Rugby league world cup

[Tamesaint]

What is the point of it? Everyone knows that Australia or New Zealand are going to win it. Most World cups have qualifying tournaments but not Rugby League - hence scores like today. England 94 Greece 4. 

The T20 World Cup in Cricket is so much better.

 

[badgerx16]

14 hours ago, Tamesaint said:

What is the point of it? Everyone knows that Australia or New Zealand are going to win it. Most World cups have qualifying tournaments but not Rugby League - hence scores like today. England 94 Greece 4. 

The T20 World Cup in Cricket is so much better.

 

FYI, there were regional qualifying tournaments, which is how Ireland, Scotland, Greece, the Cook Islands, etc, get to play, but higher ranking teams such as Serbia don't, because they failed to get through the elimination rounds. Remember this is the 2021 RLWC, so qualifying started in 2018. The issue with all this sort of tournament is how do the lesser teams develop if not, at some point, being exposed to the big guns. Most of the Cook Islands players play in NZ, as they all have dual nationality due to the islands being administratively part of NZ. A lot of the Greek players are Australians of Greek descent who play in the NRL, similarly with the Lebanese. Most of the Scottish team are from Yorkshire or Lancashire, and either play Super League or Chaipnship rugby.

( Also, RL was illegal in Greece until about 6 months ago ).

There are more nations, globally, that play Rugby Union to a high standard, or cricket - for instance the Netherlands are at the T20WC.

As for the favourites, NZ are ranked #1, England are #2, Tonga are #3, and Oz are #4

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Men's_Rugby_League_World_Cup_qualifying

Edited 30 October, 2022 by badgerx16

[Yozzman]

Not sure how Australia can be 4th favourites in anyone's eyes . They are ranked 4th by the IRL but they are definitely the favourite (4/9 with my bookie).

[dsr-burnley]

Look out for the wheelchair matches.  If you've seen what is (somewhat misnamed) "wheelchair rugby", which is what rugby union passes off as their version of the game, it's nothing like.  It's basically the same rules as rugby league, with 6 tackles, tries scored by touching down, passing, offside, and so forth, but with tackling by tags rather than bringing the man to the floor, with 5 a side, and with kicking done with a clenched fist or wrist for obvious reasons!  The players may or may not be disabled from the waist down (they don't need to be, able bodied people can play too) but from the waist up, they are properly fit, active, strong rugby players.

The final is Friday evening 18th November, BBC.  Almost certainly England v France, which may or may not negate the purpose of playing the tournament in the eyes of the OP. 😉