Is An Expanded World Club Challenge Good For Our Sport?

In light of the tremendous World Club Challenge game we saw on Friday night, the idea of expanding the competition has come to the fore. Despite his side’s loss, Leeds Rhino’s Chief Executive Gary Hetherington is pushing for an expansion, which could see the top three teams in England take on the top three in Australia and the possibility of playing in different venue’s.

Mr Hetherington said: “There is no doubt that the Probiz World Club Challenge generated a great deal of interest and there’s a big appetite for it from sports fans in England.”

There is no denying his point. The tickets for the game sold out a couple of days before and it was claimed that there had been lots of interest from people outside what is considered the normal rugby league region. To know that the interest was there is exactly what rugby league needs. Its profile needs to be raised outside of the North and for some money to be brought in. It was a cracking game and hopefully, anyone who did watch it may be keen to watch rugby league again sometime in the near future.

Also, let’s face it; it would be good practice for us. When it comes to international games we always struggle against Australia. We can never quite match up to them but if our players were to get some experience against the top teams from Australia, who’s players will more than likely also be playing in the international squad, it might give us a better idea of what we are facing. We might even be able to beat them one day.

However, as with everything, not everyone is seeing this expansion as a positive thing. If it is only open to the top 3 teams then will it just be played by the same 3 teams every year?  Let’s be honest, there are some clubs who will never make it into the top 3 so how will it ever benefit them? All the profit and profile raised will only be received by the top teams who get plenty of it anyway.

It may also be that player’s from those teams are picked first for international duty because they have experience playing against the Aussie’s. This could mean any talent form the lower placed teams will be ignored because they haven’t had the chance to get that experience.

All in all, I think an expansion would be a good idea. The game on Friday was fantastic and a whole tournament like that would be great viewing for the spectators. Besides, anything that raises the profile of rugby league nationally and maybe even internationally can only be a positive thing. However, it needs to be thought through and executed carefully. Gary Hetherington needs to make sure that the whole rugby league community benefits, not just his own Leeds Rhinos.

 http://www.superleaguefans.com/rugby-league/2013/02/27/is-an-expanded-world-club-challenge-good-for-our-sport.html