Rads spoke about how much more entertaining the game was back in the early 2000’s during a recent podcast. Everything goes in cycles and since Maguire came here in 2010, the whole game in this country and changed and got in to that grind mentality of low error counts, low risk plays, strong carries from your outside backs in your own 30 metres and the defensive structures have improved. A team will go totally against the grain at some point and be a trend setter for playing a more open brand of rugby. Why can’t that be us? If Rads knows it’s turgid, why not do something about it? We couldn’t been making the change these last 3 seasons. We’ve won nothing anyway, so we could had a transitional period to go in a totally different direction. One where you say ‘you score 30 and we’ll score 40’ or at least try to do that.

The Liverpool way a few seasons ago, I don’t watch much football but it seemed to have brought about a change in the PL and more attacking football than the English way of defensive play.

I agree. It seemed when we appointed (and at the same time didn’t) SE then AL that was the way we were going to go. That could well have sprung change in SL but alas due to the well documented failure of the coaching staff it isn’t to be under the current coach.

Cas kind of threatened it in 2017 and Saints certainly did under Holbrook, but it never caught on. Part of me hopes Powell does it at Warrington and inspires the rest of the league to change their way.

Liverpool are the example that springs to mind in sport of a team that broke away from the supposed winning method of playing to go their own attacking way. Rather than packing the midfield, sitting deep, playing on the break and winning by not conceding and pinching the odd goal, they went ‘we’ll go after you’, pressure you with the ball, push the fullbacks right up and if we concede 2, we’ll get 3, concede 3, we’ll get 4 and for a couple of seasons they were totally dominant.

I do fully expect Wire to be hugely entertaining to watch next season. They have an ultra attacking spine and a coach who will encourage that. If they can do that and win the big trophies, than they could lead a change away from the robotic rugby we see most teams play.

The real question now is whether we go ahead or not.

For me, we should. Any sort of Australia/NZ representational team IMO would devalue the comp. As they aren’t recognised teams I doubt the clubs would be obligated to release players.

We should look to add the 2 of USA, Solomon Islands or Serbia and see how many players defect to the south sea island nations. It could even result in a more competitive tournament with talent more evenly spread.

Stick 2 fingers up at ‘em

It might be a question of money whether we go ahead. It may well be a mickey mouse competition with no Australia or New Zealand but the amount we would have to pay back to cancel it may mean we have to go on.

With you all the way until the last sentence! I like singing about 1955 at the HJ...

So the NRL clubs have now come out openly and said that they do not any of their players to participate in RLWC21. So that effectively rules out the Indigenous Nations and the Maoris and means that any player deciding to participate by representing say, Tonga or Samoa will do so against the will of their employer and without their employer’s support. I can’t see too many players wanting to run that risk. So I am now guessing that RLWC21 is a dead duck!

Yes it's game over now I think. Only question looks to be whether it's a postponement or cancellation.

Yes! Neither is a good option for us in the UK. Postponement to next year would mean competing with the football world cup for TV and other media time in the UK and would only benefit the Southern hemisphere nations as it would get top line media attention there. It’s no wonder the Australians want to push it back as they will probably win it anyway. I was a strong advocate of going ahead without the so called big two on the basis that we could get good representation for Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea. But now I think the only sensible thing to do is to cancel.

Why would we be competing with the soccerball WC?. Theirs will be June/July, ours October/November.

It's played in Qatar this time round so will be start in mid November.

One thing I'd be saying to the NRL/ARL if I was the RLWC board - if you're so committed to the international game as you and the 'gospel' Phil Gould like to claim - play it in June/July 2022. No football world cup, PL season finished, football grounds available, easier for broadcasters.

That’s not a bad suggestion but there is no way the NRL (or the Superleague bosses) would allow that to happen in the middle of their season but, ironically, that is exactly what the richest soccer clubs are having to do next year in order to accommodate the soccer world cup.

The difference is, of course, that FIFA, is much bigger than any one league or nation whereas, in rugby league, the IRL plays second fiddle to the NRL.

Wendyball WC only starts the week of our final (were they to knock it back exactly a year)
There’s an easy solution...just bring it forward a week next year.
People will be pratting about with flags anyway, market it to ‘get them up early’
Sell it as back to back world cups....watch England in England etc.
If done correctly you’d get a huge amount of football and general sports fans interested piggybacking on football hysteria in the media!

We are talking about a FIFA World Cup, probably the biggest sporting event in the world and one taking place less than 18 months after England made it to the final of the Euros and will be considered one of the teams likely to win it. The build up in the press and media will likely begin as soon as the 2021/22 Premier League season ends and carry on through the first stages of the following football season. If we held our WC in 2022 we could win the thing and still struggle to make the back pages/main stories as nothing but the FIFA tournament will matter to the press and other media or to the public at large at that stage. It has to be this year for our WC or it won't happen at all.

Cant help but feel it won't go ahead this years notice on the bcc site the NRL clubs support the stance of postponement and even Dutton now seems to be wavering on it going ahead, i just hope the end comes quickly and it isn't dragged on its time for a yes or no.