Rugby League World Cup 2017

[Saints1]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/26253658

"The 2017 Rugby League World Cup will be hosted jointly by Australia and New Zealand."

Good for the Aussies and the Kiwis, hopefully they can match the big crowds set in England last year. It was a good tournament in terms of excitement (unless the sadly untouchable Kangaroos were playing) and was easily the best tournament I can remember since 1995.

South Africa were in the running but to send the tournament there would have been a very bad move IMO. Try playing an end of season international or ANZAC Day friendly there, not a tournament that could spectacularly bomb.

Only another 3 years and 8 months to wait!

 

[FCBayernDM]

Congrats to them, I'm curious as to when we'll see the RLWC held out side of England, Australia and New Zealand. RL needs to broaden its horizons and spread the game to new countries.

 

[Saints1]

It does, but where is ready to host a tournament?

I don't think anyone is ready - yet.

 

[RoosTah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/26253658

"The 2017 Rugby League World Cup will be hosted jointly by Australia and New Zealand."

Good for the Aussies and the Kiwis, hopefully they can match the big crowds set in England last year. It was a good tournament in terms of excitement (unless the sadly untouchable Kangaroos were playing) and was easily the best tournament I can remember since 1995.

South Africa were in the running but to send the tournament there would have been a very bad move IMO. Try playing an end of season international or ANZAC Day friendly there, not a tournament that could spectacularly bomb.

Only another 3 years and 8 months to wait!

If they focus the game around Brisbane again, it will get good crowds. The Final was a sell out (and a cracking match) in 2008, and the tournament itself was successful enough to justify the interest in the England one.

South Africa would have been a bad idea, you're right. I'd argue France is a more fertile ground than SA at the moment - at least they have one pro team. Nevertheless, the game is only really becoming strong in Australia and NZ. Everywhere else it's still stagnating, and from what you're saying Dan it's going backwards in England.

Congrats to them, I'm curious as to when we'll see the RLWC held out side of England, Australia and New Zealand. RL needs to broaden its horizons and spread the game to new countries.

It does, but in all honesty that will take decades and considerable resources from bodies like the NRL. And whilst the NRL is doing brilliantly here right now, it is still fighting a war with the AFL that it won't want to water down its resources for.

 

[smartcooky]

It does, but where is ready to host a tournament?

I don't think anyone is ready - yet.

France?

 

[Saints1]

I'm not so sure about France even.

South of the country yes but are there enough venues etc?

 

[William18]

Probably not. Look at their crowds last year - they were good but nothing to see the world on fire. No way will they be able to get a good crowd to Tonga vs Scotland in Paris. They have loyal fan in the south but there aren't enough of them to make a competition successful.

 

[Saints1]

I completely agree.

 

[Basco]

Will they make it a farce again by hiding away the weaker sides in their own groups or are they planning of having a proper one?

 

[Saints1]

Will they make it a farce again by hiding away the weaker sides in their own groups or are they planning of having a proper one?

I thought that worked pretty well to be honest.

 

[Basco]

I thought that worked pretty well to be honest.

It worked pretty well if their goal was to move the thrashings from the group stage to the quarters stage. Hiding the weaker sides away also makes the RLWC loose credibility. I have seen on a RL forum the RLWC only turned over about 15m GBP ) Fake teams + farcical group stages = fail.

 

[RoosTah]

It worked pretty well if their goal was to move the thrashings from the group stage to the quarters stage. Hiding the weaker sides away also makes the RLWC loose credibility. I have seen on a RL forum the RLWC only turned over about 15m GBP ) Fake teams + farcical group stages = fail.

First, it's "lose", not "loose". "Loose" is a description of pants that are too big. Sorry, along with people mixing up "then" and "than", that's one of my biggest pet peeves.

Second, and more importantly, the Rugby League World Cup was a success by the metrics of the RLIF. Rugby League is a very niche sport, so the point of the tournament isn't necessarily to make a lot of money, but rather to provide an exhibition for the sport that gives it a larger stage with which to advertise itself.

