Well we witnessed some of the best and some of the worst this week…
Firstly the best. The Samoa v Tonga delivered on the hype and was clearly the highlight of the competition thus far. It also demonstrated the passion the Pacific Nations people have for their team and nation. You only have to drive through a town in Greater Western Sydney to see houses adorned worth national flags and colours. not to mention the celebrations (by both sides) going well into the night, without context you could have sworn they BOTH won the World Cup. The opener between Lebanon v France was a solid match too, when both sides are around the same level of expertise an actual game of footy can happen, the match was tight and ended in a golden point thriller.
The worst… more blowouts. The two A Group games were almost unwatchable… it was watching a fight won by knockout in Round 1, but the official let the victor keep whaling on his opponent as he lay motionless on the ground.
To compound this was the Australian Womens 128-6 destruction of Wales. Full credit to the Australian women’s team for a dominating effort, but the second half had me cringiung and wishing the mercy rule existed in International Rugby League. I’m not sure what they think this does for the International games profile, but I can’t imagine it would be anything good.
I think this week was a good demonstration on why the Rugby League World Cup needs to be structured more like I mentioned last week.
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Websites