[urlhttps://www.nrl.com/news/2021/07/22/arl-nzrl-withdraw-from-world-cup-over-welfare-safety-concerns/[/url

Hard to see how it goes ahead without them?

If they press ahead with their own international fixtures, which they are planning they should be kicked out of the international federation. This has possibly pushed Uk RL to the brink of the abyss.

Gutless pathetic morons. Just goes to show they don’t give a dam about international football or anything outside of their cosy little world. This is about the end of our game. Last night I watched the first game of the cricket 100s full of players from around the world putting on a show, grabbing the headlines & carving out a place in the sporting programme. If the big tough men from down under can’t do that it reflects badly on them & puts our game on the back foot.
The RFL & super league bent over backwards to get the tournament played ( even going to win percentages to ensure our season finished before the cup started ).
Just hope there is some way we can hit their competition hard financially to make up for lost revenue. It makes me very sad & angry that a nation once known for its can do attitude & sense of fair play has turned into a bunch of self centred inward looking jerks.

They shouldn't have announced it was still going ahead last week.

They can't continue go ahead now. It would be a farce and nothing short of a joke.

Players would then be entitled to annual leave under their NRL contracts which would mean they wouldn’t return to preseason training until late January.

That alone is a problem. The players wouldnt be getting much of pre season before the season starts

Indeed.

At a time when pretty much EVERY other sport is busting a gut to get international fixtures on, the Aussies have put themselves before the sport. Absolutely shocking.

If their real issue is "player welfare" (players not having enough time for a full pre season) then, why not put the start of their season back by 2 weeks.
After all that has been going on over there, this shouldn't be the end of the world.

Their non participation kills the comp stone dead, they should be really proud of themselves.

To be fair, I dont blame them for not wanting to come to Plague island.

That’s a poor excuse. Euro players will have weeks before the start of the new season.

This is the NRL whipping about it’s over inflated ego. I guarantee if we said it’s on summer 2022 they’ll say “it can’t be because it’ll disrupt origin”. They couldn’t care less for international RL, otherwise why have Australia only played 4 games since 2017?

The self arrogance and self importance is breathtaking. F*** ‘em. Crack on without the barstools.

Phew

Im glad some random idiot on the internet knows better than the greatest scientific minds around the globe. .

I will discard anything that is published in the lancet and ask for your opinion instead.

There is a difference between trying to run a World Cup in the UK and the Aussies playing games in the antipodes

NZ hardly any cases no lockdown

Australia few cases but lockdown.

UK Covid rampant and government sticking its head in the sand or up its own ..

I don’t blam the Aussies and Kiwis for not coming .

In my view it now needs to be postponed till 2022

Yes let’s kick out 2 0f the 3 dominant RL countries out of the RLiF

Crack on with what though?

A tournament where 2 of the 3 strongest nations isn't playing?

How do you sell tickets for this?
Sponsors would surely be looking for rebates on what they have paid
The BBC would likely ask for a rebate as they wouldn't be getting what they paid for
Fans who already purchased tickets could have claims for refunds

You could have the Pacific Islands teams playing but there best players not avaliable.

This would be a tournament which England would win easily and there would be no PR boost for the sport at all as the win would have no credibility.

How do you promote a world cup without Australia and NZ? You can't and the tournament would be ridiculed.