By STEVE MASCORD via League Weekly
“WE’VE created a monster”
That’s the expression that popped immediately into my head as I stood in the home dressing rooms at Townsville’s 1300SMILES Stadium and watched as Fiji’s Bati celebrated their 72-6 win over Wales with an evangelical rabble rouser.
“Satan is a loser!” sang the likes of Jarryd Hayne, Ashton Sims and Kevin Naiqama, clapping, stooping, then jumping in the air.
Tonga attracting the biggest rugby league crowd in New Zealand all season as they accounted for Scotland 32-18 on Saturday night. Papua New Guinea sold out Oil Search Stadium in Port Moresby for the second week running as they took out a thriller against Ireland 14-6.
Of course, I don’t think of the rise of Pacific rugby league as a monster. The quote that popped into my head came from an imaginary NRL club chairman of chief executive.
When five Tongans chose the Mate Ma’a over New Zealand and Australia for this World Cup, it was astounding enough on its own.
But what has happened since, both on the field and at the RLIF meeting in Sydney, and what is about to happen may deem those decisions more significant than we ever expected.
The fact that the tournament opener between Australia and England attracted the biggest Friday night television audience of any Friday night match in Australia this year begs the question: if you’re running rugby league, don’t you owe it to rugby league commercially to put on more of this stuff?
But just about everyone who’s anyone in our sport spends most of their time working in the club game. They’re conflicted. International rugby league has a very real potential to detract from the prosperity of their day jobs.
The Tongans and Samoans performing their cultural challenges together, the Fijian hymns, the crowds and the ratings represent a profound challenge to that established order. The pressure on the clubs to release players, to have more Pacific Tests and more TV blockbusters involving the big three, will be intense after this World Cup.
I believe the flashpoint could be – should be – the rep weekend next year. We currently have a situation where anyone who wants to play against, or involve, NRL players between February and the first weekend of October has to do so in Australia.
Next year that means England, Leeds, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and perhaps even New Zealand. NRL clubs are like over-zealous parents, unwilling to let the players out of their site.
But what if England announced they were playing New Zealand in Dubai or London or Toronto? There are no NRL games on that weekend. How could the club possibly spin their refusal to release players?
Sure, they’d do it. Anthony Milford has, in the past, been prevented from travelling from Brisbane to Sydney for one of these matches. But they’d look bad, real bad.
And if international rugby league is to realise its potential, I don’t think it can happen completely by consensus. I think it needs confrontation. Our sport has had it’s World Series Cricket moment with the Super League War in Australia which engulfed everyone. But it hasn’t had its Twenty20 moment yet and it will.
This is where the likes of Andew Fifita and Jason Taumalolo come in. What if Cronulla and North Queensland tell them they can’t go to Hawaii to play Tonga on the rep weekend – when neither club is playing – and they go anyway?
Would the clubs sack them?
They times, they are a changing. The tectonic plates are shifting. Last night, Wales coach John Kear said he didn’t think a tier one nation would be toppled for the first time in World Cup history during this tournament.
After scoring 130 points in just two games, the Bati begged to differ.
“Everyone’s coming to get them,” said Kevin Naiqama.
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ONTO the ‘diary’ part of this column and Thursday night was a special one for me, with the attendees at my Canberra book launch including Samoa and New Zealand international Sia Soliola and two old friends from France, BeIn Sport commentators Rodolph Pires and Louis Bonnery.
There was some extremely passionate, wistful and insightful discussion about the state of the international game and Sia presented his numbered training kit to Louis as a token of his appreciation for a lifetime of service to the game.
The Australia-France game, while one-sided in the second half, attacted some 2 million viewers on Channel Seven across all platforms.
After the long drive to Sydney it was straight to the Seymour Centre for my first ever writers festival. What an experience to enter through a backstage door, use a dressingroom and be fitted with a wireless microphone! I made sure I got lost on the way to the stage, ala Spinal Tap, to make it a complete experience.
Parking passes had to be collected at the ground for England-Lebanon match at Allianz Stadium. But where do you park while collecting the pass?
Parking for the public was a steep $25; so I pulled into the adjacent Fox Studios and dashed next door to collect my pass. How much do you think the flat fee was at Fox Studios when I returned 10 minutes later? Yes, $25.
Dignitaries on my flight north the next morning included RLIF chairman Nigel Wood, Italy prop Paul Vaughan – who’d been released from camp to attend his sister’s wedding – and uber fan (not a fan or ride share aps – that word’s been ruined now) Brian Davies.
After dropping him at his hotel I preceded to my own and then gave Nigel a lift out to the game, as he was staying in the same place.
Security at the grounds is based on soccer’s Asian Cup with strict guidelines as to how many people can be inside more than an 90 minutes before kick-off. They were going to make the head of the world game wait with some catering staff at the gates before it was explained he had a good reason to wear a suit in 30 degree heat.
I snuck in behind him.
Filed for LEAGUE WEEKLY
