2013 Rugby League World Cup Thread

We've got our eye on you says the NRL and the Rugby League Players Association



THE NRL and RLPA are officially monitoring every club to ensure weary World Cup players aren't forced back to training prematurely.

Each player - through rugby league's Collective Bargaining Agreement - must be given a clean break of six weeks during the off-season.

That break though is difficult to police this year due to the World Cup in England.Some players are burnt-out.

Cronulla prop Andrew Fifita is lining-up for his 36th game in this weekend's World Cup final.

Some clubs desperate for success are thinking of rushing back their stars into pre-season but they have been issued with a strong warning from the NRL and RLPA.

The two bodies drafted a joint letter - signed by NRL head of football Todd Greenberg and RLPA CEO David Garnsey - reminding every club that players must receive their allotted rest.

Failure to do so could prompt a club to be issued a breach notice.

''They need to observe their obligations,'' Garnsey said.

''We need to look the player's physical and psychological well-being.

''The clubs need to know there are consequences but the primary reason (for the letter) was a reminder, not to be threatening

''At the moment there are no issues but, if there are, they will be addressed.

''Players contesting this weekend's World Cup shouldn't be back at training before mid-January."

Clint (Newton, RLPA general president) and I sat down a while back and said this could be tricky because there are multiple dates when teams start training again with the World Cup grafted on,'' Garnsey said.

"There could possibly be understanding or confusion because there are so many dates when players could return.''


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...yers-association/story-fni3fbgz-1226769963422
 
Melbourne Storm NRL coach Craig Bellamy calls for overhaul of Rugby League World Cup



MELBOURNE Storm coach Craig Bellamy says the Rugby League World Cup is "ridiculously long" and has called for a total overhaul of the tournament.

Storm players Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and prop Jesse Bromwich will play in tomorrow morning's final between Australia and New Zealand.

The weary players have been in the UK for almost eight weeks and Bellamy said the set-up was not fair on players coming off a full NRL season.

"It has been ridiculously long, to be quite honest," Bellamy said.

"It's obviously a great experience for the smaller nations in rugby league to participate, but there are probably only three or so sides that can actually win it.

"I don't have all the answers, but certainly we have to look at it being shorter and perhaps just having three or four teams vying for the World Cup that can win it.

"Perhaps the other nations just play off while still getting that experience and exposure but without it going as a long as it has."

The Storm suffered a major scare when Slater went down in the quarter-finals with a knee injury.

Slater, Smith and Cronk played their first game this year back in mid-February, with the season also including a gruelling State of Origin series.


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...league-world-cup/story-fni2flhh-1226771627127

- - - Updated - - -

Rugby League International Federation awards have become a laughing stock of the game



CAMERON Smith is not the best hooker in rugby league this year.

Apparently, Issac Luke is.The Issac Luke who plays for South Sydney . . . the one with the cannonball tackles and a dangerous dummy-half runner.

The one who had a shocker in the preliminary final.

And Johnathan Thurston isn't the best five-eighth in the world either.

No, that's Danny Brough, who plays five-eighth for Huddersfield and Scotland.

Those are two of the gems from voting in the team of the year for the Rugby League International Federation awards, presented in England this week.

The RLIF website does not identify who votes for these awards or which parallel universe they hail from.

Wikipedia is on the case, though, and it reckons the awards are voted upon by journalists, broadcasters and ex-players drawn from both hemispheres.

It says nothing about outer space, from where it is just possible there might be lifeforms acquainted with rugby league who think that Luke had a better season than Smith, that the Kiwi No.9 has a snowball's chance in hell of ever being as good as the Storm and Australian hooker.

This is like having an award for the best fast bowler in history to have taken 350 or more Test wickets while having a moustache and not giving it to Dennis Lillee.

Or a prize for who makes kids happiest at Christmas and Santa Claus has to sit in the audience with a fixed smile as someone else gets up to say he hadn't prepared a speech, but gosh what a honour.

Even allowing for Melbourne's crash and burn in the finals, Smith is the best hooker in the game.

He just is.

These awards of the RLIF, put together in 2004 from the ashes of the previous federation, are a good idea in fostering the game internationally.

But they are held up to ridicule if they can't come up with a simple task like saying the best hooker this year was the dark-haired bloke who plays for Melbourne, Queensland and Australia.

League people are used to international awards being ridiculous.

The Golden Boot award, presented annually by an English league magazine, used to have thigh slappers some years.

Now it's presented by another English league magazine.

And brace yourself for this one: last year they reckoned Leeds lock Kevin Sinfield was the best player in the world.


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...tock-of-the-game/story-fni3fbgz-1226771721713


 
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I Like reading rants like Paul Malones embittered rant about Isaac Luke V Cameron Smith.

Sure Luke is fortunate , but these awards are form judgements , not self inflated Origin puff ups. Makes me laugh.....anyone would think reading that.....that Isaac Luke isn't at least the secound best Hooker in the world.

