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.

It’s pathetic but inevitable. Funny how footballers, the Oz and NZ RU teams can come here but the precious little darlings from the Australian RL circus won’t.

Both Damien Cook and James Tedesco have both said, in the past couple of days that they want to come and play the world cup over here, regardless of what the NRL decide

Now the Brazilian nation rugby league team have declared that they are ready and willing to send a team over to replace Australia.

I reckon we would manage to beat them by about 8-10 points

Which is great. Problem is they have no team to represent.

The players are the only ones who could really change this but that would require the vast majority of kangeroo squad telling the NRL they want to play.

Exactly. The decision should have been left to the players, not taken for them. If too many players didnt want to come and you couldnt raise a team, then pull out.

Looking at the thread on reddit about it, the vast majority of aussie fans are gutted about the situation, so its not just us brits who are disappointed

I think the recent relocation to queensland has played its part. Players are quarantined there for 3 months then again would be away from home and family for another 7 weeks in the UK.

Australia will be in the brown stuff for a while now, they shut the borders but did nothing to mitigate opening up again. Both them and nz will be in the same boat as the rest of the world just a year or so later.

The wc has to be cancelled now, extend our season by a month or so and get some credibility back

Not great news, I think a postponement to 2022 is the only option. They will struggle to sell tickets if 2 small nations replace the two big nations. It'll lack credibility if England lift the trophy against say Fiji.

Also could be a chance to tweak some of the venues and ticket prices, as some seem to have sold well but others struggling. Prices are far too high for the games in Hull and I've always thought Middlesbrough and Coventry were ambitious choices. They do however seem to have got the England games right.

The NRL are a disgrace. I tend to avoid Union, as I see it as a game who’s be quite happy to wipe League off the face of the earth but who needs enemies with the friends we have Down Under. I’ll probably treat watching the NRL/Origin much in the same way as I do watching Union now and just turn it over.

The other problem is that a postponement to next year will clash with the FIFA World Cup which will no doubt affect broadcast rights, sponsorships, overall interest, etc.