Of course, in an ideal world, you would have a World Cup every four years.

In reality, the only way international Rugby League will really begin to reach the level it ought to be at, is to have a Rugby League World Cup every two years as the basis for the development of the game internationally.

The RL World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere in 2017 should be followed by another in the Northern Hemisphere in 2019, back down under in 2021 and so on. Two immediate benefits would be improved attraction and retention of players and a burgeoning international game in development countries as they see the attraction of various global qualifying competitions in the intervening years.

I've seen allsorts of clever proposed international calendars covering 4, 6 or 8 years involving old style tours etc. But we have to accept that they are not going to happen. Organising and running a World Cup is hard work but surely the game's administrators here and down under are up to taking their own turn every four years.

Once biennial World Cups have been in place for a generation, then a sensible debate could be had about whether it would be right to scale back to every three or four years.

I don't buy the argument about not wanting to clash with other major events - soccer world cup, Olympics etc. That's not really a valid reason not to go ahead. The game has to have confidence in it's own attractiveness. If Fiji v Ireland on a cold, wet November night in 2013 can be sold out, anything is possible. Familiarity does not breed contempt - I've lost count of the number of England v Australia cricket Ashes series in the last 10 years with no detriment.

The club chairmen should push for it; a stronger more visible ongoing international game would have positive impact on club competitions (including the world club series).

What do you gain from this that you wouldn't gain from having a well-promoted 3 match test series against the Aussies or the Kiwis and keeping the world cup every 4 years?

You will see a reduction in crowds at the World Cups if they're played every 2 years.

World Cup should be 4 years. With tours and other competitions filling in the other 3.

As we only have 2 places that can stage a World Cup, England & Australia, we can't have a World Cup every 2 years.

It would at least put an end to the current farce over eligibility, given players have to leave at least a two year gap between playing for one nation and then the other.

Crazy idea.

The only way to build up the game internationally is to build more competitive nations, which means giving some of them which have a player base the chance for professional club competition within the NRL and Super League.

The NRL are working towards that with the gradual blooding of PNG Hunters and Fiji in the Queensland Cup and NSW Cup respectively.

The RFL are doing much less of that, by belatedly allowing Toulouse to join the 3rd non-professional division, and forcing them to fight their way into Super League via promotion under circumstances of a very biased salary cap.

After 2017 there will be a major international tournament (bigger than Four Nations) every two years between World Cups, but it won't be a World Cup and that's a stupid thing to even suggest.

As some of you may know I agree with R Crowe that we should bin international RL, and have a club WC instead every 4 years, and a WCC Challenge in October in years with no WC. RL is tribal, and a club based sport, thankfully. And I'm not in favour of having any amateur open age teams. The full-time teams should have A Teams/Reserve Teams.

it would probably cost too much as well

Dumb idea. Just rotate RLWC, ashes tour, NZ tour 6 natins for top tier
Pacific and Europe test series and cups plus RLWC qualifying for second tier countries.
Calendar sorted!

This.

The World Cup got decent crowds in 2013 because there hadn't been one here since 2000 and it was the first opportunity for a while to see the other nations like Fiji, Samoa etc.

I went to the game at Rochdale for precisely that reason.

But if I know they're gonna be back here again in 4 years time then I might hang on to my money.

8 years is another matter.


Every 2 years is too often and diminishes the importance and prestige of the event. It'd lead to lower attendances and lower sponsorship money.

We've got to stop looking for fast track solutions in international RL. Just because the World Cup has "worked" the last 2 times doesn't mean we do that more often. It means we continue with what works. And build that which currently isn't quite working as we'd like.

I posted it on another thread but if the Aussies could ever be convinced to hold SOO on 3 consecutive weeks with an NRL break for internationals then I'd like to see a calendar something along the lines of this:

Year 1 mid-season = Eng & France play each other and NZ & a PI nation
Year 1 end of season = GB test series v Aus or NZ down under & Aus or NZ to play v PI nations

Year 2 mid = Same as year 1 except down under
Year 2 end = Eng v Aus or NZ Test Series

Year 3 mid = Same as year 1
Year 3 end = 4/5 Nations down under

Year 4 mid = Same as year 1 except down under
Year 4 end = World Cup here


Give regular games to France and the PI nations and it allows space for a few more internationals per year.
The biggest step forward we've taken in decades was getting the World Cup set on a 4 year cycle so everyone knows when it is. Now we just need the other 3 years sorting.

With the ltd number of competitive countries it should be pretty simple to put together a rolling calendar!

