Rugby league has the chance to take back ground from rugby union
The NRL has a chance to strike a hammer blow on rugby union by making a few key signings, which could cause the dam to break on big-name cross-code switches, Matty Johns writes.
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It feels a little bit like the 1980s.
With the NRL looking to launch in late May and get the jump on other codes, numerous rugby union players have signalled a desire to come across to the 13-man game.
Of course, in the case of Ben Te’o and Jordan Rapana, it will be a return to the sport, but All Black Ardie Savea and former Wallaby star Quade Cooper have surprised many by wanting to have a crack.
This was once the norm. During rugby’s amateur days the best talent was poached, or at least tried to be, by the league clubs both here and in England.
Many people view the ’80s as the golden period for rugby league; in my opinion the mid-’80s up to the Super League war was a sweet spot for the code.
Reason being the NSWRL had the cream talent from both codes playing in the competition.
Australian rugby union players like Ray Price, Michael O’Connor, Ricky Stuart and Scott Gourley, among others, had huge impacts in that mid-’80s to early ’90s period.
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From New Zealand rugby came Matthew Ridge, Daryl Halligan, John Timu, Kurt Sherlock, John Schuster and Craig Innes.
What about the Welsh rugby stars who came out here, John Devereux, Allan Bateman and, of course, the great Jonathan Davies.
And let’s not forget Fijian rugby star Noa Nadruku and the impact he had.
These players didn’t just provide quality but they provided a depth of talent as well.
On top of this, the English rugby league was a winter sport and once the English season ended, the best of the British would arrive. Ellery Hanley, Kevin Ward, Andy Courier, Gary Schofield, Martin Offiah, Andy Gregory, Steve Hampson, Joe Lydon, Lee Crooks and many more.
That’s why so many fans look back to the mid-’80s to mid-’90s with such fondness.
Imagine the quality of the competition now if the best of the Brits and the cream of rugby were suddenly injected into the NRL and spread throughout the sides.
When John Quayle and Ken Arthurson announced that in 1995 the competition would expand to 20 teams it made perfect sense, such was the player depth.
The Super League war was a costly one, but in hindsight, possibly the greatest hurt was that it forced rugby union to go professional.
In 1995 when the war began, player wages exploded and rugby knew if they didn’t go professional immediately, their best talent was going to be looted like never before.
In fact, legendary Bulldogs boss Peter Moore flew to South Africa to sign the player of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the late, great Joost van der Westhuizen.
“Bullfrog” viewed the Springbok half as the ideal replacement for Terry Lamb. The deal was huge and Joost was perilously close to signing but then suddenly rugby went pro. And then rugby actually started stealing our talent.
To double the hurt, the boss of the English rugby league, Maurice Lindsay, made the decision that they would change to a summer game. Suddenly the NRL and the English Super League ran parallel and for quite a while very few British players came down here to play.
Of course, that meant 20 teams was too many and some believe even in 2020, 16 is still too big a strain on the game’s depth of talent.
As a rugby league man, I’m wrapped that once again rugby union players are looking across at the NRL and viewing it as the ultimate challenge in the rugby codes.
I haven’t seen a lot of Ardie Savea but good judges in both codes say he would have no problem making a successful switch.
As far as Quade Cooper is concerned, people aren’t as confident. The knock on Quade is that he sits on the wrong side of 30 and there’s a question on his physicality.
I would love for Quade to come across and I would love to see him do well – it may tempt others to do the same.
There’s real opportunity for the NRL. Rugby Australia find themselves in a difficult position, financially the code here is struggling and the best players are bracing for a huge pay cut.
The compromise is that Rugby Australia will allow players to chase short-term overseas contracts. But in the current environment there are no competitions and with border restrictions it’s hard to see how this would work.
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If the NRL can indeed make a May 28 start time, maybe some cream rugby talent can be tempted into a short-term switch or something more permanent.
As far as the English rugby league is concerned, they and the NRL need to co-operate with each other better as far as the future of the game is concerned.
This may be a longshot, but there’s a lot of upside in the English game returning to a winter sport.
It would strengthen their competition greatly, allowing the best NRL players to go over at the conclusion of the season and have sustained stints with English clubs. Vice versa, it would allow English players to do the same here.
This gives both competitions more depth and strength, and gives players greater earning potential.