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Rugby League
Super League / Northern Hemisphere
Is international Rugby League ready for a World Cup?
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<blockquote data-quote="snoopy snoopy dog dog" data-source="post: 161551"><p>Of that there is no argument. League as a professional sport has a longer history of holding World Cups than Union (12 championships versus 6). Like you state, history shows League has it's 1st World Cup well before the 15 man game in 1954. However it, like all six tournaments until Wales' inclusion in 1975 (due to Great Britain splitting into Wales and England teams), was contested by just four teams. Only 5 teams had contested World Cups until 1995 (PNG being the 5th) by which point Union had 16 participants in it's competition. </p><p></p><p>In the 50 plus years since League's initial global competition, the sport hasn't really grown a great deal beyond it's traditional strongholds of Australia, the north of England and New Zealand. I'd love to see that change. It would be fantastic if Lebanon were able to grow as a force in their homeland as a result of the influence of their Aussie-Lebanese players. Hopefully David Niu's ambitious plans for the game's growth in the USA come to fruition. Wales could come good if the Celtic Crusaders win a franchise in Super League in 2009. Russia and Georgia have also shown signs of coming good (although both are long term projects). None of those seemingly progressive nations will benefit next year in the World Cup because they failed to qualify in a flawed system. Instead there'll be an Irish side made up of English ex-pats, a similar story with the Scots and Samoa made up of guys who've already played for New Zealand but are no longer good enough.</p><p></p><p>If the World Cup is a financial success, which I hope to be the case, my reservations will prove unfounded. The money it generates can go towards developing the game in smaller nations (like those I've mentioned above) thus increasing the player base in those countries. If that is what happens, then League is ready for another world cup. If the competition is a financial loss maker, I fear it could be quite a long time until the next tournament is held.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="snoopy snoopy dog dog, post: 161551"] Of that there is no argument. League as a professional sport has a longer history of holding World Cups than Union (12 championships versus 6). Like you state, history shows League has it's 1st World Cup well before the 15 man game in 1954. However it, like all six tournaments until Wales' inclusion in 1975 (due to Great Britain splitting into Wales and England teams), was contested by just four teams. Only 5 teams had contested World Cups until 1995 (PNG being the 5th) by which point Union had 16 participants in it's competition. In the 50 plus years since League's initial global competition, the sport hasn't really grown a great deal beyond it's traditional strongholds of Australia, the north of England and New Zealand. I'd love to see that change. It would be fantastic if Lebanon were able to grow as a force in their homeland as a result of the influence of their Aussie-Lebanese players. Hopefully David Niu's ambitious plans for the game's growth in the USA come to fruition. Wales could come good if the Celtic Crusaders win a franchise in Super League in 2009. Russia and Georgia have also shown signs of coming good (although both are long term projects). None of those seemingly progressive nations will benefit next year in the World Cup because they failed to qualify in a flawed system. Instead there'll be an Irish side made up of English ex-pats, a similar story with the Scots and Samoa made up of guys who've already played for New Zealand but are no longer good enough. If the World Cup is a financial success, which I hope to be the case, my reservations will prove unfounded. The money it generates can go towards developing the game in smaller nations (like those I've mentioned above) thus increasing the player base in those countries. If that is what happens, then League is ready for another world cup. If the competition is a financial loss maker, I fear it could be quite a long time until the next tournament is held. [/QUOTE]
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Is international Rugby League ready for a World Cup?
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