So why can't they just delay the start of their season?

This SL season started nearly 2 months after 2020 did because the organisers were flexible and worked around the players and the lockdowns.

The NRL don't want to be flexible because International RL for them is #3 priority after State of Origin and the NRL season.

It wasn’t table Tennis at the Olympics, it was a separate comp but that’s a side issue.

-NZ Warriors players have been away from home for 18 months but that isn’t the whole Kiwi team. Many of their players live in Oz. Give them the option of pulling out in an individual basis by all means.

-International rugby should always come above club Rugby. The NRL starts in March and these lads would be out of quarantine before Christmas. They have three solid months to do what the hell they want. If they need to give them a few extra weeks than fair play. The French/Hastings comparison makes no sense whatsoever. They came back here after our league season had started, not three months before. Again give the individual players the choice.

As the Rugby league World Cup is (not) going on, the Aussie Rugby Union team and the All Blacks will be here playing.

The NRL don’t want pre season fixtures disrupted, PRE SEASON fixtures My days, what is this sport playing at? Football clubs are playing ore season games ‘now’ and are minus umpteen players who are on the beaches of Greece after playing in the Euros. These are players worth £50m, £80m, £150m etc and the clubs TV deals are worth billions of pounds.

I can’t take emotion out of it because it’s an emotional subject. I know some league fans in this country have a weird fixation with the NRL but nobody can defend this from a player welfare point of view. It’s the NRL protecting its own interests and absolutely nothing else.

Why can't the world cup be moved? Why ask the NZ guys to bolt another two months onto what they've already done? It also looks like the majority of NRL players will be in a bubble for the rest of this season. Why ask them to spend more time away from home?

Have they asked them?

Good call!!!

Obviously we've got different opinions on this one. I doubt we're going to change each other on this one.

Because there are multiple scheduling conflicts (FIFA WC next year), stadiums already booked, hotels and flights booked, sponsors already paid for stuff, thousands of tickets sold and the economic boost especially in the north of England will benefit massively from it, not to mention the sport as a whole.

And players have already come out and said they want to come over and play.

Aye

Everyone is entitled to their opinions but I couldn’t disagree more and that’s fair enough. I think they’re using covid as a convenient excuse to do what the NRL always wants to do and that is to avoid their players taking part in international fixtures. The players should be allowed fo make their own calls (as they are in every other sport I’m aware of) and whilst that may mean a number pulling out, both would still send strong squads and people would acknowledge individual concerns. It’s self interest at its absolute worst IMO.

I really cannot believe what the Aussies/Kiwis,are they trying to destroy RL.We need this world cup for the money also the feel good factor.
As other people have pointed out other teams are coming here union/cricket etc why the f+ck not them.

Totally disgusted with this attitude

I'm seriously wondering how many more self-inflicted wounds this game of ours can sustain.

For the first time ever, I'm starting to feel that I might be losing interest. It's almost as though there's no hope, so why bother?

In Britain, we're a skint joke where the tail ALWAYS wags the dog. We're not a professional sport, we just masquerade as one (and it's only a matter of time before that ends too).

In Aus, so long as they've got Origin, they don't care about anyone else (even though the Origin brand is now totally anachronistic and the two teams ridiculously imbalanced).

Nowhere else on Earth does the phrase 'lions led by donkeys' apply more than in Rugby League.

I'd carry on with the competition regardless.

We should form two representative teams made up from Australian and Kiwi players already playing in super league. I'm sure we could have 2 fairly competitive teams so that the world Cup can go ahead.

just kick them out of international rugby, and dont recognise their teams

It would devalue it by an unbelievable amount for me. I’d like to know the players thoughts Down Under and what potential there is for them to rock the boat and come out and say they want to travel. The NRL says Oz and NZ won’t be travelling but can they stop a group of players coming should they want to? Can they play under a slightly different guise? There has to be avenues they can look at. Trent Robinson threw his weight behind the importance of them coming a few days ago. Get him on board and let him coach a rep team that breaks away.

