No name was given; just that it was a "fairly senior person within the game". But the story was alarming.

According to the journalist and administrator Robert Burgin, this official spoke to a group of people who dedicate their spare time to spreading rugby league beyond its traditional boundaries and told them that time was being utterly wasted.

With news that Western Force or the Rebels may be set for the cutting room floor, a horde of sport fans are about to be left without a team to follow. Credit:Getty Images

"A fairly senior person within the game said in an open conversation that rugby league would never be on a stage with rugby union, that it would never spread to more than the countries that it has at present," Burgin told the League Culture podcast.

"… That it was locked by the fluctuations of history, that it's locked in a state where it will never grow – which to me was entirely depressing but probably a little bit of an insight into how people think."