Over the last few years sporting World Cup competitions have started to get a dose of reality as sports fans get over the hype and promotion and look at the real content that these competitions bring.
The days of wanting to see as many teams as possible take part are over as sports fans now want quality over quantity and demand more from international competition.
With this in mind, you have to be pleased with some of the decisions that have been made in regards to the 2008 Rugby League World Cup to be held in Australia.
Rugby League World Cup organisers have come under a lot of scrutiny (Especially from me!) but here are some of the good moves they have made as we roll up towards one year before the competition kicks off.
The Super Group
Many people were unhappy about the decision to put Australia, New Zealand, England and PNG into one “Super Group” in Group A. However after seeing the result of random groupings in the Cricket and Rugby Union World Cup, surely Rugby League fans must be having a change of heart.
The result of the Super Group will be that every game in the World Cup will be a meaningful game. There will be no terrible mis matches as the super powers of the game take on the minnows and put up 100 point scorelines.
The Spread Of Game Venues
Queensland has been a big winner so far and have already secured most of the major games including a semi final and the World Cup Final. However the idea to play the games between high profile teams in large venues, and games between lower profile teams at much smaller venues that don’t normally host big time Rugby League is a good one.
I would hope that Canberra and Penrith in particular manage to get a game each as it would be great for those area’s and I’m sure the fans in those area’s would turn up in numbers to see even lower profile teams play.
The Restricted Number Of Teams
If World Cup organisers wanted they could have easily announced a 16 team competition. As it stands some national sides will be unlucky to miss out of making the World Cup, and at the end of the day thats a good sign for the game.
Inviting everyone to the party and having the World Cup full of meaningless games would have been a poor decision. As it stands every team that makes the World Cup will have had to beat out opposition that is evenly matched with them.
As I have said before in the defense of the World Cup format, the main thing is that at the end of the World Cup we have a worthy team to call the World Champions. Having looked at the current planning for the World Cup, I’m sure thats what we will get.
Its good signs heading into 2008, but lets hope they hurry up and release all the venues soon so we can all plan our Rugby League World Cup trips around Australia!
