The Rugby League World Cup cops a lot of stick, especially with many seeing it as a glorified process of showing Australia are the best team going around.

However, the 2017 edition has proven to be the best one yet. Tonight’s decider between Australia and England is fitting. The two sporting rivals kicked the competition off in a tight tussle some five weeks ago.

The Kangaroos got up on that occasion but the result wasn’t sealed until the final stages. The following month of football has indicated the English are the only nation capable of matching it with the Aussies. Super coach Wayne Bennett has shaped the best England side since 1995 vintage which beat Australia in the opening match before suffering a narrow defeat in the final.

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While the world rankings don’t indicate it yet, there can be no doubt England are the second best side in the world.

This being said, England came within a whisker of coming unstuck in their semi-final against Tonga. The Tongans achieved their best return in a World Cup by reaching the final four and on their way they pulled off some remarkable results, none more so than a come from behind win over New Zealand.

The victory perhaps symbolic of a shift in world rugby league after the game’s best forward, Jason Taumalolo opted to represent Tonga, the nation of his parent’s birth over New Zealand.

Tonga isn’t the only Pacific nation who have impressed with Papua New Guinea and Fiji lighting up the tournament. The Papua New Guinea Kumuls were able to attract bumper crowds to their three pool games where their blood and thunder brand of footy had their fans in raptures.

Fiji Bati, on the other hand, added a bit more finesse to their play and towelled up their first three opponents before putting on the shock of the tournament in preventing the Kiwis from scoring a try in a dramatic 4-2 quarter-final win.



While the fetishising over the cultural challenges is a bit much for me, the tears in the eyes of Fiji skipper, Kevin Naiqama shows what it means to these players. Yes, rugby of the union variety tends to rule over this region, however, the success of these nations can only be a positive for the future of the game.

Going into the tournament, I wasn’t overly enthused but after watching a couple of matches it I became enthralled in the contest. Yes, there have been some blowouts, but between those games, there have been some stunning match-ups including Lebanon’s Mitchell Moses show against the French, Papua New Guinea’s battle with the Irish and strangely enough the 14-all draw between Samoa and Scotland.

Why is that? Well, Scotland had been pumped in their opening two matches by an aggregate score of 124-10, they were without a couple of key players including captain, Danny Brough yet they still managed to tie with a Samoan outfit with plenty of NRL experience.

In an overwhelming majority of matches, dare I say, all of the matches, the standard has not been that of the NRL but when you actually watch the match for what it is, an exciting showcase of drastically different styles of rugby league, who cares?

The NRL is a highly structured machine where the best sides seem to pull off the same set plays week after week. That’s great for them but the World Cup has been a breath of fresh air with its adventurous tactics and ad-lib footy. The nation playing most like an NRL side is probably England, so make of that what you will.

The thing is, I am a football (insert ‘soccer’ here if needed) man, and I tend to surround myself with plenty of other football men and women who reject the Rugby League World Cup concept because unlike football only a handful of nations play the game.

To that, I say so what? No sport can rival football in terms of participating nations, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t embrace those nations that do. For the record, only eight nations out of 211 FIFA members (3.7%) have won football’s World Cup while three nations out of 42 RLIF members (7.1%) have won the Rugby League World Cup.



It is worth mentioning Channel Seven’s coverage of the tournament. In a sporting landscape where punters get used to the usual faces, it was always going to be difficult to live up to expectations.

To their credit, host Jim Wilson and a bevvy of co-hosts positioned around rugby league icon Laurie Daley have done a sterling job. Barring a couple of matches which were forced onto their mobile app, they have broadcast every match on television with solid pregame, halftime and full-time analysis befitting of any major sporting event.

The World Cup organisers also deserve a pat on the back, instead of putting the games in empty elephants, they have spread the games all over Australia and across to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Unfortunately, I am not across the women’s game as much as I would like, but it is also a positive move by rugby league officials to have the two competitions running simultaneously with the showpiece matches being played back to back in Brisbane.