Players do not need to be born in the country they represent but they do need to build those international bonds over time

The World Cup has shown rugby league fans there are a few things we need to stop worrying about. Yes, some players in our sport seem to have few obvious connections to their international teams, but a few of the footballers at the World Cup are not so different.

No one seems to mind that Russia’s goalscoring hero Denis Cheryshev has spent almost his entire life in Spain; that Nigeria’s squad contained players born or bred in England, Russia, Germany and Holland; or that just a quarter of Morocco’s squad was born in Morocco. Few viewers know or care that Russia’s excellent right-back Mário Fernandes has a cap for his native Brazil or that he is among the 10% of players competing in Russia who were born outside the country they represent. It does not seem to hold the tournament back.

As with the Rugby League World Cup, there are teams with hardly any players based in their home country. Australia and Denmark have only three players at domestic clubs; Nigeria just have one – the reserve keeper. Like Australia at the Rugby League World Cup in 2017, England are the only country for whom all 23 members of the squad are based in their home league. Again, it does not seem to be the problem some make it in rugby league.

However, the World Cup has also highlighted some of the weaknesses in rugby league’s version. There were games in Russia every day for the first fortnight. Last year’s Rugby League World Cup was restricted to weekends only, which meant the tournament lost momentum midweek. Steps are being taken to change this. At the next Rugby League World Cup, in England in 2021, games are to be spread through the week, utilising the Thursday to Monday fixture schedules to which UK sports fans are accustomed.

Fifty-seven players went to Russia with three or fewer caps. Twenty-five of them were goalkeepers (including England’s Nick Pope, whose international career still amounts to the 25 minutes of a pre-tournament friendly). The only uncapped outfield player was Egypt defender Mahmoud Hamdy. Only two squads – Australia and Serbia – contained more than three players with fewer than four caps. In other words, almost every player had been involved long before the tournament and were not recruited specifically for the World Cup – something that has troubled rugby league.

The Rugby League World Cup always sees a clutch of NRL and Super League stars appearing from nowhere to get a piece of the action. Others reappear having not played for their country since the previous World Cup. Italy’s three superstars at the 2017 tournament – James Tedesco, Mark Minichiello and Paul Vaughan – had not played for the Azzurri since the 2013 edition. Eddy Pettybourne didn’t play in a single international for USA between World Cups, Bureta Faraimo in just one.

There is an obvious need to continue to increase the number of international fixtures in our sport, but also for professional players to be engaged with their mother nation more than just every four years. They will not regret it. “I treasure playing for England more as I grow older,” Warrington prop Chris Hill told me recently. “When you’re a kid, just bouncing around, you think it’s going to last forever. I’m not going to be doing it for the rest of my life so I’ll enjoy it while I can.”

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Missing summer breaks for end-of-season tournaments seems less of an issue in football than it does in league. But with international RL players never getting the off-season that their club-mates enjoy in October and November, for one year in each World Cup cycle we should stage more internationals mid-season, rather than at the end. Or perhaps tournaments such as the European Championship and Pacific Cup should start in June and conclude in October to reduce the post-season commitment.

“It is tough backing up every year, not getting much off time,” says Hill, who played in England’s win over New Zealand in Denver. “You end up going season upon season upon season upon season – and that takes its toll. It’s not so much on your body, but on your family and friends. You’re missing out on your kids, you might not get a break away as a family. There is a definite lifespan but I’ll never retire from international rugby league. I wouldn’t give up playing for my country.”

If all professional leagues took a break for a couple of weeks during the NRL’s State of Origin series, we could have international fixtures all over the world. Ironically, a gaggle of stars would have been unavailable for their Tier 2 countries in the recent “Rep Weekend” anyway as they were playing in Origin, although Anthony Milford managed to do both (Origin 1 for Queensland, then for Samoa against Tonga).

Rep Weeks should see the stars appear for not just the Pacific nations but Lebanon, Italy, Wales, Scotland, Serbia and so on. Malta played their opening World Cup 2021 qualifier against Ukraine a week after the Rep Weekend without their England- or Australia-based pros, such as London Broncos star Jarrod Sammut. Defeat leaves their dreams of a first World Cup appearance already hanging by a thread. Fixing the incoherent international calendar should be high on the to-do list for the new RLIF leadership.

Foreign quota

Just as the resurgent Dragons dispatched Castleford in Perpignan on Saturday evening, their second team, St Esteve-Catalan XIII, should have been attempting to secure the double. Having won the Lord Derby Cup last month, Les Baby Dracs reached the Elite 1 Championship Final. But midway through last week it emerged that neither Dragons irregulars Lucas Albert or Thibault Marginet had played in the necessary 50% of Elite 1 games to appear in the play-offs! Catalans were disqualified, beaten semi-finalists SO Avignon took their place and pulled off a shock win over Limoux!

Clubcall: Leeds Rhinos

Brian McDermott’s sacking by Leeds on Monday morning had me spluttering over my corn flakes. Even after seven straight league defeats, it’s a surprise that Leeds have swung the axe now and not waited until October. It was unlikely McDermott would be there to see the complete evolution of his new team, but in eight years coaching Leeds he proved himself one of the code’s greatest. Yet his dour public demeanour made him strangely unloved by some Rhinos fans, let alone their rivals. Although he could be intimidating, he was usually reasonable and professional, and there seemed a remarkable mutual loyalty with his players. He may feel Leeds have betrayed that. No coach could produce many wins with the injury crisis Leeds have now, and few would have bounced back from their horror 2016 to win the title a year later.

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Big Mac will be in demand. He could even reunite with his former Harlequins boss Ian Lenagan at Wigan, with former Leeds prop Shaun Wane returning to Headingley in 2019.

Goal-line drop-out

Leigh’s late comeback at Toronto on Saturday night restored pride but left them three worrying points adrift of the top four. While the Wolfpack are clear at the top, the other three play-off places are being fought over by five clubs separated by just four points. This weekend Toulouse host London and Halifax face Featherstone. Leigh will have to win their last four and hope for the best. Below them the divide between haves and have-nots has become a ten-point chasm. A fortnight ago, the top six played the bottom six and the winning margins ranged from 34 to 64 points. Last Sunday Fev put 80 on bottom club Rochdale. Ouch.

Fifth and last

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A last word on Denver. The 19,320 attendance was the largest ever to watch rugby league in the US. A figure of 27,853 was given for the USA v Canada game in 1995, but that was the crowd for the CFL clash between the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them Baltimore Stallions and Toronto Argonauts at the much-missed Memorial Stadium played after the curtain-raiser.

The Denver gate was as many as watched the previous two highest-profile exhibition games in the US put together: 12,439 at the 1987 New South Wales-Queensland game at Long Beach and an estimated 7,000 at Wigan v Warrington in Milwaukee in 1989 (the official attendance of 17,783 was pooh-poohed at the time).

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