ENGLAND say they are set to confirm a June 23 Test against New Zealand in Denver despite the protests of NRL clubs.
Attempts to prepare the North American market for the 2025 World Cup have been frustrated as NRL sides claim veto rights over the venue of the international, while releasing players for Origin and Tests played within Australasia on a weekend when there are no club games.
But acting Rugby Football League chief executive Ralph Rimmer told reporters: “We’re hoping to have an announcement by the end of the month, that’s what we’re aiming for.
“There’s a bit of public relations to be resolved but that’s something we’d like to get sorted within the next week or so.”
Rimmer also revealed the next England coach would be offered a four-year contract. By the end of that term, incumbent Wayne Bennett – currently off contract – will be 71.
“On Wayne, one of the things we will say is that when we announce the coaching setup, it has to be a four-year programme that gets us to the World Cup,” Rimmer said.
And Great Britain will definitely be touring Australasia at the end of next year with the Kangaroos returning to the UK in 2020 – because it says so near the bottom of a Rugby Football League media release.
The first full Lions tour since 1992 has been long rumoured and was announced as part of a calendar tabled by the Rugby League International Federation in May, 2017.
But the final confirmation by British authorities about the return of an iconic tradition came in an unusual way – in the final paragraph of a release about the RLF’s new gear partner.
“As we build together heading towards the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, the GB Lions Tour in 2019 and ‘The Ashes’ Tests versus Australia in 2020, we will produce beautiful product and have some fun along the way,” Mark Underwood, the managing director of Elite Group, was quoted as saying in a statement about an agreement between the RFL and Hummel.
A search of the RFL website for “2019 Lions” reveals several passing mentions but no separate article on the topic. Authorities in Australia and New Zealand also appear not to have acknowledged the tour.
