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DIEHARD
21-02-07, 01:52 PM
The end of the World?
by Dave Woods

So what are you doing for the World Cup? Have you already booked an extended break from work so that you can travel down under for the competition? Checked out the airline prices and hotel availability? Started saving for the trip of a lifetime? After all it's only 18 months away.

Whooooah! Hang on, course you haven't, because we don't know when, where or even if Rugby League's greatest show on earth is going to happen. And it's a scandal.

In any other sport this state of affairs wouldn't be tolerated. Football, cricket, rugby union, golf - they all plan their major international events well in advance. We know where the next rugby union world cup is going to be played even before this year's has been staged.

In football they are so far advanced they are planning for staging events in cities that might have been flooded by global warming by the time the jamboree gets to town.

But once again Rugby League looks set to miss out on the all the benefits from a long, planned build-up to what should be a show piece event by pretending it's not happening until the last possible minute.

Now's the time to make the world aware of what RL is capable of putting onDave Woods
We don't know the sponsor, the venues, not even whether New Zealand will be co-hosting the Cup. The smaller nations are not being given any kind of support to help their preparation and the needs of the fans to pre-plan are being ignored.

And what encouragement is being given to the players?

At the end of next season they will be supposedly playing in a World Cup that some well-placed Aussies believe might not even take place. So much for making international rugby league a priority.

Now's the time for trumpeting what is to happen, to make the world aware of what RL is capable of putting on.

Ultimately, the ARL is charged with making sure the event works. And they are showing their usual lack of enthusiasm for the world game. I think it still shocks them that rugby league is played outside New South Wales.

Colin Love is chairman of that organisation and the chairman of the laughably ineffective Rugby League International Board. Feel free to give him a ring and ask him what exactly is going on. If you get an answer please let the rest of us know.

As a footnote to last week's grumpy gripe about Hull KR's approach to press relations. After a stern email from the chairman and a good chat with PR officer, Sarah, I have to admit that most of my complaints were based on a mixture of miscommunications on the night and first night gremlins on the club's part. It seems Rovers are as keen as we are to get their very positive message into the papers, onto the net and onto radio and tv of all shapes and sizes.

I'm hoping for a similar reversal in attitude to the organisers of the World Cup by this time next week, but I won't be holding my breath.

Source: http://www.BBC.co.uk

Coaster
21-02-07, 06:47 PM
Haha this guy has a point.

Queenslander
21-02-07, 06:49 PM
Just give it to Brisbane already. Lucky we already have the world's greatest rectangular field stadium so we don't have to build anything extra. :D

The author of this story has a point. The Soccer World Cup is known years in advance to plan, organize etc. Yet here we are one year away and we got nothing.