What an absoolutely shocking idea...that is literally the worst idea i have ever read on rlfans (thats quite an achievement)
What club in their right mind would want to play several matches in the same weekend, at the very start of the new season?
So the runner up in Super League, doesnt get to play for the charity shield, but two french clubs (one of which isnt even a professional team) do, how the hell can you justify that?
Do you not think that every match would be ridiculousy one sided (Catalans superior fitness will mean they easily beat the best french team; and from there on in, the team that has already played that weekend would get absolutely stuffed)? Unless of course you played this competition over several weeks...but why the hell would anyone want to do that, when it wouldnt mean anything (because teams like catalans get in just because they are french and some semi pro team gets in for the same reason, wheras the the SL runners up dont get a place) when we already have (imo) too long a season, the top players barely get a preseason as it is, with the internationals?

I have an idea... why not, the week before magic weekend, to kick the season off with a bang, have a wacky weekend (instead of your idea)... first, the U11 Humberside Youth League Division One Champions take on the 7th placed team of the open age japanese rugby union championship, for a chance to play the winner of the french league, the winner of which, goes on to play, the team whose name is 3rd aphabetically in the Championship (unless its a leap year of course), with the winner playing Widnes. The winner of that, goes on to play the NRL champions, with the winners playing The SL champions. All games kick off 1 minute after the final whistle of the previous game, so it would be a day of non stop action and excitement, it would give all sorts of teams a chance to compete, and would be considerably less complicated than your idea.

What do you think? We could play it somewhere that RL seems to be struggling to catch on, to try and give a much needed boost to the area... the first year could be in Huddersfield.

Why change it? What's wrong with what we do now?

When we had a number of teams playing before it didn't work. There are too many Aussie teams that are better than our top teams. The lower teams in SL would get hammered.
The crowds won't come to watch that.

Leave it as one big game and market it well. One day we will be able to play it at Old Trafford.

Until the NRL side see it as more than a contractual obligation and take it seriously then the WCC will never fill Old Trafford.

My god... it doesnt even fill the Reebok, Elland Rd or Huddersfields ground.


Players from the NRL champions have drawn straws in the past.. to see who doesnt come. What player wants to fly 12,000 miles to a UK winter to play a meaningless fixture? The players have got a long tough season ahead of them in the NRL and dont want to waste what little time off they have by coming to the UK.

The WCC is a dead duck. It only matters to the English clubs and their supporters. It's a relic left over from the 70's and 80's when the game was very different.

Scrap it now.

Watch how the Melbourne players reacted at full time in this years WCC, or when the Roosters nilled St Helens, or the looks on the faces of Wayne Bennett and Darren Lockyer after Brisbane lost to St Helens, and then try to say that they didn't care.

For every Bulldogs or Wests Tigers who treated it like a holiday there are teams who will come over to try and win. The NRL should remind every team that is going to take part in this fixture that it is representing the NRL and Australia as its champions, and therefore should take the occasion seriously.

The Old Trafford comment is exactly what I was saying Barry. There is no point expanding until you make the one off game a bigger game.

I disagree that the aussies don't take it seriously. I can't imagine any player at that level just turning up for the sake of it. They even play warm up games now so that they are fully prepared.

and as for the throwback to the 70s and 80s comment. Think you need to do some research on the dates. There was one game in the 70s when Sts went out for a game simply planned between the two clubs and then the WCC started in 87.

Well yes... I know.

Thats why I said it was a throwback to the 70's and 80's?