This is the key point.

The organisers weren't to know that Amor, Singleton, Philbin, McIlorum, McDonnell, LMS, Kay, King & Mullaly would put their hands up to play when they put together the format a couple of years ago following the European Cup (which none of the players named above played in).

They finished third in that European Cup, behind France & Wales, and are ranked around 8th.

The top 6 ranked sides are all in Groups A & B (whether those rankings are accurate or not, see my paragraph above).



International RL needs fixtures. Shoehorning our International game onto the end of our regular season for a month, and an odd mid-season friendly, is simply not good enough. Countries like Ireland & Tonga need regular games, and as many regular chances as possible vs the "big 3", in order to retain these players and build their ranking, fan base & their profile/brand.

We still have no idea what's happening in the International game from after the World Cup, to October 2021 when the next one kicks off. It's this reactive, last-minute, after-thought approach to International RL which renders it a joke.

Personally, I'd start by creating a three-week mid-season International break from the NRL & SL to free up the players. The Aussies can play their Origin series, and every other country under the administration of the RLIF & RLEF can play three tests. Perhaps using the Union "Autumn Internationals" model where one hemisphere travels one year, the other hemisphere travels the next.

Use the end of season for Tournaments/Qualifications/Tours.

E.g.
2017 World Cup
2018 Big 3 Tours/Tests & 5 Nations Groups/Qualification
2019 5 Nations (big 3 plus winners of Europe & Pacific)
2020 Big 3 Tours/Tests & World Cup Groups/Qualification
2021 World Cup

even more ireland players who didnt put their hand up to play for ireland in the euro cup at the time then ... no good moaning now is it... should have played back then and got the rewards now, they prob moaned about playing too many games though then!

It's going to get better from now on. We're at the business end of the tournament now. I for one am very excited by some of the upcoming matches and potential matches.

I'm really hoping for an Australia v NZ semi final and then an Australia v England final, and for both matches to be close. Please no one sided 40-0 type results. Unless it's England winning 40-0, in which case I shall make some allowances.

I need to look into the Premier Sports thing because BBC are only going to show one SF live and that's obviously going to be England. I want to watch the Aus v NZ match live too.

A smart move, PNG have some cracking players.

I suggested as much when the Hunters won the QLND Cup.....work visas are the issue though.

Paris is not a crazy idea. It is the national capital, and the centre of media and business. If you want to be noticed in French sport you must have a team in Paris. Now I know that this requires a business plan and a rich backer, and a competent front office, but that could happen if Toulouse is admitted to Super League and is successful. If that happened it would be a huge shot in the arm for French rugby league and over time for the national team. A competitive France is vital for a successful international game..

I think Super League must be diluted a little, with witless Widnes, and perhaps silly Salford, being relegated. The former doesn't have the player talent, and the latter doesn't have the fan base. Salford may not even have enough finances in the future. England can still draw on the same player pool if one or two of these clubs would be relegated. The few talented English players set free by Widnes or Salford will find work in the new expansion clubs.

Other than England been distinctly average and Ireland not being able to qualify despite deserving to...it’s been fantastic so far!

Tonga have been bloody great!
Fiji were good in the last World Cup and have been even better in this and could upset New Zealand.
PNG have improved massively.

Tonga v New Zealand was the best international rugby league game I’ve ever seen.

Tonga and PNG fans have made the tournament too

alas.......a few of them haven't been and they are making headlines here for all the wrong reasons. I hope the organisers and local council in Sth Auckland can arrange for a fan-zone for the predicted semi-final clash at Mt Smart between Tonga and England......which will be a full house

That's a big statement. It was a good game for sure and the best of this WC so far, however i thought the first half was no more than decent and it was probably in the way Tonga came back/NZ imploded that elevates the game. I don't know how far back you go, but i think i could go back through history and ping many better international games than that, particularly early 90's and the mal reilly GB era and ashes tests of that time...the kiwis have had some ding dong thrillers with OZ too for a while now, 2006 four nations final golden point thriller being a classic and WC semi of 2013 was an 80 minute belter.

Certainly the best performance for a team outside the big 3 ive seen though no doubt about that.

I agree. The second Test Australia vs Great Britain in 1990 was certainly one of the greatest internationals ever, and better than the NZ vs Tonga match, though the latter was excellent.

How lonely it must be sat in your squalid little bedsit cracking one out while staring at posters of Pamela Anderson and Jordan.

The even sadder thing is that you're clearly a grown man and not a 14yo boy trolling.



Lets not try and get around the swear filter please.

And posts like this just add fuel to his fire. Amazing that people still bite & fall for it.

Chatting to a couple of mates today at work ... I work in Sydney... and one (we were talking about the Socceroos) said ' there's supposed to be a World Cup going on at the moment too! But you wouldn't know it!!! Where are the games being played????


