Bring back the Clashes for the Ashes!

2012 is the year the Olympics come to London, but ANTHONY REYNOLDS argues it is also the perfect opportunity to revive another great sporting event: Rugby League’s Ashes series.

‘I planned my trip down under this year to take in the first two Ashes tests’ a friend said to me just a few weeks ago. Yes, he was talking about Rugby League and following England to the Four Nations series in Australia. The Ashes reference, however, was not directed at the oval ball game but to the cricket test series starting at the Gabba in November.

Interestingly, one can name the dates for the next ten England-Australia Ashes series to the nearest month. Despite the Twenty20 phenomena and the Indian Premier League the cricket authorities have steadfastly held on to the game’s longest held traditions. There was a time when Rugby League held similar principles and, on the face of it, there seems little standing in the way of a return to a full-blown Ashes Series. So what’s holding things back? 

2012 is the obvious choice for an Ashes revival with no Four Nations series scheduled and the World Cup taking place the following year. It is rumoured that the Australians would like to rest their representative players in this ‘gap year’, a notion almost as ill conceived as the decision to phase out the Ashes series in the first place.

The last Rugby League Ashes series, once as regular as clockwork but now as long ago as 2003, was a closely fought affair; Great Britain falling just short in the final moments of each of the three Tests.
There will never be a better opportunity to put the Ashes back on the map than the one that exists in 2012. A re-introduction of a century-old concept could finally put the distant rumblings of the Super League conflicts to bed and celebrate everything that is great about our game.

My earliest memory of watching Rugby League on television was seeing Mal Meninga line up his torpedo-style conversions at Boothferry Park in 1982. It seemed like these players were playing a different sport to the one I had recently become accustomed to. I later discovered that these ‘supermen’ would visit our shores every four years and we would reciprocate in the intervening periods. I was 10 years old when Great Britain toured in 1984. It was another disappointing showing but my lasting memory of that tour was watching televised highlights of spectacular tries by Garry Schofield and Ellery Hanley, curiously, featuring a brown leather ball and barber-style corner posts. That was it. Everything was mapped out from here. It would be Old Trafford in ‘86, The Sydney Football Stadium in ‘88 and on to Wembley in 1990 – mouth watering occasions with the world’s best doing battle for international Rugby League’s greatest prize.

What was even more exciting was discovering that greats like Billy Boston, Reg Gasnier, Alex Murphy, Clive Churchill and Dick Huddart had been slugging it out in these fabled contests for over 50 years previously – and for much of that time Great Britain had dished out as much as they’d got. And not only did Rugby League fans understand the format of the Ashes, for the print and broadcast media it was a concept easily grasped: Brits against the Aussies? It’s got to be the Ashes. Always has been, always will (or should) be.

How will teenagers today describe their introduction to international Rugby League? A reference to a memorable win in a Four Nations group game at an under-capacity Huddersfield or another disappointment at Wigan, perhaps, in a tournament in which the name Great Britain does not even feature and in which England may not even make the final.

This is not a slight on the introduction of the Tri Nations (now Four Nations) series. It’s a great concept; the best nations clashing in a round-robin format with a final to decide the champions. I am also in favour of England as our main side for international competitions. For most of the time, anyway.
Opinion is divided which is best: England or Great Britain; Four Nations or the Ashes. With a little imagination, a format could be devised that would accommodate both.

2012 presents the opportunity to make that happen with no events currently planned involving the three major Rugby League playing nations. It’s the perfect time to acknowledge our own sporting heritage while adding an extra dimension to the international calendar.

Ideally that would involve the re-formation of the Great Britain side for an Ashes Test series in Australia. This has to evolve as a separate concept from our other international competitions, perhaps (grudgingly) based along the lines of rugby union’s British Lions set-up. The existing Four Nations & World Cup schedule means that an Ashes series could only take place every four years: 2016, 2020 and onwards with venues alternating between the two countries. 

Rather than hinder the momentum of the series, the four-year cycle could actually work to increase anticipation ahead of the event. Could departing or retiring players continue to use the term ‘I’ve won everything there is in the game’ if an Ashes series was just around the corner?

A series coach could be separately appointed to that of England (paving the way for a legend of the game to take-up a short-term challenge). With it would come a revival of the famous blue and red chevron and a newly appointed captain.

The first Test would naturally lend itself to the Sydney Cricket Ground with Melbourne and Brisbane obvious choices for the remaining games. As for promotion, the Ashes series has to be sold through the legends of our game. Imagine it: Artie Beetson and Billy Boston, Alex Murphy and Bobby Fulton, Ellery Hanley and Mal Meninga taking part in promotional campaigns and pre-match parades. These icons of our sport can’t tell you what it’s like to play in a Four Nations final. What they can do, however, is describe the blood and thunder of Ashes battles of yesteryear.

Detractors will argue that Great Britain would be made up of just England players anyway and the Aussies aren’t interested in the Ashes anymore. So are we to assume that Crusaders and the South Wales Scorpions will never produce an international standard Welsh player in the future? Don’t the NRL insist on a round celebrating its heritage every season? They also regularly laud the legends of their game such as Clive Churchill, Wally Lewis and Brad Fittler. One suspects that they may have instigated a revival much sooner had Great Britain hung on to their advantage and won that 2003 series.

Rugby League often fails to recognise the very things that make it great. There ought to be no more excuses for ignoring the opportunity that 2012 presents. The next generation of fans and players deserve to enjoy the Ashes tradition that was once an integral part of our international calendar.

First published in Rugby League World Issue 353 (Sept 2010)

Now tell us what you think! Do you want to see an Ashes revival in 2012? What are your favourite memories of previous encounters? Email feedback@rugbyleagueworld.net with your views and we’ll publish a selection of the best in the next issue.