These two countries and their insane pursuit of the insane policy that is "zero covid" will see them not participating in the 2022 world cup and that subsequently won't happen because...reasons.

We (in NZ) are not pursuing zero covid.....we never have done. What we did was establish at a very early stage that not one person should die of this horrible pandemic if it could be helped and we shut up shop and closed our borders. Kiwis and essential workers are quarantined on return and other than a couple of scares, we've pretty much done as expected with a death rate of 26 people. Yes, we have been slow to vaccinate, but we will get there....at which stage I expect the government to explore how and when we open up......if you're going to talk about insanity, why not pop outside and clap for your nurses and remember the 130,000 corpses across the UK whilst you consider voting the Tories back in to ensure the nurses your clapping for get little or no pay rise.....

I've said I'm appalled at NZRL doing as they're told, but the reality is without the NRL, league would be dead in NZ. I attended the Wellington Region RL final at th weekend....the crowd was a London Broncoesque few hundred predominantly family and friends of the 2 sides involved.

As for 2022. The NRL will be forced to the table now to confirm payers are released in 2022.....the players union will make sure of that. The Wannabees and All Blacks playing in Europe and America this autumn will only make League look more marginalized and niche....people on RL boards like here live to blame Union for the woes of league, but the reality is we've done it to ourselves.
The tail wags the dog in league and it turns out it's the tail.of a dingo doing the wagging....but this started a long time ago when SL became the only important thing.....even now, the 10 team plans point to the game eventually vanishing as a pro sport inside a decade in the uk

The NRL clubs are a form of malignant cancer on the game, the world doesn't stop with state of origin and no one outside of Australia gives a damn. Small fry. Insular.

I've seen hundreds of threads and posts on here and elsewhere declaring SOO would fill Wembley or should be taken to America. Over A decade ago when I arrived down here it was must watch tv......now it's just another game. They've milked that pony once too often and once they've been left to themselves, they'll see why the AFL invest so much of their considerably larger income streams into growth of the game.
Greater Western Sydney are a 10 year old AFL club created in the heart of RL territory.....they had a bigger average attendance pre covid than Penrith, st George and cronulla.....so let the NRL stew and marginalise themselves further....let's sort out the UK game

The interest in international RL is low - look at the attendances - until England can produce a side that can beat the Aussies on a regular basis it will ever thus. The game needs to concentrate on its core differential the club game. Attract more players at junior level and employ less overseas players. Leeds have just signed two overseas half backs - every side in SL has at least one overseas half.

I can fully understand why the Aussies have no interest in international rugby - it has no impact on the success of the NRL, they don't international competition to thrive. They need to concentrate on developing talent in Australia - there are more kids playing RL in Penrith alone than the whole of GB. The quality/development of the NRL is quite rightly what the Aussies need to focus on.

I can agree with some of your post except concentrating on our clubs, that has not worked, we could always compete with Aus/NZ when we were all part time. It all changed in the 1980s when the Australian sides funded by their league clubs became full time (being the dominant sport in NSW & QSL also helped). The only way we can compete is by expanding interest outside our traditional area’s ( but not at their expense) that will bring in sponsorship, tv interest. To do that it has to be international competition in the European area. Just look at has happened to cycling a sport in the 60s & 70s most of us knew nothing about now we are all sat watching them the media are devoting air time & all because it’s on the world stage.
And notice there is no coverage of any of the UK cycling club competition.

Cycling is popular because we have thrown a heap of money at it that has been wisely invested in top coaching and innovative technology in equipment. The riders are not that well paid.Whilst ever we continually get beat at the international level in RL - we haven't beat the Aussies in series or WC since 1972 - yes 1972 - the interest will always be low. Look at the attendances for test with NZ we struggle to get 25k.

I agree about expanding the game outside of its traditional heartland - that needs money. The sport is without money and cannot seem to attract any for its major competitions. All the money seems to go to the players - coaching is poor, conditioning is poor, facilities are poor - where do you start?

All very true but you have missed my point the only way we will get wider coverage thus bring more money into the game is by playing international games. Look at Union a game that is boring in the extreme, they can fill their national stadia 10 times a year charging £50 plus per seat. A lot of those spectators will not go to club games. It has become something to do, why? Because it is international sport & the media & sponsorship is only drawn to international games. Association football is probably the only sport to buck that trend in Europe. That is why I am so angry at the attitude of the cowards in the NRL.
There is a lot more to play out here as Australia has made it dam near impossible for thei own subjects to leave or return to the country, many ordinary people sre increasingly angry that sports people & celebrities seem to be able to travel. Also will our cricketers go out in October if they can’t take their families? (We allowed the Indian cricketers to do that). Can you imagine the abuse the Aussie press will hurl at them if they won’t play the ashes.

The game needs to expand outside the heartlands simply to increase the player pool.

Define both "many people are angry" and "sports people and celebrities"
The first is the usual hype....a demonstration in NSW or Victoria against lock downs....same as the anti vax loonies and pandemic deniers we've had in here if late....a miniscule % of the population who think they know better than the science and medical professionals...lock downs done properly work and we have the pty graves here to prove it.
The second....a handful of movie professionals have managed to "pay" their own way into managed isolation and been granted access.....at no expense to either the state or public.....not fair, but being wealthy isn't about fairness. As for sports people.....our world champion cricketers spent 2 weeks in isolation before being able to celebrate their win....the Olympic athletes returning from Japan are all in isolation hotels....it's just accepted by 99.9% of us down here as the new norm for now. I can fly to the UK tomorrow if I choose....so long as I can secure a 2 week isolation spot on my return....that's the only thing stopping me.....but if they wanted to, the NRL clubs could have secured managed isolation for the supposed 600 bodies...after all, they are celebrities and sports stars........ in NSW anyway. They just didn't want to.
The NRL moved everyone to Queensland, but won't move them to the UK......this speaks volumes.

And that will increase interest as well

The Aussie won't turn up next year either and neither will the Kiwis as the Kiwis do what the Aussies tell them to do.

Well, history has shown that the Aussies have turned up overseas 31 times over the past 10 years, but UK teams have turned up 20 times.

Of course in 2000 NZ didn't turn up.

The only thing between NZ RL and extinction is a shed load of volunteers and the NRL.........same sort of thing with English Rugby League....SKY tell them to jump and they ask "how high"