Too complicated. Just have two groups. 1st and 2nd on the NRL vs 3rd and 4th in the superleague and vica versa.

If that was the situation next year we would have

Group A
SGI
Roosters
Huddersfield
Leeds

Group B
Wigan
Saints
West Tigers
Titans

1 vs 2 in the Semi finals and then the final.

Getting the Aussies to agree to any expansion would be hard. First things first we would need to get the game played at the end of the season not the start.

Maybe a top 4 - like a Champions Cup or something?

For example the top four teams in the ESL and the NRL get paid to play in it. This would add more Prestige to both the League Leader's and Minor Premiership trophy.

This is how I would do it: -

ESL 1 vs NRL 4
ESL 2 vs NRL 3
NRL 1 vs ESL 4
NRL 2 vs ESL 3

On a knockout basis

No , no ,no ,no , no ,no , for the last time , NO

so that's a yes from Starbug.

You could sort it by a rankings system like ERC - here is my attempt based on all results including finals;
1 SGI Dragons
2 W Warriors
3 Roosters
4 Titans
5 Tigers
6 Panthers
7 St Helens
8 Warriors
9 Raiders
10 Wolves
11 Rabbitohs
12 Eagles
13 Giants
14 Rhinos
15 Knights
16 Broncos
17 Hull
18 Bulldogs
19 Eels
20 Hull KR
21 Sharks
22 Crusaders
23 Tigers
24 Cowboys
25 Bulls
26 Trinity
27 Reds
28 Harlequins
29 Dragons
30 Storm

If it is to change, keep it simple to start off with. 2 SL teams and 2 NRL teams to contest a semi final each.

The qualifiers could be Grand Final winners and minor premiers to give more of a reward for winning the league. If that's the same team, then GF winners and GF runners up.

Its only one more extra fixture than clubs have now but its better than we currently have.

e.g 2011 would be
Wigan v Sydney
St George v St Helens

then week after the Final.

What an absoolutely shocking idea...that is literally the worst idea i have ever read on rlfans (thats quite an achievement)
What club in their right mind would want to play several matches in the same weekend, at the very start of the new season?
So the runner up in Super League, doesnt get to play for the charity shield, but two french clubs (one of which isnt even a professional team) do, how the hell can you justify that?
Do you not think that every match would be ridiculousy one sided (Catalans superior fitness will mean they easily beat the best french team; and from there on in, the team that has already played that weekend would get absolutely stuffed)? Unless of course you played this competition over several weeks...but why the hell would anyone want to do that, when it wouldnt mean anything (because teams like catalans get in just because they are french and some semi pro team gets in for the same reason, wheras the the SL runners up dont get a place) when we already have (imo) too long a season, the top players barely get a preseason as it is, with the internationals?

I have an idea... why not, the week before magic weekend, to kick the season off with a bang, have a wacky weekend (instead of your idea)... first, the U11 Humberside Youth League Division One Champions take on the 7th placed team of the open age japanese rugby union championship, for a chance to play the winner of the french league, the winner of which, goes on to play, the team whose name is 3rd aphabetically in the Championship (unless its a leap year of course), with the winner playing Widnes. The winner of that, goes on to play the NRL champions, with the winners playing The SL champions. All games kick off 1 minute after the final whistle of the previous game, so it would be a day of non stop action and excitement, it would give all sorts of teams a chance to compete, and would be considerably less complicated than your idea.

What do you think? We could play it somewhere that RL seems to be struggling to catch on, to try and give a much needed boost to the area... the first year could be in Huddersfield.

Somebody leaked something at Red Hall

Wolves not Hudds.

I like this idea, but it's too big for it's purpose. It means a lot of games would be played, which isn't wanted considering the season would be starting soon after, as the clubs wouldn't go for it as it adds extra fatigue and a possibility of injuries.

I think having either the top 2 of each league, or the 2 finalists from each league, in a

SL 1 Vs NRL 2
SL 2 Vs NRL 1

straight knockout, two winners compete in the the final.

That'd be decent.

Alternativly, you could have a 4 nations-esque competition between the 4, but that'd span 4 weeks and would take too long and then my earlier point comes in against it.


Tbh, the best way would just be to advertise the hell out of it, both in Aus and over here, and get it so that the host country alternates each year.

How about the British Champions versus the Aussie Champions?
Also rans don't deserve to be classed as World Club Champions.

Not even if they are some arbitrarily chosen French team? Or the winner of the 2nd rate, French semi pro league...surely they both deserve to be playing (several games over the same weekend - at the start of the new season) for the right to be crowned world champions?

Please think before you post in future, you obviousy havent considered this properly at all

Just can the WCC.

It's a total waste of time and a very expensive contractual obligation that is considered nothing more than a long distance trial match by the Aussie sides.

They usually draw lots to see who DOESNT fly to Britain!

We tried a multi team WCC in 1997 and it was a disaster for British RL

Shut up. You know you love the idea.

The concept would certainly work better now than it did back in 1997. That was a one sided flogging if ever there was.

The amount of Aussies playing in SL have made the club game stronger.


I think sides like St Helens and Leeds wouldnt lose by that many points to sides like the Doggies and Cronulla this time round

I think we could even beat Cronulla know

Erm havent we dont something very similar before?
Wasn't it a god awful failure?

I prefer my idea i posted earlier

I remember the WCC games from 97, still got the fancy ticket booklet thing in my drawer. My god we got a flogging.
If we repeated the exercise we'd see just how far British RL has come under SL when people moan we are no closer to the aussies than years ago.

Im not sure our clubs would win it but at wire we were happy when the warriors only beat us by about 50...

I never thought I'd say this but... I agree with Starbug.









I feel sort of dirty and violated now.

Why change it? What's wrong with what we do now?

When we had a number of teams playing before it didn't work. There are too many Aussie teams that are better than our top teams. The lower teams in SL would get hammered.
The crowds won't come to watch that.

Leave it as one big game and market it well. One day we will be able to play it at Old Trafford.

Until the NRL side see it as more than a contractual obligation and take it seriously then the WCC will never fill Old Trafford.

My god... it doesnt even fill the Reebok, Elland Rd or Huddersfields ground.


Players from the NRL champions have drawn straws in the past.. to see who doesnt come. What player wants to fly 12,000 miles to a UK winter to play a meaningless fixture? The players have got a long tough season ahead of them in the NRL and dont want to waste what little time off they have by coming to the UK.

The WCC is a dead duck. It only matters to the English clubs and their supporters. It's a relic left over from the 70's and 80's when the game was very different.

Scrap it now.

Watch how the Melbourne players reacted at full time in this years WCC, or when the Roosters nilled St Helens, or the looks on the faces of Wayne Bennett and Darren Lockyer after Brisbane lost to St Helens, and then try to say that they didn't care.

For every Bulldogs or Wests Tigers who treated it like a holiday there are teams who will come over to try and win. The NRL should remind every team that is going to take part in this fixture that it is representing the NRL and Australia as its champions, and therefore should take the occasion seriously.

The Old Trafford comment is exactly what I was saying Barry. There is no point expanding until you make the one off game a bigger game.

I disagree that the aussies don't take it seriously. I can't imagine any player at that level just turning up for the sake of it. They even play warm up games now so that they are fully prepared.

and as for the throwback to the 70s and 80s comment. Think you need to do some research on the dates. There was one game in the 70s when Sts went out for a game simply planned between the two clubs and then the WCC started in 87.

Well yes... I know.

Thats why I said it was a throwback to the 70's and 80's?