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    #26
    The Rugby League World Cup...

    Several of my pie-eating mates were going to the pub this morning at the ungodly hour of 8.30 to watch the England - Australia match, in the hope that it would be a good game. While I normally enjoy the Ashes series tests between Australia and GB, I had an inkling this wasn't going to be anything like the sort of contest I'd want to drag myself out that early for.

    Australia 52-4 England.

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      #27
      The Rugby League World Cup...

      I listened to the first 15 minutes. After that it was two painful.

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        #28
        The Rugby League World Cup...

        That result almost kills the tournament stone dead, doesn't it? They should cut to the chase and just play the Australia-New Zealand final now.

        I like the format. Yeah, it's complicated, but it's an attempt to deal with an obvious drawback, the potential for hideously one-sided games. All the more reason for the England team to be embarassed with themselves at the moment.

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          #29
          The Rugby League World Cup...

          WOuld Australia be cynical enough to lose to PNG in order to eliminate the loser of NZ v. England?

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            #30
            The Rugby League World Cup...

            I think what that game shows is that the English clubs are far, far too reliant on the imports. Not that their fans give a shit as I understand that League international games are something of an afterthought.

            That Slater's a bit good, isn't he? If a trifle cunty when it comes to celebrations.

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              #31
              The Rugby League World Cup...

              well, this seems to have been closely followed by all

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                #32
                The Rugby League World Cup...

                I doubt even hardened League fans, who we don't seem to have many of in these parts, have been chatting about it much. Whilst the other pools have been interesting, every game in the main pool has gone exactly as you would have predicted beforehand. Which makes for a really dull event.

                New Zealand could save it (a bit) by suprising the Aussies in the final. And yeah, I do know that the Aussies final place isn't confirmed yet. The key word in that sentance is 'yet'.

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                  #33
                  The Rugby League World Cup...

                  rick derris wrote:
                  well, this seems to have been closely followed by all
                  It's a joke of a world cup tournament, really...not enough good teams to make it interesting, and such a long break between matches that people forget that it is still on...

                  There is not much interest in it here, even in rugby league strongholds like Sydney and Brisbane.

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                    #34
                    The Rugby League World Cup...

                    The second part (too long a break between games) is just a function of the first (not enough good teams), isn't it? You simply can't ask Rugby players to play on only four days R&R.

                    And for all that the tournament has failed, and that failure was almost pre-ordained, I can't honestly say the powers that be in League were wrong to try. How else are they going to get more countries playing without something like a World Cup for them to aspire to, and to use to sell the sport? They need to keep plugging away at World Cups and the international game generally, as the alternative is to retreat into a ghetto of Oz and Northern England, to wither and die.

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                      #35
                      The Rugby League World Cup...

                      Janik wrote:
                      the alternative is to retreat into a ghetto of Oz and Northern England, to wither and die.
                      Make that Northern Oz and Northern England.

                      Tonight, in sports mad Australia, a World Cup Semi Final is taking place in what is (currently) the second biggest football code in the nation.

                      Channel 9, however, are not broadcasting the match live in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide or Tasmania for fear of a ratings blowout.

                      Contrast that with the FIFA World Cup 2 years ago. People who will quite happily tell you that soccer is a game for poofters stayed up all night to watch the Socceroos play a sport they can barely comprehend. The tv ratings were phenomenal and that was on "ethnic" channel SBS not the mighty Nine.

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                        #36
                        The Rugby League World Cup...

                        There is not much interest in it here, even in rugby league strongholds like Sydney and Brisbane.
                        An embarrassing new low tonight in Sydney - fewer than 16,000 at the semi final. Amazingly,the biggest crowd of the tournament (apart from the sold out final) was for the game played in Melbourne (admittedly, most of the crowd appeared to be English ex pats).

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                          #37
                          The Rugby League World Cup...

                          Embarrassing lows? For Rugby League? They'd hardly begun.

                          See if, like me, you can spot the glaring internal inconsistency in this press release schedule for the next three years:

                          "International tournament schedule 2009-2011:

                          Oct-Nov 2009: Four Nations series in the northern hemisphere featuring England, New Zealand, Australia and France.

                          South Pacific Cup with the winner gaining entry into the 2010 Four Nations.

                          Oct-Nov 2010: Four Nations series in southern hemisphere featuring Australia, New Zealand, England and the winner of the 2009 South Pacific Cup.

                          European nations to contest qualifying series to determine who will join the 2011 Four Nations."

                          Now read that again. What happened to France between 2009 and 2010?

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                            #38
                            The Rugby League World Cup...

                            They've apparently made a £5m profit on the World Cup, though.

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                              #39
                              The Rugby League World Cup...

