Has been suggested by the RFL! www.rlfans.com/index.php?fid=41&id=238

Has been suggested by the RFL! www.rlfans.com/index.php?fid=41&id=238

Wouldn't go beyond the top 3-4 in SL or it would be embarrassing. At the moment I'd only back Wigan, Saints, Warrington and Leeds to put in a decent showing over a couple of games and even then they'd lose more than they'd win.

Super League is still behind the NRL. On a simple level, just look at the physical difference between Manly and Leeds on Friday - every Leeds forward looked skinny and underweight compared to their opposition. That they won is testament to Manly's poor preparation and rustiness, and Leeds' outstanding line defence - but no team can overperform like that every week. Look at the ease with which Manly players could make yards and how often Leeds struggled to put the man down. Look at how easily and quickly they spread the ball wide and made yards when they eventually got their act together - it was at a standard and pace not often seen in SL.

Leeds were outstanding on Friday and I'm chuffed they won, but against a fit and sharp Manly it would have been a different game.

I'm all for expansion of the international club game but let's not send an average SL team over there who's managed to scrape a top 6 finish like lambs to the slaughter.

Waste of time trying to expand it IMO the aussies don't need the WCC they don't even take it seriously, it's the english game that needs the aussies for more exposure not the other way round because the game over there is already big enough so I can't ever see them really embracing the concept

Could you expand on the “don't even take it seriously” point please, the Manly team flew half way around the world and put out their best available team so why were they not taking it seriously? Or was it that the players weren’t trying?

Anyway, back to the point in question – top 4 teams would work well I think as it would be competitive

Week 1

NRL 1st vs. SL 4th
NRL 2nd vs. SL 3rd
NRL 3rd vs. SL 2nd
NRL 4th vs. SL 1st

Then winners into week 2 and then a final. There could be 3rd and 4th place play off’s and even 5 through 7 if more games were required

RL is a big sport in Australia but they compete with both soccer and RU and both of these play up their international element. The ARL are so desperate to create an international element to their sport they create some ridiculous hybrid of Aussie Rules and Gaelic Football – the NRL would be very short sighted to turn down an increased international element to RL

The fact that the game is always played over here tells you alot about who has the bigger need/want for the WCC to be played. Unfortunately the game will always be seen as a glorified warm up game by the aussies, I wouldn't mind knowing what sort of audience watched it in Australia

Which is why Manly wanted to play it down under and it's Leeds who wanted it over here then?

I reckon the 2 Grand finalists should go into the WCC along with the highest ranked team from the regular season.

Winners of the GF's go straight to the semi-finals.

The other 4 play off in the 1/4 final.

Winners into the semi-final.

This is how it would look if it was done this year...

Week 1 -
St Helens v New Zealand
Warrington v Melbourne

Draw takes place for the semi-finals to see who will play who (or the first international club call)



Week 2 -
Leeds v Semi-final draw
Manly v Semi-final draw

Week 3 -
Final
Leeds v Manly?

I hope this doesn't happen. My interest is stretched enough for one game.

The danger with having any more than a one-off is that the final will end up being contested by two Aussie teams. The entire interest comes from it being GB v Aus. I'd even be worried by having a four-team competition.

has this not bean done before and was it not 6 teams that died a death

Bad idea, we already have too many games

Unless we drop something else

I would like to see 4 teams from the SL and NRL. I actually think there are 5 sides in SL who could at least compete but 8 teams would be enough. I think Sky would love something like this but getting Australia behind it would be difficult due to calander arrangements and more important is getting them to believe this would be competitive.

Superleague isnt really given much credibility in Australia.

I seem to remember the owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs touting a top 4 from each comp meeting in a WCC comp in Vegas. Has its attractions

I don't see why the WCC can't be taken to another country such as the USA, and include the All Stars rules like the power play. I think the Yanks would enjoy it. I thought the All Stars match was brilliant.

Just on Manly, don't underestimate how strong their pack is. Watch their finals game against the Storm to see them monster a reasonably good NRL pack. Leeds' game hasn't been built around a big pack in all the years we've been champions. I do agree that SL fans generally tend to underestimate just how physical NRL sides can be though.

As for expansion of the WCC, even in concept you couldn't possibly go past 4/5 SL sides against any NRL teams. The lower half of SL really is very poor in comparison.

Having said that, from what I've seen of SL so far this season, there seems to be more structure to some of the attacking play than sometimes in the past - a lot of dummy dunners and good attacking lines giving halfbacks plenty of options. The top end of SL looks a lot better than it did even 3 years ago.

I did an article on this for southstander! leeds.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=1758 Having it in Las Vegas would be great exposure for our game.

I did an article on this for southstander! leeds.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=1758 Having it in Las Vegas would be great exposure for our game.

Is the expnsion of the WCC to promote the game in new non RL areas or to allow genuine competition beteen the top sides from the 2 major RL playing nations ?
If the comp is held in Vegas or Dubai, then this precludes the regular RL fans, but may bring in new sponsors fans from other countries.
Also the RFL would be coining in the folding green stuff and they should really think abouth where to invest their new found wealth.
I believe that our game, below Super League, is is danger and more needs to be done to help the national leagues and assuming the regular season format is changed to accommodate
the expanded competition, all but the top 4 clubs will lose a slice of their revenue, which over time will damage our domestic competition.

Both!! It would be a real money spinner for our game that could massively improve Grassroots and National Leagues!!

I'm good with that, but suspect that the grass roots would not benifit that much.
Our game seems to be going down the same path as football, where the top clubs play ever more lucrative games and the rest try and catch up and realistically this will never happen.
The teams in the National leagues are in danger of stagnation.

I am for an expanded WCC but it would have to not increase the total number of games in the season otherwise it will be short lived due to player burn out.

My preference would be a shortened league season. 27 games is far too many games for a league determined by a top 8 playoff. Usually we have a pretty good idea after 20 games who the better teams are. Games in the last couple of months in the season can become predictable. You would also think that the Magic Weekend is dying a slow death so that could free up a week.

Another one of my pet hates it that we only have two openly contested trophies these days. The remaining non qualifying teams could play in a second knockout tournament (the league cup perhaps) maybe something like the regional group stage format of the old Northern Rail Cup. Restriction on international players could be added to give England players a proper off season.

Both cups could be played at either end of the year. The WCC at the end of the season would link the domestic and international seasons together very well. While playing at the beginning somewhere warm would allow us to start the Superleague in March/April when we do not need to deal with all the frost and snow.

Yes 1997 all british/aussie clubs took part played over 6 rounds in both hemispheres.

No British club got beyond quarter final. Brisbane beat Hunter Mariners in final

1997 will live long in the memory



This was an expanded WCC which was organised in such a way that 4 Super League sides were to qualify for the Quarter Finals no matter how poor their results were. Consequently, St Helens and Bradford embarrassingly qualified for the QF's despite losing 6 out of 6 games against Australian sides. London Broncos qualified on the basis of 1 win out of 6 and Wigan on the basis of 2 wins out of 6.

By contrast, Penrith were eliminated and didn't qualify for the QF's despite winning 6 out of 6. Neither did Canberra with a 5 wins out of 6 record, or Canterbury with a 4 out of 6 win record.

I don't think there's any need to embarrass ourselves again with another expanded WCC.

If they can find a way of making this work then I think its a good idea. If you look at sports like football and union they're international game is popular because of club competitions like the Heineken cup and the champions league. A competition like this can only be good for the game.

All our European teams play in the CC, there just aren't enough good French teams at present.

I like it. Wire, Wigan, Saints and Hudds. The others couldn't compete.