Marketing... what marketing???

Interesting to hear the Australian commentators talking about Mickey Mac over the weekend. They seemed full of praise for him leading the team forward. He even made a couplke of breaks.

Why would they target their marketing in Sydney when there's no games being played there? It'd be a huge waste of money.

The NSW Government couldn't be d bidding for any games, they were lucky to get the two Lebanon games.

To say that the majority of games have been played away from RL's heartlands, attendances have been decent, and TV audiences have been very good.

France could do with 2 teams in super league, catalans and Toulouse. and then an 8-10 team first division below that with pretty much a time teams, maybe two of those teams should be in a Paris or close to Paris. this with a long term 10 year plan, to redevelop the game over there.

But you need English rugby league to make it happen, why not improve the French RL organisation, then you can truly be proud of your adopted countries accolades.






For gods sake, grow the feck up you immature, childish individual.

236,294 over 21 games at 18 events is a shocking figure.....Townsville, home to the Grand Finalists saw 7,750 attend a double header there.....16,528 was the 2017 NRL season average for the Cowboys, yet less than half that number could be bothered.....the shoddy management and non existent marketing of this event will be brushed over with a few bumper crowds at the end, but the reality is that Australia shouldn't be let anywhere near hosting such an event ever again.....currently tracking 10% down on 2013 crowds in a country supposedly "mad about league"?
Seriously.... Canberra saw 400 more fans that we got in Limerick 2013........that is shocking for the home of an NRL side.......it is impossible to defend the indefensible and that's what the Australian attendances at this world cup are...119,700 attending 14 games for an 8,550 average.

I keep hearing about the lack of marketing, but i'm curious to know what people mean by this. We live in the internet age and it's easier than ever for people to access and spread information. If someone isn't aware of the world cup, I can only assume they wouldn't be interested in it anyway. And just because people aren't interested, it doesn't mean that they're not aware of something.

TV ratings have been strong – the World Cup opener in Melbourne between England and Australia pulled in 1.4 million viewers, the highest-rating league game this year outside of the NRL grand final and state of origin.

RLWC 2013 Achieved an average attendance that was 16,374 and some 7,400 or 81% higher than that of the 2013 Superleague.......by contrast, the NRL average is 15k and the current RLWC gates are 11,252 or 25% LOWER than the domestic season average.
Why did they bid for the right to host this comp?

Cairns? What were they thinking? Remember, the Aussies whined about Limerick yet they managed to get a lower gate this year...3 games at an average of 4,508.
Townsville? 3 games at an average of 4,278.....unforgivable given the Cowboys average there.
Melbourne for the opener? They took SoO there in 2015 and got 90K+........yet they couldn't even fill a stadium 1/3 of that.......
Canberra? 3 games including a home test match for the Kangaroos and yet still only 8,172 as an average....the Raiders averaged more than the Roos game achieved.
Without the PNG and NZ games this RLWC would be heading for a lower total than 2008.......the Aussies just haven't bothered and whilst TV figures are good, they do nothing to change perception that this is the 3rd level of comp as far as the Okers are concerned.

Marketing isn't about preaching to the converted, it's about informing a new audience of what's going on and inviting them to attend.....something that the organisers of 2013 did brilliantly and which the organisers of 2017 have failed to do at all! Information being freely available online isn't marketing.

If NZ somehow beat the Roos in the semi-final, we'll be lucky to see 25,000 at the final.....whereas the Final for pretty much every other sporting world cup is sold out before the opening game.....but no doubt the million + watching on TV will be rolled out as how Rugby mad the Aussies are

Do attendances matter? The tournament could still make more money than the last one with better sponsorship and money taken away from the gate. What are the aims of the world cup?

I think its a great idea to take it somewhere else, i don't even care where, i'm bored with it, its stupid, i just want to get xmas over & done with so we can start looking forward to next years competition, oh yeah, & the cricket, i'm looking forward to the cricket

Whats this "Oker" thing? it sounds Dutch

I can only go from my own experience, but Tonga played Italy in Halifax in the 2013 World Cup. The game was a sell-out, with 10,266 in attendance. Fax struggled to reach 2,000 for their games that season. My perception was that the majority of the crowd were local people (not many would travel far to watch Tonga vs Italy) that had never been to a game of rugby league before (and probably haven't since either). The game was marketed locally quite strongly (posters and in the local rag) and wouldn't have been such a success otherwise. Some would have been erstwhile rugby supporters who still follow the game but don't regularly attend matches, but a lot would have just turned up through curiosity.

Sadly, none of them seemed to enjoy the experience enough to turn up to watch Fax in 2014.

The good thing is that the world cup gets better every time now.
The next world cup will be better than this one, and this one is better than the last one, and the last one was better than the one before.
The one after next is a bit of a risk, but 8 years from now we should be able to put on a good show in North America.