Opinion: Draft for duel citizens can build on minnows’ Cup promise

IT’S only taken 63 years but we’ve finally got ourselves a half decent Rugby League World Cup. The big question is, what are we going to do with it?

Jason Taumalolo of Tonga. Photo: Getty Images

IT’S only taken 63 years but we’ve finally got ourselves a half decent Rugby League World Cup. The big question is, what are we going to do with it?

The current version of the RLWC has the potential to be the best since the competition kicked off in 1954, for the main reason that someone other than Australia, England and New Zealand could actually win the thing.

I am speaking of course of Tonga, who entered the tournament as a second tier country and are now 1.5 tier with a bullet.

Tonga celebrate beating New Zealand in their World Cup match last week. Photo: Getty Images

Likewise Fiji and Papua New Guinea have proved to be far from easybeats and provided some great entertainment, which is a huge improvement on World Cups of the past.

But before officials from rugby league playing nations around the world (all four of them) get too carried away, let’s take a rational look at what has been achieved so far, and what has to be achieved if this tournament is to be more than a flash in the pan.

After all, let’s not forget that the big story at the last RLWC in 2013 was the breakout performance of the USA team which won two of their three pool matches and made it to the quarter-finals.

Four years later, the Yanks are getting beaten 64-0 by PNG, which is great for PNG, but not so great for the prospects of the 2025 RLWC which is scheduled to take place in the US and Canada.

Stephen Howard of the USA during the World Cup match against Papua New Guinea. Photo: AAP

Just as worrying for the future of the competition are the underwhelming performances of Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

Sure you can argue that they don’t really play rugby league in those countries, but the same can be said of Lebanon, and they’ve done OK.

And there you have the biggest problem facing the RLWC in a nutshell: the level to which a second-tier nation performs is tied directly to the number of NRL players it has in its ranks.

Which doesn’t have to be a bad thing, if handled the right way. The RLWC shouldn’t be looked at as a competition to determine the strongest rugby league nation — we all know who that is, regardless of the results.

It should be seen purely as a way of luring junior Pacific Island players away from rugby union and into the NRL or Super League.

The more Pacific players in the NRL, the stronger their national teams become, the more kids want to play rugby league, the more get to the NRL, the stronger they become, and round and round it goes. Just look at PNG this year — on and off the field.

Jason Taumololo, Andrew Fifita and the other Tongan “rebels” have shown the way forward.

Jason Taumalolo of Tonga during the win against New Zealand. Photo: Getty Images

There is nothing to be gained by players of their ilk turning out for Australia or New Zealand in a World Cup, but huge benefits from them playing for Tonga, a rusted-on (until now) rugby union country.

Likewise Samoa, a nation whose rugby union administration is broke, and Fiji — geniuses at Rugby 7s, but never able to mix it with the big boys in the 15-a-side game. If the ARL is sharp enough to act, there is a massive opportunity just begging to be capitalised upon.

How can they do that? Here’s a few suggestions:

They should put all “dual citizen” players in a pool and let the second tier nations have first dibs.

Let Great Britain field a combined team like they did in the early days. It’s not the Brits we have to dilute to make a competitive tournament, it’s the Aussies and Kiwis.

Forget the US — it’s never going to happen — and replace them with the Australia Indigenous side.

They’re finally onto something here — as long as they don’t drop the ball.

Originally published as Opinion: Draft for duel citizens can build on minnows’ Cup promise