With you all the way until the last sentence! I like singing about 1955 at the HJ...

So the NRL clubs have now come out openly and said that they do not any of their players to participate in RLWC21. So that effectively rules out the Indigenous Nations and the Maoris and means that any player deciding to participate by representing say, Tonga or Samoa will do so against the will of their employer and without their employer’s support. I can’t see too many players wanting to run that risk. So I am now guessing that RLWC21 is a dead duck!

Yes it's game over now I think. Only question looks to be whether it's a postponement or cancellation.

Yes! Neither is a good option for us in the UK. Postponement to next year would mean competing with the football world cup for TV and other media time in the UK and would only benefit the Southern hemisphere nations as it would get top line media attention there. It’s no wonder the Australians want to push it back as they will probably win it anyway. I was a strong advocate of going ahead without the so called big two on the basis that we could get good representation for Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea. But now I think the only sensible thing to do is to cancel.

Why would we be competing with the soccerball WC?. Theirs will be June/July, ours October/November.

It's played in Qatar this time round so will be start in mid November.

One thing I'd be saying to the NRL/ARL if I was the RLWC board - if you're so committed to the international game as you and the 'gospel' Phil Gould like to claim - play it in June/July 2022. No football world cup, PL season finished, football grounds available, easier for broadcasters.

That’s not a bad suggestion but there is no way the NRL (or the Superleague bosses) would allow that to happen in the middle of their season but, ironically, that is exactly what the richest soccer clubs are having to do next year in order to accommodate the soccer world cup.

The difference is, of course, that FIFA, is much bigger than any one league or nation whereas, in rugby league, the IRL plays second fiddle to the NRL.

Wendyball WC only starts the week of our final (were they to knock it back exactly a year)
There’s an easy solution...just bring it forward a week next year.
People will be pratting about with flags anyway, market it to ‘get them up early’
Sell it as back to back world cups....watch England in England etc.
If done correctly you’d get a huge amount of football and general sports fans interested piggybacking on football hysteria in the media!

We are talking about a FIFA World Cup, probably the biggest sporting event in the world and one taking place less than 18 months after England made it to the final of the Euros and will be considered one of the teams likely to win it. The build up in the press and media will likely begin as soon as the 2021/22 Premier League season ends and carry on through the first stages of the following football season. If we held our WC in 2022 we could win the thing and still struggle to make the back pages/main stories as nothing but the FIFA tournament will matter to the press and other media or to the public at large at that stage. It has to be this year for our WC or it won't happen at all.

Cant help but feel it won't go ahead this years notice on the bcc site the NRL clubs support the stance of postponement and even Dutton now seems to be wavering on it going ahead, i just hope the end comes quickly and it isn't dragged on its time for a yes or no.

It is absolutely what I would be doing. If this is about Covid as they like to claim and it obviously is (I’m taking the mick), I would say let’s play this thing in mid season in July, when we’ll be in our summer and the chances are that our Covid rates will be at their lowest and we can get this comp on with player safety right at the forefront of our minds. We don’t need to extend the seasons then and they can still get a good off season rest in at the end of 2022.

It’s a no brainer for the NRL top brass, well it is if we take them at face value regards their current concerns.

I wouldn't pay too much heed to that article as if it is them backing the ARLC. Obviously they agree with the decision as it was their idea to do it. With some of the stuff coming out of the NRL, ARLC and NZRL in the last few days if one of them told me I was on fire I'd seek a second opinion. The NRL are overtly pressuring players to do what the NRL want and turn down their nations if selected. I think Jon Dutton is preparing us for the possibility of the Aussie hierarchy's misinformation and implied threats to players outdoing the IRL's efforts to secure the players' participation in the RLWC.

This is nothing at all to do with Covid, it is the NRL attempting to throw their weight around and to gain control of international RL.

I wondered if I was missing something in this taking us closer to the edge but isn’t this the NRL clubs backing the decision the NRL clubs made last week? Basically the ARL and NZRL took their instruction from the NRL big wigs, let us stew for a week and as we threaten going over the top of them to invite Maori and Aboriginal teams in to the comp, they come back with a statement from all the clubs.

That July World Cup should solve it all anyway.

I just can't see anything happening, and that is a very depressing thought.

NRL games postponed this weekend, which will give them even more justification. They will probably try to extend their season to fit in the 3 (three) postponed games this weekend.

