The Virtual Terrace • World Cup 2021

Oh dear......
1. In 8 tournaments,they've had 4 different winners. In our first 8 tournaments we had 2 winners...in the following 7 we've added 1 more name...let's continue to compare the comps shall we?
2. 72% of the players at the RLWC 2017 were born in either PNG, NZ, France, England or Australia...so 9 X 23 man squads is 207 players of which 47 were born in the country they represented.....6 each...SIX! No matter if Japan had 10 men in their 31 man squad (the largest contingent of any of the RWC 15 Squads)they still had 21 from their own country who play in their own domestic league.......last years "Tongan" breakthrough featured 5 Tongan born players in their squad and 16 Kiwis and 2 Aussies. There were bigger street parties in South Auckland than Tonga....and a number of the "Tongans" used to play for the Kiwis and not one of these "tongans" plays in their domestic league......let's continue to compare the comps shall we?
3.The 2017 RLWC in Australia, the country with the dominant domestic competition had an average attendance of 13,650...... The 2015 RWC in England, a country with a strong domestic competition had an average attendance of 51,000+...that's 4k more per game than the recent FIFA world cup.......let's continue to compare the comps shall we?
4. The 2013 RLWC Semi-Final was watched by fewer viewers on BBC than the Ireland v All Blacks Union "friendly" the following day....... When England made the 2003 RUWC Final in Australia, 13,000,000 people in the UK got up early to watch the final.......THIRTEEN MILLION.........let's continue to compare the comps shall we?
5. Australia have featured in all but one RLWC final and every one in the last 50 years.....no team in Union has even made 3 finals in a row, let alone 14......let's continue to compare the comps shall we?
6. RLWC Final IN AUSTRALIA AND FEATURING AUSTRALIA had viewing figures of 1.4 million.......Japan v Samoa in RWC 2015 was watched by 25,000,000 in Japan.
.....let's continue........
...tell you what, let's not, because the Union comp is not as predictable as you'd like to make out and it absolutely and utterly dwarfs us in relevance to the countries taking part. Even the Aussies, who hosted the bloody RLWC 2017 couldn't be bothered and without the NZ/Tongan attendances, the event would have been even flatter. Teams like Georgia and Japan in Union are never going to win it, but they do get the chance of a scalp, like Japan taking South Africa in 2015 in Brighton......watched by 29,000 in Brighton and Millions on ITV.