                              I assume that England, Aus and NZ are always in it, and that the fourth member comes from a European playoff in years when it's in the Northern Hemisphere, and a Pacific playoff when it's in the Southern. France won the last Euro-playoff, and are therefore in next year's tournament.

                              Seems pretty sensible, actually, given the relative strengths of the various countries.

                              But international RL has a huge problem, in that for decades the only two teams on roughly the same level have been England/GB and New Zealand. Australia have been uncatchable for as long as I can remember, and every other side has been miles behind. You can't do successful World Cups in those circumstances, as others have pointed out. The interest remains nearly all at club level.

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                                #40
                                The Rugby League World Cup...

                                The final that most people predicted will take place on Saturday. I will be rooting for The Kiwis, but I don't see how Australia can lose at the moment.

                                England aside, I think the WC has been an enjoyable event - pools b and c turned out to be fantastically competitive.

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                                  #41
                                  The Rugby League World Cup...

                                  I assume that England, Aus and NZ are always in it, and that the fourth member comes from a European playoff in years when it's in the Northern Hemisphere, and a Pacific playoff when it's in the Southern. France won the last Euro-playoff, and are therefore in next year's tournament.

                                  Seems pretty sensible, actually, given the relative strengths of the various countries.
                                  I agree, given the relative strengths of the countries, that it's eminently "sensible" to do this ... but it dosn't seem to leave a lot of room for the possibility (however remote) of France actually winning the bloody thing, does it? And if there's absolutely no chance of that happening, one does question what's the point of inviting them along to the party in the first place? They could have at least dressed it up with "the 2010 tournament will consist of the top three from the last one, plus the winners of the Pacific Islands playoff ...", if you get my drift.

                                  Rugby Union's not innocent in this respect, mind you, as it scrambles madly backwards from its smug assumption that the tri-nations plus England would be the top four seeds for the next World Cup, by saying those would be the "top 4 in the World Rankings", now it's becoming apparent that the "top 4" will not include England but Argentina. Expect an announcement before that draw's made that, rather than two randomly-drawn pools of 4, the whole draw will be 1 with 8, 2 with 7, etc, so England and Argentina will end up in the same pool regardless of who's 4th or 5th, ruling out the possibility of Argentina, Fiji, Tonga and the USA making up one first-round group.

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                                    #42
                                    The Rugby League World Cup...

                                    Looks like Australia have stuffed it up in the final - and a penalty try right at the end (awarded by the video ref) has separated the teams. Bound to be an endless amount of fuss about that decision.

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                                      #43
                                      The Rugby League World Cup...

                                      Hail New Zealand. This more than makes up for their cricketers being blown away in Brisbane.

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                                        #44
                                        The Rugby League World Cup...

                                        I feel a right tit now.

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                                          #45
                                          The Rugby League World Cup...

                                          Very average tournament.

                                          Magnificent final.

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                                            #46
                                            The Rugby League World Cup...

                                            Forgot the final was on until I accidentally tuned in to the last 10 minutes or so. The Australian commentators were hilarious. The sounded like they were in shock, depseraqtely hoping for a last minute revivial.

                                            Fortunately the Australian coach showed enormous dignity in defeat

                                            http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news...375062521.html

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                                              #47
                                              The Rugby League World Cup...

                                              I keep forgetting this section to OTF exists.

                                              The criticism of the tournament is a bit strong. No one can argue that the best 2 teams contested the final and with the exception of PNG the 'smaller' nations all had a genuine chance of making the semi finals. The fact that England didn't perform as well as had been hoped was disappointing but you can hardly blame the organisers for that.
                                              The criticism of crowds is also a bit unfair, 16,000 would be seen as a pretty good crowd for a league game for most NSW teams, and doesn't take in to account just how much TV coverage now dominates watching RL in Australia.
                                              The fact that Australia didn't win should be good for the game in NZ and perhaps also the Pacific islands.

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                                                #48
                                                The Rugby League World Cup...

                                                This was a World Cup not the NRL – the crowds were terrible:

                                                - one capacity crowd (the final)

                                                - one semi under 27,000 (England – NZ), the other under 16,000 (the host nation in Sydney)

                                                - the biggest crowd for a game not featuring the big 3 was less than 12,000. No other game involving the lesser countries even reached 10,000.

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                                                  #49
                                                  The Rugby League World Cup...

                                                  More to the point hardly anyone outside of NSW and Queensland who is not a die-hard fan realised it was even on.

                                                  That would not be the case with any other major sporting event held in Australia.

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                                                    #50
                                                    The Rugby League World Cup...

                                                    It will take a while before crowds at international level improve, thanks to the attitude taken by the game's administrators around the birth of the Super League. I don't think our international attendances will ever match that of RU (at least in the short term), but I was reasonably pleased with the turnout for the WC this year.

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