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

Why don't the Australia and New Zealand rugby league authorities be honest and say that they simply do not want to come over here to participate in the competition instead of claiming that they are protecting their players from the pandemic when apparently the players want to come is pathetic!

You do of course realise that The Hundred is going to fail and is awful for the existing Counties, right?

Mal Meninga has given his blessing to Australian players who may wish to play for other nations - James Tedesco for Italy for example. And Josh Hodgson has said that he will come and play if selected. Apparently the clubs cannot legally stop their players from coming if selected. And the RLPA - the Australian players’ association- is angry because they were not consulted by those who made the decision on their behalf. This competition is bigger than any one nation - even Australia- and it should go ahead as planned. I would relish an England v Tonga or Samoa final and it would get a full house! Bring it on!

I am not sure if it is true but I was told at the weekend that the Japanese have been threatened with multi million dollar fines by the OOC if they postpone the Olympics. There should be similar sanctions against Australia and NZ. In fact, I believe that they should be barred from competing in international RL for at least another World. Cup cycle so the fact that they wouldn’t be involved in the next one after this would not create the “oh my gosh” moment that we are having now. Let them watch their players involved with other nations compete fir the games greatest honour from their safe, covid free armchairs.

If they think that covid is going away soon i.e. within the next 12 months, they are dreaming.

We need to remember that whilst the UK is around 70% double jabbed, the likes of Australia are struggling to hit double digits, and that rugby players, officials and their familes will be way down the pecking order.

Until the world is vaccinated in sufficient numbers, then international tournaments will be subject to restrictions or boycotts, and those that take place will be a lesser event than they otherwise would have been.

Its a tough call for the organisers, as without the two biggest attractions, the world cup will be a much poorer event to follow.

Which is having little impact on the numbers of infections with double-jabbed infections set to outpace unvaccinated infections for the first time. So again, it isn't going away any time soon. The current runaway rise in cases has come during a heatwave, the very time it's supposed to go down naturally. Extrapolate that to the winter months and perhaps factor in whatever new variants have arrived by then and I think we can all work out what the situation is likely to be.

You either accept the risk is not going away and work to the best protocols to minimise it or give up on life. I suppose ultimately it's each to their own.

The question still stands-why is it only the Australian and New Zealand Rugby League teams who aren’t prepared to travel?

Disruption will be part and parcel of every day life and that applies to sporting competitions. I have seen individuals pull out of non team sports recently, such as Tennis and Golf but I can’t think of too many organisations that have pulled out full teams from team competitions. They may have had to soak up some individual pull outs from those squads (although I can’t think of many of them either) but it’s not been a major issue.

We can debate the ins and outs of covid impact all day long but this isn’t about covid in any shape or form IMO and the NRL don’t deserve the respect of us letting them hide behind it. The NRL do not care one jot for internationals and haven’t done since the day the game boomed Down Under about 10-15 years ago. They see them as an inconvenience, that could potentially disrupt their competition and rob them of some of their stars on occasion. It’s that simple and if the players down under actually care about representing their countries, then they should kick up one hell of a fuss and force a change of stance through.

That's my understanding as well. If that is the case, I would just invite the players and go ahead with the World Cup with "unofficial" New Zealand and Australia teams, assuming that enough players were up for it (I am confident they would be). And if the Kangaroos and Kiwis don't like it, expel them form the international federation altogether.

I agree. You could probably put together 'unofficial' Kangaroos & Kiwi teams together from UK based players alone. Get it played.

As stated elsewhere, 75% of the players want to go, the federations are messing about because the NRL are pulling their strings!

When we played Tonga two years ago, it was a 'Tonga Invitational' side because their federation had been expelled. Barely anyone noticed, and it made no difference!!

Players like Cook and Tedesco are chomping at the bit and want to come....Tedesco talking of playing for Italy under heritage rules if there's no Australia. IMO that's just daft.

Replace Australia with Australia Invitational, and the same with NZ. Then say, boys if you want to play contact Jon Dutton!! Ultimate two fingers to the NRL and we crack on.....There's more than one way to skin a cat.