Imagine sends Toulouse, Wakefield, Salford and Hull KR to Australia to play a series of games with Penrith, Melbourne, South Sydney and Parramatta. That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? This is what happened 25 years ago this week, described by Souths icon George Piggins as “one of the greatest Persians ever committed to the Australian sports community.” Tough, but probably true.
The thoughtless, illogical and protracted Club World Cup was a car accident of a tournament. But he is remembered with unbridled pleasure by many who are there to play, train, report, or watch. In his new book, Two Tribes, Steve Mascord shamelessly recalls the events of 1997. He was reporting daily on the “Super League War” for the Sydney Morning Herald, and he loved it. Now he returned to talk to the 100 people present.
Never delay in accepting praise for success and do not rush to admit your failed initiatives, the late Maurice Lindsey, then chairman of the Super League, admitted to Mascord: “We did something stupid,” but immediately added that it was “Nigel Wood’s fault.” . ”. Lindsay claimed to have formed the top three English clubs since the Super League debut season – Wigan, St Helens and Bradford – to play Australia’s top three, but “Wood stood up and said” we all play, we play 12 clubs, or no one plays. “I said, ‘Hell, hell, hell, they’re going to be destroyed.’ Lindsay was right. They did. “Long story short, it was a disaster.”
Yes, but what a ridiculous disaster. It all started with enthusiasm, with Visa depositing $ 1 million for the winners and $ 500,000 for the runners-up. The bookmakers knew what was going to happen: the four favorites were the Australian teams; five 1,000-1 outsiders were from Europe. With only 10 teams in the Australian Super League, they needed more games. The complexity of the tournament was such that most teams played six group games in two home or away blocks – one in June and one in July – but the six clubs played only four games.
Gary Pearse, the Super League’s marketing manager, knew it was doomed before it started. “It was an absurd situation,” the former Wallaby told Mascord. “We investigated it and no one wanted it. But the TV people wanted it more than sports. ”
This was very convenient, especially since there was no sport. The opening night was a cataclysmic preview of future events as the best sides the UK had to offer were destroyed. Shaun Edwards, Martin Offiah, and dozens of Australian jets delayed the London Broncos, beating hosts Brisbane Broncos at the break, but collapsed in the second half; reigning champions St Helens were beaten at home; The undefeated leader of the league, Bradford, was crushed. Judges boss Greg McCallum said, “One weekend the donkey fell off him and we never recovered.”
England and France have lost 9 of the first round and 52 of 60 international matches. Five Australian teams remained undefeated in the group stage, while two lost only once. In contrast, Wigan were the only European team to win twice. There had to be four European teams in the quarter-finals, so Penrith was eliminated from the competition, even though they won all the group games, and Bradford lost all six games, but qualified! The Bulls’ award? Return trip to Auckland 10 weeks after losing 64-14 in the group stage. This time they lost only 62-14.
Aware of what was happening on the pitch in Australia, the visiting players made sure they had time for a whale – and that didn’t help. Some teams had a harder time than they fought. Current Scottish coach Nathan Graham, the Bulls’ quarter-final loser, still loved it: “It was probably a crazy idea, but it was a great experience to spend time together.” Wayne Bennett told Mascord it was one of the best three weeks of his life. “It was a crazy idea,” Mascord now thinks. “The gap in standards was as big as it is now, and they should have known that.”
Not surprisingly, the innovation soon became obsolete. The crowd started big and shrank. Wigan have raised nearly 45,000 in four home games and more than 30,000 in Stoop in the London quarter – a crowd the club will never encounter again. Oldhemi was watched by 14,000 in Adelaide. Other ties were less attractive. Fewer than 2,000 fans saw Hunter Mariners crush the Sheffield Eagles, and only 959 were concerned when Paris Saint-Germain beat the Perth Reds. These devices were nirvana for rugby league nerds, fantasy devices that will never be repeated.
The Club World Cup lasted four eventful months, but the format died long before Brisbane defeated the sailors in the final in Auckland in October 1997. One-time annual clash between the champions of Australia and England.
Although the Football and Rugby Union held numerous international competitions at the peak of club games, the rugby league failed. The huge geographical distance between the leading leagues – and the resulting cost and time – is a major drawback. But even in the part-time period, meetings between the best of the English and French races were occasional and incomplete.
Expanding to a six-team event conditionally in 2015, the WCC returned to a one-off game in 2018 and has not played since 2020. And there is no guarantee that this will happen in 2023, because neither of the two champions. is obliged to play it on a contractual basis.
For twenty-five years, only half of European clubs and two stadiums remain in the Super League. The WCC stages have long since been demolished in Central Park, Knowsley Road, The Willows, Wilderspool and Thrum Hall. The NRL took off commercially, meaning that the glorious friendly against the English champions was less attractive to many club leaders. But if the Super League’s new partners are handed over to IMG, it could at least be a lucrative date on the sports calendar.
Most league fans would be content with the World Club Challenge, which resembles the UEFA Super Cup, a prestigious early-season televised match between Champions League and Europa League winners. After the Dolphins arrive as the 17th team next year, they can be played during the NRL’s Magic Week, where they miss a club every year.
Comparing NRL champions with Super League winners solves this problem, but as often happens, it leads to something else: Magic was in May of this year, between the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup and the final – an impossible time to send a European team to Australia. And it will almost certainly have to be played where Magic is, as the host city and the NRL will want the Premier League to operate that weekend.
Mascord wants to see it become a valuable, popular asset. “It should be a two- or six-team tournament sold to local authorities, hopefully in a neutral country, but it closes on the same weekend every year.” The enterprise was to be jointly owned by the two leagues, with costs and revenues distributed. Without this purchase from the NRL, the World Club Challenge will remain another file in the rugby league’s outstanding nostalgic files.
World Cup Overview: Starting squads
The Pacific nations, who face international competition in the middle of the season later this month, are likely to be the “lite” version of the teams that kicked off the World Cup. As predicted, 12 of this week’s New South Wales Origin team were joined by other nations: four from Fiji and Samoa, two from Tonga, and each from Italy and Wales. The numbers are similar for Queensland. Of course, not everyone will be selected by Australian coach Mal Meninga in October, but we can assume that the only Tedesco who can play in Italy this year with James in the NSW team will be his brother Matt. We can finally see Mitchell Moses playing his first game against Lebanon on June 22 under new coach Michael Ceyka against Malta.
One more thing
Tournament general manager John Dutton says the return of most World Cup teams this month – many for the first time in two and a half years – will “definitely give us a boost”. “We will use it to attract attention. We must seize the opportunity, be evangelists and create excitement. ”
Ticket sales for the opening and closing games are going particularly well – Dutton hopes to reach 70,000 on the opening day in Newcastle and Leeds together – the England v France match in Bolton, the Arsenal quarter-final and semi-final match in Wigan.
Dutton expects traditional league cities to be “late sales.” Not surprisingly, it remains more difficult to fill vacancies in Coventry and Middlesbrough. Six weeks before its launch, its staff is busy raising awareness in host communities before another major marketing campaign.
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