Rugby League World Cup 2021 - What the hell happens now?!

This morning, the Australian and New Zealand Rugby League authorities made the shock announcement that both national teams had withdrawn from the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. The news sent British rugby league fans choking on their cornflakes and the administrators in Australia choking on their own self-righteousness.

Not surprisingly, the debate turned very sour very quickly. RFL chair Simon Johnson, Super League chief executive Ken Davy and England captain Sam Tomkins have all criticised the decision. The criticism has ranged from the more mildly spoken Tomkins, who labelled the decision as 'strange' to the eviscerating Johnson, who brandished his southern hemisphere counterparts as 'cowards'.

The debate was an rancid as you would expect on Twitter, once described by St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus as an 'open sewer'. Australians were almost mocking the UK's failings in controlling the pandemic, including the fact that daily case rates and deaths from covid often surpass the Australian total throughout the pandemic as a whole. Some British fans reacted with equally as little dignity, mocking the fact that the Australians have the least-successful vaccine programme in the developed world. Both are huge sources of Governmental failure which should make us weep, not mock.

In my view, Australia and New Zealand are permitted to withdraw from the tournament. The manner in which they did it is a sour point though. To give organisers just four minutes notice of the withdrawal before making the news public is contemptuous. To the suggest that the tournament should be moved to 2022, simply to fit their nations, is arrogance of the highest order.

The UK Government has funded this tournament to the tune of £25 million pounds. For context, that is a higher value than a multi-year Super League broadcast deal with Sky Sports. The tournament's lead sponsor, Cazoo, has paid over £1 million to hold that title. One imagines they may not wish to pay that much if the tournament was held in 2022, with the latter stages clashing with the behemoth of the FIFA World Cup.

The organisers have secured the rights to play at Premier League stadiums in Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds and London. The effort and cost of that must have been immense, as must the cooperation of the hosts. For the Australians and New Zealand to demand a rearrangement is a direct insult to the work of the tournament organisers.

By all accounts, the organisers have tried to accommodate every need of the Australian and New Zealand teams. To be treated in this manner in return is the ultimate kick in the teeth.

Ruminating over what may have been doesn't help anyone. The big question is where we go from here. In my view, we should play on.

The target audience of this tournament is not your regular rugby league fan. It is the new fan. The fan who is a blank canvas, one that does not see Australia and New Zealand as their overlords, but just another country. They do not know who Tom Trbojevc or Nathan Cleary are. You cannot miss or pine for someone or something that you do not know exists.

In years gone by, England, Australia and New Zealand were the international game. That is not so anymore. Tonga have beaten all of those teams since 2017 (if you count Britain's incarnation of 2019, which was the de facto England side). Papau New Guinea have defeated Britain. Samoa and Fiji are strong nations in their own right. Their pride, passion, song and traditions are what make the World Cup so special. Australia and New Zealand play their part. But they are not the tournament itself. They are certainly not bigger than it.

Herein presents a test for the tournament's organisers and the international game as a whole. Are we merely puppets who dance to the tune of the Australian and New Zealand puppetmasters? Perhaps. But that cannot happen anymore. For the game to grow and thrive, we cannot be held captive by nations simply because they are dominant. Their interests do not trump those of the game as a whole.

For quite some time, it has been obvious that international sport is how the game grows. Take the fact that today's story has led the sports bulletins and has attracted comments from leading MPs. The international game has a reach that the domestic game could never ever dream of. 

We need to wean the international game off the teat of the ARL. Today, the weaning process has been replaced with going cold turkey. There is no question that this presents challenges but if the game is to thrive it must be brave and bold. Stick to your guns and this will succeed. The show must go on.