All hot air with no basis of knowing the possibility of something like that happening but I’d love for there to at least be some effort made.

Said this for ages....there needs to be another SL break-away with new branding.

• Super league has been lost to womans footbal, netball and fantasy football leagues, just like the Rugby WC, due to our ineptitude and failure to trademark it!
• The word 'league' also has negative connotations....just listen to how some in the southern based media say the word 'league' is derisory.
• Most of the media make it clear it is the northern game, and perpetuate old stereotypes of whippets, coal mines, deprived northern towns and eddie wearing!

We need to go the same way as france....ditch league and rebrand the whole game as Rugby XIII, spoken as Rugby thirteens.

It would cause confusion to loads of casual JCL union fans who watch six nations etc to watch our game and realise the product is better, without the negative connotations and the job union has done to it! It would create a new product...imagine a marketing campaign where you went out to buy 1 second slots on national prime time advertising just with a black screen and RUGBY XIII...Its coming! Then expand with occasional adverts showing class snippets of action.

It would do what 'the hundred' is doing for cricket, but would also help us nick those union fans on the fringes, if done correctly.

But, like the hundred, it also needs to be done as part of a brave re brand, appealing to new people and giving people in different regions a team to support- to appeal to wider new fan base but also dispel the myth that we are just run down northern towns that detracts investors...and gives us only Heinz big soup and bachelors peas.

We can be parochial and backward thinking no longer. We need to be brave, and all the clubs need to embrace it.

IMO we need to rebrand most teams, still playing in the usual towns, same grounds and initially to largely the same fanbase, but allowing them to play an odd game in their wider region each year, to create opportunity for growth

Imagine a SL of the following;

Leeds Rhinos
Liverpool Saints (St Helens rebrand, still based at Langtree park in St Helens etc, but showing presence)
Manchester Fords (Salford rebrand on the same premise as Saints, with Fords being a throw to Salford) If Salford are too parocial and not brave enough then a new Manchester club.
Cheshire Wire (Warrington rebrand- same premise)
Lancashire Warriors or possibly Wigan Lancs (due to the strength of the Wigan brand)
Hull East Yorkshire
London SW Broncos
Tyne Thunder Newcastle rebrand, promoted to SL
Wales / Celtic Crusaders Back at Wrexham, where they were successful and actually starting to get crowds.
Catalan Dragons
Toulouse Olympique who will probably be in next year anyway

Most of those clubs are already in place and ready to go, but with some smart re-brands you are appealing to huge areas of the country, rather than a few hundred thousands in deprived northern towns.

You may add another one or possible 3/4 teams to that on a franchise model and on the basis of appealing to wider areas.
It Toronto can sort themselves and ultimately get Ottawa in, they would get places.
If cas sorted a new ground you could have West Yorkshire Tigers....otherwise if they want to remain parochial in their hovel of a ground they would play in a strong re-formed British Championship

British champions get the opportunity to apply for a SL licence should they wish every 3 years, upon condition of appealing to a wider area. Ie/ if york came in they'd be York North Yorkshire - Sheffield - South Yorkshire etc.

Yes it takes a huge mindshift, yes you need to be brave, but do that and the game can survive.....carry on and we're dead in the water in 10 years, back to semi pro and amateur.

Sadly its a commercial world, and the SL i have put together there would command probably twice the amount of the new deal, plus more as it grows....simply on the basis of population you are appealing to. Same consideration with sponsors. Some say its pie in the sky, it'll never happen because fans would be in arms, but IMO i would be prepared to lose the 20-40/50% who can't see the bigger picture....they can be replaced rather than hold the game back and ultimately kill it!

If you're that childish and parochial you won't go if your team re-brand to represent a wider area, your a massive reason why the game is dying in the first place. Ultimately the game has to lose some of this deadwood to survive IMO.