RLWC 2017

Discussion on the National Rugby League and Rugby League around the world.
Scooter
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It has been reported in the last couple of weeks by the Daily Telegraph that Channel Seven has paid almost $10 million for the rights to the 2017 RLWC. Major games to be shown on 7 and other games on 7 Mate.

There are also reports that the RLWC 2017 will kickoff with Australia playing England on Derby Day at the MCG.
Scooter
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Channel Seven officially announced today that they have the rights to RLWC 2017.

The draw for RLWC will be announced tomorrow at 11:15 am AEST.
Scooter
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Melbourne host one pool match and one Quarter Final :
Friday 27 October Australia v England at AAMI
Sunday 19 November Quarter Final 2B v 1D (hopefully Samoa or Tonga v Fiji if I am reading the draw correctly) at AAMI

Pool A
Australia
England
Lebanon
France

Pool B
NZ
Samoa
Tonga
Scotland

Pool C
PNG
2 x European qualifiers

Pool D
Fiji
USA
1 European qualifier

I will post a link when I get home. Some other matters of interest only 2 pool games in Sydney, 3 pool games in Canberra, Port Moresby, Townsville and Cairns, 2 pool games in Perth. A quarter final in Darwin and only two games in Brisbane but they are a semi final and the final.
Scooter
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Cameron
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Cant wait to get to AAMI on Friday night. Should be a good match.

Kangaroos look awesome.

KANGAROOS: Billy Slater, Dane Gagai, Will Chambers, Josh Dugan, Valentine Holmes, Michael Morgan, Cooper Cronk, Aaron Woods, Cameron Smith (C), David Klemmer, Boyd Cordner, Matt Gillett, Jake Trbojevic, Wade Graham, Jordan Mclean, Josh McGuire, Tyson Frizell
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Going to both games in Melbourne (Aus v Eng + quarter final), the Townsville double header, and the Brisbane semi (which coincides with the first Ashes test at the Gabba) and final. Have organized leave accordingly for the Queensland fixtures.
Cameron
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Gary Carter ✔@GaryCarter_1979
25,000 tickets sold for the World Cup opening game between @England_RL & @Kangaroos . Heading towards a sell out #RLWC2017
Mattpoet
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Did anyone see Nelson's try tonight? Awesome!
Cameron
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It goes a lot deeper, its an organisational cultural lack of self belief. Sociologists may say it is due to our working class history and "knowing our place". Fact is we cant control the media, we daren't try to control the media, and we don't punish the media when it heaps sht on the game. Where does that fear come from? Is it ineptitude, weakness or lack of confidence? Probably a bit of all three

Ch9 and Fox should have been brought to task about their treatment of RLWC17 by now. They clearly haven't. Why haven't they? Nobody shts on RL as well as RL itself, it seems its in our blood to do so.

The self anointed "Home of Rugby League" ran through the results in 30secs on Sports Sunday, yet they spent 5 minutes talking about some bald victard playing for a new AFL club. Considering they don't have any AFL broadcast rights it would seem that commercial considerations only apply to Rugby League. Even then it's foolishly myopic, as one would think promoting the success of a rugby league event could only be advantageous for a network with rugby league rights for the next 5 years.

Fox Sports seem to have an extensive coverage of other code internationals and not of the rugby league world cup. Understand they are not telecasting the world cup, however I would suggest that being extremely popular on free to air tv warrants a decent mention of this world cup. It's beating other code internationals on tv hands down every weekend for the past 3 weeks in Australia.

I was watching Fox Sports on the hour news a few nights ago and it took them 22 minutes before they even mentioned rugby league. They had all of the A-League, "Hybrid rules football", every international soccer match around the planets results, rugby union, and even car racing before they mentioned the RLWC.

TV ratings in NZ.

The Kiwis vs Tonga match did better than the All Whites v Peru World Cup qualifier which began 40mins earlier than the league match. It was the 2nd most watched sporting event on the weekend not far behind the All Blacks vs France game which was played the following morning.

