Nice to see the negativity that's screwing RL internationally rearing it's ugly head again....
If we all keep bitching about "the old boys network will keep the country's RU better off than RL will ever be", no country will ever really have a dig and frankly this is as good as it will ever get...
Four Nations is a great idea, but if Team 4 isn't up to it, you do wonder if it's worth sticking with.
It's important Wales put up a strong showing next year and PNG continue to get exposure to higher class Rugby League (as it as for all lower teir nations). If it was me running the RLIF, I'd have NZ Maori, Australia A and the northern hemisphere equivalents doing
a lot of games against those kinds of nations ie 3 game tours etc.
Off-field, Rugby League could really help itself by promoting itself better.
NFL is a United States/Canada only game, but Super Bowl gets large media coverage despite the lack of international strength (obviously being the biggest country helps and having little things like ESPN, but still...) and in gaming, how many thousands of NFL games are there out there?
Same with NBA and NHL....
There's a grand total of something like five Rugby League games that have ever been done - Rugby League 1 and 2, AFL Rugby League from 1997 and one or two others - and while having a presence in gaming isn't ultimately as good as having a presence on the field, it does keep the game "in mind". However, there's no point having a Rugby League game if it sucks....stand up Sidhe and bow your noggin in shame.
One other thought - would it be better if we simply had the Lions and combined Tonga/Samoa/Fiji into the Pacific Islands for a year or two? Watching England, I was asking myself how many good Lions players are Welsh or Scottish...
And if someone threatened me with porridge if I didnae perform, Ah'd be kickin those Aussie basterds asses, ken, likesay??
