Rugby League & the World Cup

A global event for a parochial sport?

I have enjoyed watching rugby league for many years, and can remember right back to the endless Wigan domination of the late 80s and early 90s. The first game I can remember fully is the 1996 Challenge cup final, where Robbie Paul scored a hat-trick, won the Lance Todd award for man of the match, and still ended up on the losing side. I always miss how beautiful old Wembley looks.

I later lived in Bradford, during the period when they were at their peak with a whole host of gigantic players whose names started with V; Vangana, Vainokolo, and Vaikona. It was also the era when they played at Valley Parade, the football stadium, which made it much easier to go to matches than getting to the pre-war relic that is the Odsal stadium. It always amazed me that I could go to watch the world champions play in a league game, with pretty similar attendance, for half the price of watching Bradford city play football, even though they were two leagues off the top. My time in the city basically coincided with Bradford’s peak, and they really were the pride of the city and its best ambassadors.

As I write this, we’re just coming to the end of the rugby league world cup, delayed a year by New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Nation teams who are effectively their B sides refusing to travel during the pandemic era. It’s been a generally good tournament, with some great matches and the Pacific islanders are obviously a lot closer to the top three now they are regularly playing in the NRL. Seeing England lose to Samoa at the death was not really a surprise, as England do have a history of stumbling at the wrong moment and just hadn’t had a hard enough run before the semi. I also think that neither team is likely to beat an Australian team which, although it isn’t one of the classic touring sides of a generation ago, will still be a favourite to win at a canter.

In general it’s a sport which is doing well, and has ironically managed to expand more in the southern hemisphere and France when they have abandoned the idea of financing outpost clubs in places like London. The game is certainly in pretty good health, even if it is rather dependent on Sky TV money in the UK to keep going. When the bankruptcies across the two codes are compared, the more sensible financial model of RL is apparent, especially when no money spinning international calendar has ever been developed.

It’s this comparison with rugby union, and the attendant chip on the shoulder, which can be the biggest negatives about rugby league. Union certainly treated league badly in the past, and freely borrows ideas when it feels like it, but it’s not really considered a rival in terms of money (thanks to Twickenham internationals and rich benefactors) or player numbers. Schools of all social levels play union except for the strip of RL towns and cities that cross the Pennines. It’s perhaps different nowadays in the TV era, but certainly before England’s RU world championship in 2003 union viewers were basically union players which helped to gloss over the farcical rules of the game.

Rugby League is a great game, and can appeal to all sorts of viewers. When they leave behind the chip on their shoulder about their elder brother code, and they go for a more organic expansion then they are in good health. It’s been a great world cup, even if the final is likely to be one sided (although this could have always been the case). The wheelchair and physical disability tournaments have also produced highlights well worth watching.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, and my wife loved watching the Italian team beat Scotland in Newcastle. Let’s hope they keep going and build a genuine international calendar to advertise and fund the rest of the game. Now some games will be on regular TV, and we live in a city with a Championship level team we’ll probably go and see another match in the new season. Almost all the people I met at the England vs Samoa group match, or the Italy vs Scotland game, were watching their first game of rugby league. If the international authorities don’t drop the ball here, the game can take the momentum, interest and press coverage into a new, healthy, era.