Television viewer numbers SKY Sport (ages 5+)

Rugby - All Blacks v France 482,600
League - Kiwis v Tonga 394,400
Football - All Whites v Peru 346,500
Golf - LPGA Tour Blue Bay 59,600
Boxing - Junior Fa v Fred Latham 36,900
(Figures courtesy of AC Nielsen)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?obj ... ef=twitter
Cameron
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he powerhouse of this World Cup has been the Pacific Nations.

All the drama of players switching allegiances saw more feeling in many of their games. The players have shown us how to do a rivalry – hard, but with respect – and the crowds have loved it.

Speaking of crowds, it’s clear that league has a strong foothold in Papua New Guinea and to maintain the momentum, we need more of these blokes playing in the NRL – the nation’s talent needs a pathway to the top level.

It’s also been great to see the full grounds in New Zealand. From an Aussie perspective, it was nice to see that the home team didn’t have the most support in the crowd. For many years the All Blacks have effectively been playing home games in Australia, as all the Kiwis in the crowd seeming to outnumber Aussie fans.

The casual chat of the video ref has been great too. Perhaps the robotic Bunker could learn to chill and have a chat to the viewers to explain what they are looking at and why they make their decisions.

Channel Seven’s coverage has also been refreshingly professional, without drama and very few rants during the commentary.

My personal highlight so far though was the singing of the Tongan crowd – simply joyous and beautiful.

However, there have been some less-than-inspiring aspects of the World Cup thus far, headlined by the lack of crowds in Australia.

The thrashings are also a bad look. Perhaps there needs to be a towel on the sideline that any coach can throw in when all hope is gone? I am not a fan of run-away scores.

Then there’s the one-referee system, which was supposed to be wonderful but, the reality hasn’t quite been so great.

The ruck has been getting more and more out of control as teams realise that the one referee cannot police everything – ditto the ten metres, which is just too much for one person to police.

Meanwhile, has anyone seen a northern hemisphere player actually touch the football with their foot in the play the ball? I haven’t.
Mattpoet
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I don't know if you remember the bad old days of not being able to see free to air games before 5 to midnight on channel nein, but they've always been a blight on the game.
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sallymay
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NZ are gone...amazing

Serves them right for not backing Jesse and turning their backs on him
TC
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sallymay wrote:NZ are gone...amazing
They were woeful in attack. Couldn't orchestrate a decent last play option all game. Mind you, Fiji's attacking options were nothing flash either. Hayne proved he's a myth at 6.
Both teams very quite good in defence, but I can't see Australia being beaten next week.
We must all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately
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sallymay wrote:NZ are gone...amazing

Serves them right for not backing Jesse and turning their backs on him
No, I think that was absolutely the right call on Jessie and Kev. And Jesse would the first one to say so - in fact he was.

Both are senior players who (whether they like it or not) have a responsibility to be a good example to their younger team mates and the game (and it's fans, juniors etc.). Look at clubs like the Titans and teams like the Wannabies where most of the bad behaviour is let slide or brushed under the carpet and see where that sort of culture gets you.

Bad for NZ this time round, but they have much deeper problems than missing a couple of key forwards.
We must all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately
Cameron
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2013 World Cup Semi-Final at Wembly playing against the home team England, live on the BBC, huge crowd in attendance and the Kiwis break the hearts of the English in an epic match. Good on them but an English victory that day would have had such an impact in England.

Fast forward four-years. The Kiwis have the largest and most talented player pool in their history to select from, they are co-hosting the wold cup and if they win their pool will not leave NZ until the final. What do they do? They lose; not to Australia or England but to Tonga after leading 16 - 2 at half time and to Fiji without scoring a try - and that's all they needed to do to win the game....... score one try!!!! Againg the Kiwis troll our game. On the back of a couple of ordinary years and poor Warriors performances, the Kiwis could have restored some good will in the game in NZ by performing at their home world cup, but no again, four-years later they do what isn't best for the game.

Commercially, New Zealand has much more potential than the islands and this plus the Warriors' poor performances has damaged the game in New Zealand.
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