd fixture that throws your pre season out of kilter?. The Leeds team that played this year was different to the team that got it there

Other than the money, fans and profile it brought to the game.

Money to the game? Not really. I doubt Barrow or Doncaster will have benefitted from it.

Fans? Yes there has been a huge uprise in attendances across the game (not).

Profile? Anyone outside of RL will have no idea what the WCC is.

The original gimmick was fine. No need to make it even more daft and embarrassing for English RL.

3 days in a row we got proper coverage on both BBC and Sky News. We only get that for a World Cup.

Shame that the logistics are too complicated to have the winners v winners in October, the closed season, with comings and goings are no true reflection of the winning sides.

Barrow and Doncaster don't encompass the length and breadth of the game
over 60,000 people watched those three games.

combined viewing figures of nearly a million live and hundreds of thousands watched highlights.

or just make English RL less embarrassing.