League: Raelene Castle named on panel to review Kiwis Rugby League World Cup failure

Former Bulldogs CEO Raelene Castle. Photo / Getty

The Kiwis are calling on experience to conduct an independent review of their underachieving 2017 Rugby League World Cup campaign.

Former Canterbury Bulldogs chief executive Raelene Castle, and international sports barrister Tim Castle - no relation - have been appointed on an independent panel to find out what went wrong for the Kiwis, who were dumped out of the World Cup by Fiji in the quarterfinals.

"We were all disappointed with the Kiwis' performance and need to understand what went wrong," said NZRL chairman Reon Edwards.

"A thorough independent review is essential if we're to get it right for the next World Cup."

"We completely understand how the New Zealand League community, including players and coaches, feel about this World Cup performance by our Kiwis team.

"We all want our team to be successful and we need to ensure we do and have everything we need to achieve what we all desperately want – to be best in the world."

One of the issues broached by the review will be whether to retain the coaching eligibility rule which means the Kiwis coach must be a New Zealander.

The review will also cover the following.

Kiwis campaign preparation and performance for RLWC17 including, but not limited to, the following:

•Preparations and planning for RLWC17;
•Resources committed to the campaign both human & financial;
•Leadership and capability;
•Coach selection policy;
•Player selection policies;
•Management of player culture and welfare;
•Tournament logistics;
•Game plans, implementation and evaluation;
•RLIF and RLWC17 local organising committee rules and regulations.

The findings will be released by February or March.