A sport dependent on communities has been hit harder than most by the pandemic and the delay of the showpiece tournament adds to the financial implicationsRugby league is no stranger to finding itself in a state of flux. If anything, few sports are defined by their issues and problems more, but this week, more than ever, uncertainty hangs over the game in Britain like never before.The headline, of course, is that there will be no Rugby League World Cup this year, with the tournament pushed back to 2022 after Australia and New Zealand’s withdrawal ultimately left tournament organisers with no choice but to postpone. Related: Rugby League World Cup chief want ‘binding agreements’ for new 2022 dates Related: Rugby League...
Australia and New Zealand pulling out of the World Cup under the smokescreen of Covid concerns betrays the self-interest of southern hemisphere powerbrokersIt has been the overused catch-cry of the Rugby League Twitterati of late that the game is dead or, at the very least, breathing its last. It is typically nothing more than a look-at-me moan that shows little understanding of the sport’s history in either Australia or the UK.There is one element of the game, though, that is very much at a crossroads following Australia and New Zealand’s decision to pull out of the Rugby League World Cup later this year, for this is the culmination of a long-held disinterest-bordering-on-contempt Australian rugby league has held for the international...
Decision to pull out reflects administrators’ shortsighted prioritisation of the NRL but hope could lie in a revolt by playersFor anyone with even a brief knowledge of rugby league’s recent history, the only surprise about the announcement that Australia and New Zealand have backed out of this autumn’s World Cup is that none of this is even a surprise any more.Rugby league is a sport that makes constitutional crisis its modus operandi, and the long-held belief at the Rugby Football League that their counterparts in the southern hemisphere hold the international game in utter contempt became a brazen reality when confirmation came that the Kangaroos and Kiwis would not be travelling to these shores. Related: Fears rise over Super League...
Super League has a chance to go hell for leather from the off with firmer pitches and fitter players after a longer pre-seasonThere is a long-running joke in rugby league that the only thing you can really predict with any certainty is sheer unpredictability. Never was that more evident than in 2020, as Super League finished a season many felt would be impossible to restart because of Covid-19 in the most spectacular way possible, with St Helens’ last-gasp Grand Final victory against Wigan. Oh, and throw in the ignominious expulsion of Toronto Wolfpack, and £28m in game-saving government loans, too.So just another typical year, then: followed by a typical off-season. Hours before the new season starts on Friday, there were...
The biggest signing Super League has seen for years can help Warrington challenge Wigan and St Helens for supremacyIt is the end of an era at Castleford, with Daryl Powell confirming this will be his ninth and final season in charge, though his best chance of silverware may have already passed. The Tigers have a number of talented individuals, including new recruit Niall Evalds, but they also have an ageing pack and their form at the end of last season did little to suggest they will be able to send Powell out on a high. UNBELIEVABLE! WHAT HAVE WE JUST SEEN! Welsby has scored at the death to win the Grand Final for St Helens! Live now on Sky Sports...