Reading that the England Cricket team are having serious thoughts about the Ashes over there. That would cause an absolute meltdown in their press

only due to the aussies not letting their families go with them like they always have done

That's exactly what it is, the NRL clubs are saying they agree with the decision that they got the ARLC to announce for them last week. They are are agreeing with themselves and using this statement to put further pressure on players whom had been putting their hands up to play for other national teams or as part of Indigenous/Maori teams.

The WC should absolutely not be moved as that would be giving them what they want. They will only weasel out of a delayed tournament anyway. They cannot be trusted.

I honestly don’t see the NRL wanting the players to tour here for the next 5+ years, so I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them on putting it back to next year. One way or another we’ll probably need to work out a way of going over the top of them if internationals are to continue in this country in that period.

So RLWC21 has finally decided to postpone the competition until 2022. At least we know who runs global rugby league now. Even the UK government accepts defeat. Only one thing can make me feel remotely happy about this and that is to win the mens competition next year ….. if indeed it does go ahead. As an RL nation we have been embarrassed.

Then they should firm up some dates next year ASAP, and say to the Aussie and NZ authorities, will you commit here and now to full access to all NRL players for the World Cup. If they are going to (effectively) force the rest of the world to postpone, the least they can do is to offer some kind of guarantee that further objections won't be made next year, as a gesture of goof faith.

Summer 2022. After the commonwealth games. That should be the date. We should not be considering in any way going up against, or going close to the FIFA World Cup. What should have been, and still could be, a promising tournament would be a mere footnote in the media.

But I’ll bet my bottom dollar if we did that the NRL would have a hissy fit. Funny that.

The game here doesn’t have the balls to call for a UK summer World Cup next year unfortunately but in the words of Kevin Keegan “I’d love it, love it” if they did. It’ll be the safest time most likely with schools out and the Aussie players should be able to spend more time outdoors in the decent weather (maybe), which will be fabulous for their mental health and general well being and that’s what this is all about yeah?!

Honest truth-I’ve given up on the World Cup or any internationals involving the Aussies and probably Kiwis over here for five plus years. They won’t come in 2022, not a chance IMO. The only way it’s a possibility is to get them tied in to a water tight contract they can’t get out of, whereby they’re liable for millions if they pull out again.

They’re as likely come over in Summer as they are to sign that mate but joking aside I completely agree. RL’s decline has an awful lot to do with their (NRL) half heartedness towards the international game - I mean what is it 4/5 tests each since 2017? And some Aussie on Fox has the cheek to say they care about international RL? They’re so hypocritical and ironic that they’re beyond a joke.

The really sad part of it all is that after that World Cup here in 2013, I thought we were as close to cracking internationals as a sport as I can remember in my 30+ years watching the Sport. I’d come off back to back weeks of being at Wembley with 67,000 on to witness an incredible game between NZ and England, followed by being in a crowd of 74,000 at Old Trafford for Australia vs NZ and I thought ‘this is it’. It felt like the game had woken up to the fact that internationals must be the pinnacle to help your sport grow and since then it’s been absolutely pi*sed down the drain. The momentum of that tournament was killed because we didn’t have another home test for a couple of years.

The crowd for that semi at Wembley felt (and sounded) mainly Southern based and that felt pretty incredible. To grow a game new fans need to feel attached to a team to feel invested and 99% of the country couldn’t give a flying one about Wigan, Warrington, St Helens etc. They will watch an England team, they will feel invested in it and they will turn up when it’s marketed right.

It’s an incredible shame IMO what has gone on since 2013 and the NRL top brass take the vast majority of the blame.

Officially announced.

Furious about this, I really am. In their statement RLWC2021 have essentially confirmed the NRL were refusing point blank to release any players. Correct me if I’m wrong but that goes completely against international representation rules doesn’t it? So we’ve folded to the NRL who have no interest whatsoever in international RL and not even a sanction in sight? Utterly deplorable the whole way it’s been done.

And what guarantees are in place ensuring they don’t pull the same trick next year? The utter contempt of which they hold Intl RL is ridiculous. 4 tests in 5 years it’ll be by the time the RLWC comes around, including one year they refused to play GB as they wanted a “break”.

I genuinely cannot stand the NRL or what it stands for.