Why would you be interested in a World Cup where Australia has won seven out of the last eight in a period of thirty-three years and are overwhelming favourites to win the next World Cup at $1.25 with one bookmaker, and the next competitor is at $5.00? In sports, favourites don’t win, and there is always the story of the country ready to take the next step with a little bit of assistance or the minnow who could be the next big thing in the sport.
Paul Barrière had never heard of Rugby League before the age of eighteen. It would take the invasion of his homeland of France by the Germans in World War Two for this Frenchman to find a new passion, and this meeting would lay the platform for the second-oldest world championship in world sport. After the Germans had invaded and occupied France, Barrière joined the French Resistance. Whilst in the resistance, Barriere would meet the leaders of the Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII (FFR XIII), who were facing their own battles to keep their sport alive. The Vichy government of France under Marshal Philippe Pétain collaborated heavily with their German invaders.
Some of the senior administrators of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) worked closely with the Vichy government to ban the FFR XIII, saying the sport as a working man’s game “corrupted” the French youth as it was associated with the previous “socialist” government. The Vichy government complied and banned the sport of Rugby League in France, handing over funds and players and sabotaging the pitches when Rugby League tried to play on them by spreading shards of glass on the field to rend the angles unsuitable for play.
In 1951 president of the (FFR XIII) Paul Barriere noticed the success of the football world cup, which began in 1930 and pushed to the newly formed International Rugby League Board, a Rugby League World Cup. In January 1952, Rugby Football League Bill Fallowfield persuaded the International Rugby League Board to consider Barriere’s idea. At a meeting in Blackpool, England, on November 1953, the International Rugby League Board accepted Paul Barrière’s proposal that France should host the inaugural Rugby League World Cup (the second in world sport). Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the USA were invited to enter teams, with the USA being the only team to turn down the invitation. Ex-Australian Rugby League Chairman Colin Love has stated that the World Cup will honour Barrière’s memory, saying, “Certainly Paul Barrière will be acknowledged in some way during the World Cup, which is only right because as I understand it, the whole thing was his idea”.
Over the years, the Rugby League World Cup has gone several changes regarding its tournament structure. The tournament moved to various formats over the years, from a single tournament in the 1950s to a World Series Challenge in the 1970s to a best-performing country over three years in the 1980s, back to a single tournament in the mid-1990s featuring emerging talent from Europe and the Pacific.
Rugby League countries in the Pacific struggle for regular competition; this is due for several reasons. The governing body of the game in the Pacific, the Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation, was only formed in 2010; before that, the game in the greater Asia-Pacific region fell under the realms of the Rugby League International Federation only one full-time member, with all members of the board also being board members of their various countries.
Given the countries are several hours from each other as they are separated by water, then the only way to get to each country is to fly and since the countries don’t have much revenue and the RLIF also has limited funds are reasons the Pacific countries don’t play regular international competitions against each other or other countries. The lure of playing top-flight international Rugby League for Australia or New Zealand, as well as their regular competition, is part of why many chose to represent Australia due to the lure of playing in State of Origin. Countries in the Pacific face the challenge of selecting their squad with many high-quality stars who are also eligible for Australia, turning their back on their homeland and playing for Australia. Because they are without certain players, the Pacific countries are forced to pick lesser quality players who are not up to the standard of international Rugby League, which hampers their performance. If the Pacific countries had their full contingent of players, they would be much more competitive against the traditional heavyweights and have a greater chance of winning the World Cup.
Rugby League has had many false starts in the United States of America, with an attempt in 1939 faltering by the outbreak of World War II. In the 1950s, a wrestling promoter named Mike Dimitro was asked to organise a Rugby League tour. None of the players had played Rugby League before, and the tour was not considered a success. Mike also organised two exhibition games between Australia and New Zealand; Mike organised an American side to tour France again, which was not a successful tour given the lack of skills by the players.
Former American football player Mike Mayer founded the United States Rugby League in the 1970s. Mike would continue to promote the game of Rugby League in the 1970s and 1980’s and his efforts would pay off with the United States playing a match against Canada in 1987.
In 1992 former NSWRL player David Niu began introducing Rugby League to the schools in the Delaware area where he taught in schools. David was contacted by Mike Mayer, and the two worked together to build the national team. In 1997 the game’s first governing body was formed with David Niu in charge. In 1998 the first domestic completion (now known as the AMNRL) was formed, with six teams contesting the first competition. In 2000 David Niu moved to the position of CEO. In 2010 eleven teams competed in the AMNRL across the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. The following year the game saw a schism with seven clubs leaving to form their governing body, the USARL and their own competition, which would compete with the AMNRL. The two governing bodies have taken vastly different approaches. The AMNRL has focused on expanding the game across new American markets, while the USARL has focused on the consolidation and growth of existing clubs.
Rugby League in the USA struggles for mainstream prescience with coverage of the Australian Rugby League limited to cable channel Fox Soccer, but with commercial networks CBS, NBC and FOX launching their own 24/7 sports cable channel, the possibilities for Rugby League continue to grow on the back of those channels. Niu has said of the USA qualifying for the World Cup, “I’m positive it’s going to mean some significant developments in how we can present ourselves on a commercial level and also on an awareness level, in the media and the public sector.”
Australia may win the World Cup and may do it quickly, but the stories which will long be remembered after the tournament is the stories of the minnows, the upsets, and where the game is heading, which will make the Rugby League World Cup required viewing when it kicks off on the 26th of October.