For Great Britain this is particularly important, as the game is a mess there. By that measure it was a clear success - with matches outrating even EPL games and England Rugby rep games:

On a weekend that saw the England rugby union team taking on Argentina, EPL on Sky and an ATP tennis tour featuring the top players in the world, England v Fiji at the RLWC2013 came out on top with 2.2 million people watching compared to 810,000 watching the soccer.
http://www.triplem.com.au/sydney/sport/nrl/news/2013/11/rugby-league-world-cup-record-tv-ratings/

That England playing a tiny country like Fiji rated so well is incredible. In fact, the games rated incredibly well across the Rugby League World, out-rating its summer soccer competitor in Australia despite being played in the early hours of the morning.

This tournament was ultimately about both consolidation in the heartlands and building abroad, and in terms of the attention it attracted it has achieved both. The game is still behind the eight ball internationally, but there's no doubting that by the standards of the game's modest international footprint the tournament was anything but a "fail".

 

[Big Ewis]

got that, Basco ?! It's "LOSE" !!! NOT 'LOOSE', GODDAMMIIIITT !!!

 

[RoosTah]

got that, Basco ?! It's "LOSE" !!! NOT 'LOOSE', GODDAMMIIIITT !!!

Grammar and malapropisms are serious issues Big Ewis. See for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3y0CD2CoCs

 

[Big Ewis]

this thing's been posted before and it's very good. But I'm saying you necessarily look like a dick if you're often correcting people, just let em be man. I get it, if someone corrects me it's for the "greater good" so to speak, but there are more discreet ways to let the person know.
Just whatever, I see a ton of grammatifukks everyday on this forum, but I just mind my own business and move to the next thing.
But I agree with the bulk of what you're saying. It's annoying as hell some ppl don't get their fundamentals right and if we don't protect language now it'll be too late. Language is as it is for a reason, let's just keep it that way.

 

[RoosTah]

I don't really mind general "grammartifukks", but malapropisms are very annoying...

Anyway, as for the actual topic, here's a good article from the Sydney press about the 2013 RLWC: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...cup-has-been-huge-success-20131130-2yio5.html

 

[Basco]

Hey I know, let's abuse Johnny Foreigner because she can't speak perfect English

 

[goodNumber10]

On a weekend that saw the England rugby union team taking on Argentina, EPL on Sky and an ATP tennis tour featuring the top players in the world, England v Fiji at the RLWC2013 came out on top with 2.2 million people watching compared to 810,000 watching the soccer.
http://www.triplem.com.au/sydney/spo...rd-tv-ratings/

That England playing a tiny country like Fiji rated so well is incredible. In fact, the games rated incredibly well across the Rugby League World, out-rating its summer soccer competitor in Australia despite being played in the early hours of the morning.

This tournament was ultimately about both consolidation in the heartlands and building abroad, and in terms of the attention it attracted it has achieved both. The game is still behind the eight ball internationally, but there's no doubting that by the standards of the game's modest international footprint the tournament was anything but a "fail".

Not wishing to come across as a d*ck here but to say it outperformed EPL etc... is a bit disingenuous.

Yes, it did have higher viewing figures, and i'm not saying that wasn't a very good viewing figure, but when EPL was on Sky and the England vs Fiji game was on BBC those number have to be taken with a pinch of realism behind them.

SL gets around the same viewing figures as Club Rugby Union which are ok but not great and no where near England RFU when games are free to air, IIRC.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Was going to say the same thing - 6N games get between 4.5 and 6 million generally, depending on who's playing.
If the England vs Argentina game was on BBC1 it would probably get at least 3-4 million I would guess.

Just to put the 2.2m number into context - the 30th most watched program on BBC1 in the week of that Eng/Fiji game drew just under 4million viewers.
If you put anything on BBC1 during the daylight hours, you're pretty much guaranteed a couple of million viewers.

RLWC2013 has provided Rugby League with a rare opportunity to grab the attention of the nation and it is heartening to see the nation sitting up and taking notice of this great sport.

Again - not trying to be dismissive - but that (/\) sort of stuff, is just PR dribble.

 

[goodNumber10]

Again - not trying to be dismissive - but that (/\) sort of stuff, is just PR dribble.

It's like they got Stevo to write it for them..