.
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.

The average age of Covid deaths is 81 in the UK

You can't tell me fit young NRL players will be scared?

Funded by who, at 3 months notice?

This WC has lots of funding from UK/EU sponsors and the UK government

And it's not just playing the tournament that matters. As I already said the economic impact to regions in the UK is huge - not far off £9M for Manchester and Cardiff from the 2013 tournament I believe. Plus then there's the interest generated at grass roots which this country desperately needs if we are to even have another WC over here or dare I say it, professional RL.

No we don't we lose Australia and New Zealand. The decisions were made by the NZRL and ARLC (clearly off the back of pressure from NRL). Players representing other countries can play the NRL clubs have no legal right to stop them.

Again this is the problem. This thing is in circulation, there's nether really going to be 'good time' because there's always going to be plenty of cases, certainly for the foreseeable. So if they aren't coming now based on this logic, they're not going to be travelling for international tournaments for the medium-term future. It's setting a decision-making precedent.

What I suspect, as others have mentioned, is that 'safety and welfare' is really referring to players time off having to eat into the season due to quarantine on the way back, rather than covid.

Apparently lots of Australian players are looking at playing for other nations. Damian Cook and James Tedesco the most vocal, Tedesco talking of playing for italy under the heritage rule.

Rather than do that, surely we just need to find 20 Aussies and 20 Kiwis who are willing to put their hands up and travel. If they are, and are happy to abide by whatever regulations the NRL require for the season next year, surely we'd just put an 'Australian Invitational' and 'NZ Invitational' team in their place.

Ultimate two fingers up to the NRL!! It'd be very much like the 95 world cup where Aus weren't at full strength because of the SL war, but you'd still get a bloody good side. Would be exactly the same as when we played Tonga the year before last....they were 'Tonga Invitational' because the Tonga RFL Governing Board had been kicked out......no one noticed any difference!!

More than one way of skinning at cat.....The WC Board need to look at this option urgently IMO.

If you're late for pre-season training you'll be fined.....not to mention clauses in your contract barring you from Amy activity that may injure you causing your employer more expense.
Legal or not, the NRL clubs tell players where and when.....and I suspect very few will be flying north this autumn.

I am totally confused with the talk of players in the NRL playing in this tournament who represent the non ANZAC nations. The whole reason them two pulled out was safety concerns. If non ANZAC NRL players are allowed to play can someone please explain to me how Aus and NZ have any argument to have made this decision. How can you claim safety and player welfare when you are allowing everyone outside of the aus and NZ teams play in England and have no issue with them coming back home.

If this was to happen then RFL & Co have to seek legal action for sure. I don't see how you can argue that Tom Burgess who lives in Sydney can play but his teammate Damian Cook who also lives in Sydney can not.

They haven't actually explicitly said they can't play. They have only said Aus and NZ are pulling out. They don't have authority to speak for the Pacific nations but yes as I understand it the clubs now can refuse players permission to travel as the NRL have deemed it unsafe.