RL's Strength It's Weakness

Canada's Toronto Wolfpack creating a stir in the UK.
Would they have been allowed into Australia's RL system?

A strength becomes a weakness when it makes us complacent. A weakness becomes a strength when we see it as such and keep working to improve it. How do those two qualities apply to RL? We shall see.

First up, the weakness. I see RL's biggest weakness it’s lack of international reach. The opportunity in NA is huge and has landed on RL's lap. There are risks in expansion but even bigger risks in simply maintaining the status quo. There is a realisation by many in RL of the need to take the bull by the horns and give it a go. As expansions go, this one is relatively risk free due.

Now for the first point. Where is RL's strength? Australia. Some years back, the game was expanding there, plans to take the game nationally were unfolding. After SL in Australia, the game retreated and expansion ignored. What I thought was regrouping proved to be prolonged inaction. The game in Australia still rides on its popularity but the mindset certainly isn't visionary anymore. The recent issue over a lucrative match in the US (I thought a no-brainer) risks being stymied by some clubs concerned about injuries. It would also be a good run for the 2025 WC organiser (behind this one off game) to test the waters. Australian clubs are not happy about it. If they say no, it doesn't happen.

A game that is run by introverted clubs in Australia deserves nothing more than to fail. Their strength is proving to be the game’s weakness. If Australia continues to dominate all decisions made in RL, it will hold the game back. There is no vision of growth in Australian RL. Opportunities to expand don't come along very often. Shortsighted self interest will keep RL in the backwaters. Australia is in my opinion RL's weakness, too self absorbed. Can RL overcome it's greatest weakness and take the game international? Time will tell.

WC Points (Nations) 1954-2017

In the final about the WC (I promise), this stats nerd will give his final assessment of RL history. The columns below show the games played (three forfeited matches are excluded), wins (3 points), draws (2) and losses (1). The final points are at the extreme right.

Teams that have arrived recently often have a better win ratio because more teams means some easier games. Early WCs when just the four best were there made winning that much harder. Great Britain is counted as England because most of the players came for that nation.

	Team		G	W	D	L	Pt
	1	Australia	78	65	2	11	210
	2	GB / England	75	45	6	24	171
	3	New Zealand	69	33	3	33	138
	4	France	60	15	3	42	93
	5	PNG	31	7	1	23	46
	6	Fiji	20	10	0	10	40
	7	Wales	22	8	0	14	38
	8	Tonga	16	9	1	6	35
	9	Samoa	17	7	1	9	32
	10	Ireland	13	6	0	7	25
	11	Scotland	13	3	2	8	21
	12	USA	7	2	0	5	11
	12	Italy	6	2	1	3	11
	14	Lebanon	7	1	1	5	10
	15	Cook Islands	6	1	1	4	9
	16	RSA	6	0	0	6	6
	17	NZ Maori	3	1	0	2	5
	18	Russia	3	0	0	3	3

A  breakdown by WC year can be found by clicking here.

WC Ranking (Nations) 1954-2017

The 15 WCs from 1954 to 2017 are tabulated below. Points are allocated by what was achieved and gives a history that many don't know about. It needs some explaining, so here goes.

Points are varied as the formats have varied. Always 10 for the trophy, 8 losing finalist, 6 for semi finalist or third placed, four and below depending on the format.

Colours show ongoing ranking as the years progressed. Green is the most successful side, dark blue second, pale blue third, orange fourth, red fifth, yellow sixth and brown anything below that. No number indicates they weren't there.

Avg shows the average points accrued at WCs they attended. PNG has more points than Samoa but Samoa has averaged more points per tournament visited.

The rest is self explanatory. If you have a question, please leave a comment and I will reply asap.

Year		54	57	60	68	70	72	75	77	88	92	95	00	08	13	17	Tot	Avg	#
Team		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
1	Aus	6	10	8	10	10	8	10	10	10	10	10	10	8	10	10	140	9.3	15
2	GB/E	10	8	10	6	8	10	8	8	6	8	8	6	6	6	8	116	7.7	15
3	NZL	4	6	6	4	4	4	4	6	8	6	6	8	10	8	4	88	5.9	15
4	Fra	8	4	4	8	6	6	2	4	2	4	1	4	1	4	2	60	4.0	15
5	Fiji											2	2	6	6	6	22	4.4	5
6	Wal							6				6	6		1	1	20	4.0	5
7	PNG									4	2	1	4	1	2	4	18	2.6	7
8	Sam											2	4	1	4	4	15	3.0	5
9	Ton											2	2	2	2	6	14	2.8	5
10	Ire												4	4	2	2	12	3.0	4
11	Sco												1	2	4	2	9	2.3	4
12	Leb												2			4	6	3.0	2
13	USA														4	1	5	2.5	2
14	C Is												1		2		3	1.5	2
14	Ita														1	2	3	1.5	2
16	RSA											1	1				2	1.0	2
16	NZM												2				2	2.0	1
18	Rus												1				1	1.0	1
Tot Pts		28	28	28	28	28	28	30	28	30	30	39	58	41	56	56	536
Max Pts		10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	150
# Teams		4	4	4	4	4	4	5	4	5	5	10	16	10	14	14

A win, draw and loss summary can be found by clicking here.