The ending may have been familiar, as England succumbed to an Australian team led for the last time by Darren Lockyer, but their progress towards the Four Nations final ignited a passion for international Rugby League that we have not seen in this country for quite some time. It was genuinely thrilling to witness, while it lasted.
The question now, as always at this time of year, is how do we bridge the gap, ditch the tag of gallant losers and go on to win something big?
I don’t think the answer is ‘one more heave’; hoping that a change here and there in playing personnel or the back room team will suddenly unlock the door to success that has been slammed shut in our faces time after time since the World Cup win in 1972.
We have to examine why our domestic competition does not provide the environment from which our best players can emerge to realistically challenge Australia’s dominance.
It’s not that the answers are hard to find, but they are potentially toxic to implement in a sporting culture which has always valued quantity over quality.
Just look at the number of games played by our elite stars compared to the number played by their international rivals. Then, look at the actual standard of those games. The NRL does not tolerate or allow the kind of mental lapses or defensive weaknesses for which England are so easily punished on the international stage.
Sadly, there’s little indication that this crucial imbalance is going to be tackled anytime soon.
UPS AND DOWNS
Like the Grand Old Duke of York, the RFL marched everyone up to the top of the hill (or Media City in Salford to be precise) for the announcement of the venues for the 2013 World Cup, only to march everyone back down again by failing to reveal any of the juiciest details regarding exactly where the opening ceremony, the semi-finals or the final itself would be held.
The venues for the group games certainly have a wide geographic spread, including Avignon, Perpignan, Limerick, Wrexham and Bristol which is enough to gladden any expansionist heart.
I still have my fingers crossed that Wembley will be used for the final at least, despite worrying whispers that it may not figure on the itinerary at all.
LOSING ITS MAGIC?
The moveable feast that is the Magic Weekend has upped sticks again, this time from Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to Manchester’s Etihad Stadium. It’s also been ditched as the season opener after just one year. It has moved locations and purpose so many times, does anyone have a clue what the point of it is anymore?
BRIERS BOWS OUT
Much of the focus in the Four Nations was on the retirement of Darren Lockyer, and rightly so. The bloke is a dead set legend. It is a measure of his greatness that despite having broken our hearts yet again, most English fans at Elland Road stayed behind to applaud him from the field and celebrate an incredible Rugby League career.
Welsh captain Lee Briers played out his own international swansong in front of a much smaller crowd and with a fraction of the fanfare, but his service to the game in Wales has been immense. He certainly hasn’t been in it for the glory as there hasn’t been much of that for the Dragons in the Four Nations, but he has provided invaluable inspiration to a new generation of Welsh players that no matter how daunting the challenge, there is no greater honour in our sport than pulling on your national jersey.
LOST AND FOUND
Rugby League expansion has always been a roller coaster ride. Never more so than in 2011 when we disappointingly lost Crusaders from Super League, only for the club to be reborn in Championship One before the year was out. Now, moves are in hand to bring in four more expansion clubs to Championship One in 2013, beginning with Northampton. We welcome them and hope that they fully understand the massive challenges that will lay ahead as they seek to establish themselves as a force in the game.
John Drake, Editor
First published in RLW issue 369
