Come on, I'm as pro International RL as it comes but, let's not pretend that there is a genuine international program, with genuine RL playing nations.
Beyond England, Australia, New Zealand and France, there is very, very little, with most other "Nations" made up of "nationality hopping" wannabes, that cant quite make it playing for "home" country, with some of our Aussie friends changing allegiance with greater frequency than the RL world cup.
We have to start somewhere and its good that we can have so many nations represented but, FFS, we have only very recently committed to having regular RLWC competitions and have not fully established a regular cycle for these.
Add to this the certainty of another Australia walkover and gallant effort by england (falling at the last hurdle) and this is why, not even RL fans, take this too seriously.

Yes it is a joke as I've stated before Australia England New Zealand and one other in the semis Australia hammer whichever 2nd rate team reach the semi New Zealand beat England in a tight game then Australia win the final comfortably

As well as England, France, Austrailia and New Zealand that you mentioned, PNG, Wales and USA all have plenty of players born in those countries. Every sport allows players to represent nations other than that of their birth, through grandparents heritage. If we stopped allowing that we’d be the only sport to do so as far as I know.

New Zealand won the 2008 final. England played in the 1995 final and lost by 8 points, England have also played in various four nations finals. As I’ve said if you have no interest don’t watch it or bother commenting.

You really don't understand how forums work do you?

So your argument is we got to a final 22 years ago and what have four nations tournaments got to do with it I'm a rugby league fan so will watch it but that doesn't change what I say will happen so as I'm also a gambler I'll have a bet with you that neither England nor New Zealand will win it as they seem to be the basis of your argument

Buddy...I am so looking forward to this comp, but outside the 5 countries that have a professional RL side (PNG/FRANCE/NZ/AU/ENG) the other 9 have a smattering......45 players or maybe 46 out of 216 players are playing for the country of their birth...meaning that 80% of their squads are heritage players from AU/NZ/ENG......it's laughabe. BUT........as I said, looking forward to it immensely.

I named 7 countries that have a decent number of players born in the country they are representing. The others don’t have many, but so what, who really cares, it certainly doesn’t make the tournament a joke. Samoa and Tonga are both teams without many players born in those countries, but when they meet there will certainly be lots of passion on show, that’s probably the game I’m looking forward to most.

Nobody mentioned the 4 nations...

There are probably more teams of a decent quality in this World Cup than we’ve ever seen before.

I just don’t get the issue with this at all.

What harm is it doing? It’s not like people are turning up playing for a completely random country they have no heritage or passport from is it? Sam Burgess isn’t playing for PNG and Vincent Duport isn’t pulling on a Samoa shirt.

It’s just players playing for a country they have every right to represent.

And what’s the problem with them having played for another country before? I don’t see one. Why does it matter? If a player has duel nationalities or is proud of both heritages he has, why should he not be given the right to represent both countries in his career?

My nationality is British and my heritage on my Mother’s side is Polish. I’d love to represent both countries if I ever had the chance as a homage to my nationality and heritage.

When they've played for 1 side they should have to stick with it imo

I have ling been an advicat of international RL, but just have no interest in it anymore. There has been nonpromotion of this eorld cup at all by the RFl or BBC most people and quite a lot if RL fans dont even no its happening at all. Shunting it over to bbc 2 just confirms that the beeb are not overly intersted in it either. This swapping and changing nationallity dies not help ever.

Re- Competitive Teams in RLWC

Since it started in 1930 the FIFA World Cup has only had 8 different winners and 12 different Finalists (i.e. only 4 teams have got to the Final without winning).

Hence I guess the 200+ countries that compete for the FIFA World Cup just shouldn't bother either since its not really feasible that they'll win ?

Less than a week to go and still feeling underwhelmed. Where is the razamataz? What about the lack of information? As for merchandising? If every time I look at a product on Amazon I am bombarded with adverts for that product every time I log in why is my computer so lacking in rugby league information? I get the feeling that a telegram will be arriving any day with the information that I need.

IIRC the a workmates copy of The Sun said there'd be a RLWC Pullout in Thursday's edition.

And I'll find the Sun on the same shelf as the rocking horse droppings round here.

I put my comment in response to the one about a lack of razamataz etc, just to highlight that at least on national newspaper was doing a promotional feature.

I acknowledge that some people have justifiable reasons for not wanting to buy The Sun.

Has anyone actually seen an advert on bbc TV for the World Cup? I haven’t. No exposure, American players having to pay themselves for the entire trip and cam smith obviously not having a clue who SOL was at the launch smacks of this being a pretty embarrassing tournament!

Regards

King James

Who the hell scheduled this game to be played on Friday morning?

Stupid decision.

It isn't. It is being played on Friday night.

Where is the facepalm emoji?

Regards

King James

Please tell me this is a joke post

April 1st already??

Seriously???