Bought tickets this week for the game at the emirates after I was told all teams but Australia agreed to come, it was expected that Australia might not come or might be represented by a squad that wasn't the "best", but surprised New Zealand pulled out after saying they would come, not sure what changed their minds.

If they postpone the World Cup until next year but start it a week earlier (third Saturday in October rather than the fourth) then the final would be a couple of days before the FIFA World Cup starts.

I'd have happily gone to see Australia v Fiji in Hull but the prospect of, say, Brazil v Fiji is somewhat less tempting especially at £25/£40 a ticket.

This is rlfans resident champagne socialist you are talking about. Boris could say the sky is blue and Wrencat would say he’s lying and then blame him for world poverty

It's the most un-kiwi thing that they've done in my time here.
I can only assume the "opening up" of the UK, followed by an increase in cases/hospitalisations/deaths has rattled the Kiwis. The Cricketers were there when the UK was in semi-lockdown, but now it's a free for all I can kind of understand why you'd not want to be in the country for weeks.......no doubt the All Blacks will rock up, but the reality is they'll be wrapped in bubble wrap and in/out in a matter of days.
We lock down when somebody sneezes here and the slow vaccine thing is now looking like a smart move, given Delta is crawling through vaccinated folk with ease.....
....I hope the cup goes ahead and it makes money........

What kind of team would NZ have without the NRL players though? Remember it's not just Australian players who can't play. All NRL players won't be permitted to play in the world cup.

NZ could have easily used that reason to be honest but I guess they wouldn't wanna throw the NRL under the bus.

Would love to hear what Big Mal thinks as he wanted to make international footy more popular. I am shocked the players were given no say on this decision. Can't forget about The women and the wheelchair players, they must be pretty upset right now!

You opened up July 19th.

167,000 new cases july19-22 and 271 new graves being dug.....perspective is everything, so for a comparison...... in May you had 256 deaths from 69,000 new cases.........that's an entire month v 4 friggin' days!
...no matter your politics, no matter if you wear a tin foil hat or not.....you'd be insane not to see why it might be a concern if you were thinking of visiting the UK in the near future.

Top post matches the BBC analysis that the government have lost the plot....

Who's assuming Covid will be all gone by then.......or that their players will be vaccinated by then given their resistance to having the vaccine....

The players are the only ones who can make the NRL change. Will take the players Union to oppose the decision.

They need to ask the players and see how many are up for it and go from there

er, what?
Did Ian Lenegan tell you that?

The Vaccine roll out has been slow and determined in Australasia because we're going to make ourselves and our countries safe, not in a mad frenzy to head to Benidorm or a Night out at the local discotheque.

In other news, it shows just how small fry we are as a sport. FIFA would go with a world cup without Italy or Brazil, Union without the ANZACS, Cricket without the ANZACS too......but RL?

We lose the players from one competition and 67% ( Number of AU/NZ born players at RLWC 2013) of all players are gone from the cup.....this is an opportunity to press ahead with a European comp.....and make it bloody annual!

.
Who were Union World Champions 3 times and they weren't even invited to the party in 1987? Cricketers reckon the best side in the world wasn't asked to play for 21 years......don't cite your opinion without first looking at the facts!
The All Blacks are a draw........but England Union will fill TW2 against most sides.....that's the strength of their code!

If you mean South Africa no they were not the best cricket side in the world lol.

Move it to Brisbane.
Most of the players are already in Queensland.
you'd need to bring a hundred from England, France and a few scattered countries - put them up in a resort for 2 weeks - and we're good to go.

PNG side is mostly in the Hunters, who are already in Qld.

Fiji Silktails are already in Sydney.

Kiwis are already in Qld.

Most of the Tongan and Samoan players are in the NRL, as arethe best of the Fijians, and Kumuls.

Give the nex one to the UK if they can get their together.

International sports teams will be in isolated bubbles so that’s completely irrelevant. This is the Australians thinking the start date of NRL 2022 takes priority over the World Cup. It doesn’t it’s a domestic comp as is even the state of origin.

Play it without them but they’ll have to qualify for any future ones and fine them if they fail to release players.

One country doesn’t own the sport over everyone else no matter how much better they are at playing it.

Make the decision now and when the Queensland government boots the NRL out and they’re forced to come cap in hand to the party tell them to shove it.