2018 RLWC (Aus&NZ)
2019 NZ and Aus tour Europe, Europe cup and PI cup to qualify for 6 nations places
2020 6 nations
2021 England and France tour southern Hemi, Europe cup and PI cup for RLWC places
2022 RLWC (UK & France)

repeat ad nausea!

2018 RLWC
2019 Eng v NZ Test series...Aus v two of Samoa / PNG / Fiji / Tonga?
2020 Four Nations
2011 Aus v Eng Test series...NZ v two of Samoa / PNG / Fiji / Tonga?
2022 RLWC
2023 NZ v ENG Test series...Aus v two of Samoa / PNG / Fiji / Tonga?
2024 Four Nations
2025 Eng v Aus Test series NZ v two of Samoa / PNG / Fiji / Tonga?

Wouldn't that be nice? Throw in some France v England games and keep the Euro nations playing each other too. Would love to see an "emerging four nations" simultaneous to the 4n - Wales, France, PNG, Tonga maybe.

Dear me. The Rip Van Winkles have just woken up and don't know what has been going on for the past decade.

The RLWC is not going to be held in years [iwhen there is a soccer World Cup[/i (e.g. 2018, 2022) nor in years when there is a rugby union World Cup (e.g. 2019, 2023) nor in years when there is an Olympic games (e.g. 2020, 2024). The RLWC is to be held in the only quadriennial sequence when there is no such competition, namely 2017, 2021, 2025 etc.

Not sure it will happen, but Rugby League needs the certainty of a World Cup happening every two years.

As seen above, there are millions of bright ideas for an international calendar but they certainly aren't going to happen and what's more, just invite more of the make it up as you go along mentality.

The benefit of agreeing biennial World Cups alternating between Northern and Southern hemispheres is that everybody knows it is going to happen. Super League and NRL and everybody else can plan for it.

Compare with what we have and there is no plan in place and nobody really knows what's happening when. Australia were supposed to be touring here this year until they decided they didn't fancy it and NZ stepped in. I honestly can't see Australia doing a prolonged three test tour to Britain again let alone one that includes tests against France.

If you take an elite international potential player. They might expect to be at the top for say 4 or 5 years (not everybody lasts as long as say a Jamie Peacock). That player could (with a set in stone biennial Word Cup) look forward to playing against Australia here and down under in a career. With State of Origin going from strength to strength, what better incentive and challenge for our players to aspire to test themselves on a known calendar against what will more and more come to be seen as the cream of SOO players. Over the years, that would become an attraction of our game and help it grow.

If you are a highly talented young rugby player playing RU in say the south west, a strong international RL game might tempt you to try our game. A slow process. But now, even if such a player doesn't fit the mould of the sort of 'specialists' they need in RU at international level, they will probably stick with that game.

The structure in domestic RL, now with a (not easy) pathway to Super League, might just tempt a wealthy RU club owner to put some serious money into establishing an RL side to play in the summer (Bath?). But the second element of a strong RL international calendar is also needed so there is seen to be the attraction of another possible code for the 1,000s of youngsters brought up away from the RL heartlands in RU and who will have little chance of being in the 15 who get in the international RU team (just based on numbers/probabilities) but who could be good RL players (too many to mention from the past, but including Boston, Lewis Jones, Keith Fielding, Jiffy, Mike Coulman, Offiah etc).

A world cup here every four years is not "too much".

Look how RU built up its game to where it is today. Through internationals. Their 6 nations happens every year. Same time. Every body knows. Clubs, players, potential players, spectators. People plan a year in advance to attend matches (which are events) in that competition. And RU has its annual 'autumn internationals' as well. But its been there long term. Don't forget, in club RU they never had any leagues or tables until the 1970s; every RU club game was a friendly until then! But their international game still pulled capacity crowds and TV money then as it still does every year.

Biennial World Cups is a win-win idea that also boosts whatever qualifying competitions take place in the intervening years such as Pacific Cup, European Cup etc for developing nations. Put this structure in place and countries like Serbia will be challenging every other nation in Europe to be second only to England within ten years. And our professional players have the additional incentive of the challenge, recognition and overseas travel that a structured and regular international game gives.

Once again, there is going to be a biennial international tournament larger than the Four Nations but it will not be a World Cup, and to suggest that it should be is stupidity. Also the international structure is quite clearly defined if you actually bother to look for it. Not sure why you felt the need to write out a second essay here.

Also SMH at the people who don't realize that the next RLWC is in 2017 and not 2018. Even Jean Capdouze knew this.