This is nothing short of arrogance and self importance from the Aussie NRL clubs refusing to accept responsibility for players quarantine when they return. Excuse after excuse after excuse. The Aussie RU side, All Blacks, cricket, football and Olympic teams are all travelling abroad to countries with high CV19 rates. They’re reasoning and excuses are beyond belief.

I don’t watch NRL. I don’t watch Origin either. I can’t stand the over inflated egos of them. Personally I’d crack on without them. Let the other nations cherry pick their talent. I’d also heavily fine them and ban them from tournaments for 10 years.

I'm as peed off as everyone else with the stance of Aus and NZ and the way that NRL arrogance is devaluing the international game.

However, for the RFL and SL to comes out with the holier than thou statements and attitudes today is as arrogant. If I was Aus and NZ, I'd point out that half the scheduled fixtures this weekend in SL have had to be postponed because the virus is running out of control again, just as it's decided to lift all remaining restrictions aka "freedumb day".

Maybe Aus and NZ have got a point?

Their situation would be totally different though. There’s good investment behind the World Cup and bubbles in hotels and training facilities would be in place and I’m sure an intense testing regime. The World Cup would have everything Superleague cannot afford.

It also wouldn’t have a couple of teams in hiding and picking and choosing fixtures around a Challenge Cup final but that rant is for another topic.

I have to agree with you

That's only an issue until August 16th when self-isolation ends for double-jabbed people.

Much as I dislike the NRL's parochial attitude to the game, nevertheless. this is me too (apart from the podcasts)



People are complaining that the sport is dying out. Well, if their predictions come true, the NRL will be the only game in town anyway. Despite some blow-out scores, the NRL, in my opinion, still provides great entertainment. My view, clearly not shared by many here, is that it is the best televised sport on the planet. Earlier I watched a good contest between Canberra and Parramatta. Will Hull and Huddersfield be as good? I doubt it, but I'll watch anyway.

I don't think it's a 'weird obsession'.

And I don't watch the NRL on Sky, as I swore decades ago never to give Sky a penny, I have a laptop subscription to NRL dot com.

I get that people are peed off and are lashing out at the NRL, but I'm not going to stop watching it.

And, as I said before, the WC should be postponed till next year anyway.

Will Covid be gone next year?

I hope the situation will be improved, NK.

Me too but I hoped that last year as well. This time next year we could be sat here with another variant, that is running even more freely through the population, so where do you draw the line? Other sports have their stars travelling the globe so why are the NRL different? (I know the answer to that).

We’re going to have to get an answer from the Aussies about what is acceptable because it’s not going away. So will they take 20,000 cases a day? 10,000? 2,000? If they’re hoping it goes to zero, we best get that World Cup 2050 sorted out. They pull out of a tournament in mid July that starts in late October, citing that things ‘aren’t improving’. Well they’re not in Mid July but do they know something we don’t about where we could be in late October?

It is so self obsessed it’s embarrassing. I stand by my comment that as a British Rugby League fan, I wouldn’t entertain another NRL/Origin game until such a time that they start to look at the wider game. It’s each to their own on that score but that’s certainly my view.

The point is that they are coming from a very different place in terms of handling the pandemic and the proportion of people infected etc. They look at us, and I think at some point this week we had the highest infection rate in the world, I'm not surprised they're a bit spooked. Add in the number of postponements we've had and they have all the reasons/excuses they need - they've been given an open goal. We need to get our own house in order before getting on our high horse.

I blame the clubs here and not the board though for the current situation. Teams are taking the mick, pure and simple and bending the rules to their advantage.

On a side note regarding the Aussie model and how they must be spooked about travelling to countries with high covid rates (not other sportsmen, just league players though for some reason), when will they let people travel without quarantine? Stop locking down places with even a handful of cases? It really fascinates me because if the answer is when Covid has gone, they could be waiting for decades. That’s why the people that say ‘push it back a year’ just kick the problem down the road IMO. Ultimately it’s a great excuse.

Over 75% of players in the NRL said they’d have no problem whatsoever travelling here for the World Cup, when asked in a recent survey.

So if they picked a squad of 24, around 6 may pull out and the poor buggers would need to put dross like Wighton, Valentine Holmes, Gutherson etc in to the squad as back up.

Player welfare by backside.

It is clear that the NRL has forced this decision. The Australians were the only competing nation not to sign the participation agreement - NZ had. But the NRL are clearly much more powerful than the people in NZ who are responsible for international rugby league and must have been forced to make this changed decision.The participation of other Australian and New Zealand representative sports in other disciplines is now well known and documented and none of these other international sporting organisations has hidden behind the covid excuse. Of course we appear to be in the grip of the virus in this country but we have made many concessions to appease the Australians. So please let’s see this for what it is. It is blatant self interest by those in control of the NRL.

That said, the IRL must now decide what to do about it. Personally I would go ahead without them (always assuming that we can get enough players from the Southern hemisphere to participate). If we feel that we can’t then a one year postponement isn’t necessarily the answer. There would be minimal media coverage and, for what it’s worth, it is my opinion that in making their countries fortresses, Australia and New Zealand, will be vulnerable in the near future to the kind of exponential virus infection rates that the rest of the world has suffered due to their low vaccination rates. They will also be competing with third world countries for vaccine supplies. We may have the worst effects of covid behind us in a year’s time but I doubt that will be the case in Australia.

And mine.

I’ll bet my bottom dollar ARU, All Blacks and the Aussie cricket team come over. There really is no excuse. If we delayed until summer 2022 I bet my other bottom dollar the NRL will do the same and kick off about origin and the season being disrupted.

For me, crack on. Let all the players from the NRL choose they’re representation from heritage. Ban the Aussies and NZ from all international competitions for 10 years. Do not give any game they play international status. It’s about time the bodies stuck up to those arrogant, self centred pr1cks

This