New Zealand is one of several teams capable of taking out the 2022 Rugby League World Cup. Photo / Photosport
New Zealand is one of several teams capable of taking out the 2022 Rugby League World Cup. Photo / Photosport
Get ready for the best Rugby League World Cup there has ever been. The tournament, which starts on Sunday morning, should be a ripper, surely the most competitive in the event's history.
It's easy to poke fun at league's international horizons – as the game has struggled to grow beyondits traditional bases – but there has been good intentions.
That was shown back in 1954 with the first World Cup, when the Kiwis and Kangaroos made the long trip to Europe. The best of British players crossed the channel, with hosts France viewed as favourites.
There were six round-robin matches – in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and Bordeaux and more than 30,000 spectators attended the final at Parc de Princes in the capital. Great Britain upset France 16-12 in the decider, with the game broadcast live on the BBC.
That tournament was a heady success and predated its rugby (1987) and cricket (1975) equivalents by decades. But league couldn't make the most of its head start, nor capitalise on the success of the first event.
There were seven tournaments over the next 23 years (1957, 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1977), almost all with different formats, from a single round robin – and no final – to 21 matches between five teams spread across nine months.
At one stage the World Cup almost disappeared, shelved between 1977 and 1985. The next two iterations were confusing and drawn out, with preliminary matches across a four-year period, with World Cup status arbitrarily designated to certain games and not others (often the final match of a series).
The stand-alone tournament format was only revived in 1995 – with 10 teams and 15 games – before the event expanded rapidly – with 16 teams and 31 matches five years later, including an Aotearoa Māori side alongside the Kiwis. Another eight-year hiatus followed but each of the last three events have been an improvement on the previous.
Stephen Kearney in action for the Kiwis at the 1995 World Cup. Photo / Photosport
League still lacks true international depth but its flexible and pragmatic eligibility rules, though not perfect, make the most of a limited pool of professional players.
Parramatta halfback Mitch Moses, fresh off a grand final, will be directing Lebanon around the park while Roosters playmaker Luke Keary wears the green of Ireland. Half of Penrith will turn out for Samoa. Several State of Origin stars will be playing for Pacific nations.
The net result is that the minnows will be stronger and, even more importantly, there are five countries with realistic hopes of lifting the trophy; with the emergence of Samoa and Tonga among the traditional 'big three'.
That compares favourably with rugby, especially given the large disparity in nations that play the sports, as only perhaps six nations were viewed as genuine contenders at the last Rugby World Cup in Japan.
The 16-team format is also long overdue – with four groups – after the clunky mix of four and three-team groups at the last three tournaments.
Having every match live on the BBC will do wonders for the profile and exposure of the tournament, while organisers are confident about record attendances, with the games spread across 21 venues.
Most importantly, the action should be compelling, even in the group stages. It will be a refreshing break from the NRL, where Peter V'landys and his merry men have done their best to ruin the 'product', with incessant and unnecessary rule changes designed to speed up the game, which turned many matches last season into a heavyweight version of touch football.