You're entitled to argue Smith the greatest Hooker of all time should have the toys every year of the reign....but his rant is so in balanced.

it's supposed to be a wind up....I like it as i say....and I hope and pray Cameron Smith take that same mindset into tonights game , they won't see it coming......NZ on the other hand are bred to know the Kangaroos are the Wolf at the top of the mountain.
 
Rugby League World Cup pays dividens for expanding the game



THE World Cup is on track to be more profitable than the last one in 2008 and there are plans to expand the Four Nations in the hope of growing the game internationally.

Money alone doesn't guarantee development but it provides opportunities and the Rugby League International Federation have plans to try to take advantage.

They banked A$5.5 million in 2008, which was a considerable turnaround from the 2000 tournament which lost money, and RLIF chairman Scott Carter said they are on track to exceed profits this time around.

"We will exceed the 2008 surplus," Carter says.

"I'm expecting conservatively at this stage between A$5 million and $6 million. It might go a bit higher because [the double header at] Wembley performed really well.

That first semi-final, won 20-18 by the Kiwis over England, was a terrific advert for the World Cup. It was exciting, dramatic, explosive and was played out in front of a 67,500-strong crowd.

The second semi-final, however, illustrated the shortcomings when Australia trounced Fiji 64-0.

As good as this World Cup has been overall, and it has been acknowledged as one of the best, the reality is only one of three teams was ever going to win.

The gap between the Big Three of Australia, New Zealand and England and the rest is still enormous and doesn't look like closing any time soon.

There's no doubt the tournament would benefit from more competitive fixtures at the top end but there was plenty to get excited about.Scotland and the US surprised most by winning through to the quarter-finals and Italy also fielded a competitive outfit in their first World Cup.

But it's difficult to forecast a time when an emerging nation can topple one of the Big Three.

"I hope so. I really do," Carter says.

"I think we will see it in our lifetime.

What gives Carter some hope is the fact Italy beat England in a World Cup warm-up and the US also tipped over Wales.

"Yes, people can pull apart those victories because they were warm-up games but the reality is they happened. It wouldn't have been in the plans for England and Wales to lose those games.

The difficulty is, however, Italy don't know when they will play another international. Nor do the US and they are not alone.

They are fledgling rugby league nations with small infrastructures and many opted to play at the World Cup for free.

They would benefit from more frequent internationals but it all costs money and also needs to fit into an already-congested calendar.

There are windows for international games and New Zealand's program is nearly locked in for the next World Cup cycle and is closely aligned to both Australia's and England's.

It's why the international federation are hoping to expand the Four Nations, which next year will feature Australia, New Zealand and England with the fourth likely to be either Fiji or Samoa.

Discussions are still at a very early stage but one idea has been to expand it to a six-team tournament with two groups of three.

"The Four Nations is going to be rethought," Carter says.

"We think it has worked on many fronts and is an improvement on the Tri Nations but it's not really developing the game.

"There have been various ideas and two pools of three is one of them, which would mean a slightly shorter tournament. It's a matter of balancing strategic development with commercial realties because everyone knows it takes money to make money.

"If you don't have the coin, someone else will have to pay the bill. But we are very focused on lifting the game, and we will."

One potential stumbling block to an expanded Four Nations is the fact it's a partnership owned by Australia, New Zealand and England, not the RLIF, which makes is more complex.

NZRL chief executive Phil Holden said they supported the concept of an expanded competition.

"It represents an opportunity to do more in that space," he says.

"We recognise that to really push the game on internationally, we have got to be looking at how we do that and what teams are involved. I think there's a willingness to make it work because we know it's in everyone's best interests.

Some of the profits from this World Cup will be spent on human resources - a chief executive will be appointed to help run the RLIF - but most will be distributed to each of the 17 member nations in grants.

A significant proportion of the profits from the 2008 tournament was invested in France and Papua New Guinea in the hope of getting them back to the level where they were competitive with the Big Three.

The World Cup has had its critics.

It has been labelled "a joke" and "waste of time" by some who think a competition involving any more than four teams is too many, but they were mostly made by people who didn't attend the tournament.

The fact all the best players were in the UK would suggest they don't agree and the good crowds indicate there's an appetite for international league.

Seven of the 28 games sold out, including this morning's final at Old Trafford which was the biggest crowd ever for a rugby league test, and 383,995 spectators attended games overall.

That's an average of 13,714 for each game.

Television audiences have also been strong.

England's game against Fiji peaked at 2.4 million viewers on the BBC, which was more than four times the audience for England's rugby international against Argentina on the same afternoon, and England's semi-final against the Kiwis peaked at 2.83 million viewers in the UK.

"I simply don't subscribe to calls the tournament is a waste of time and tests between nations other than the top three aren't appealling because the stats prove otherwise," Carter says.

"When you get Italy beating England and the US beating Wales in international games, how can you say it's not worth it?

"I think the tournament has been hugely positive."


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...panding-the-game/story-fni3fbgz-1226772135642
 
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It was a joke !! England deserve to be in that final, they would put up a good fight against you kangaroos. Disappointed in you kiwis !!
 
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