The 2021 Rugby League World Cup has been postponed until next year despite organisers considering scrapping the competition altogether.
The World Cup, for which the UK government pledged about £25 million, was due to be held in England in October and November. However, Australia and New Zealand, the two top-ranked nations, withdrew a fortnight ago, citing concerns about player welfare amid rising numbers of Covid-19 cases in the UK.
The World Cup chief executive, Jon Dutton, explored the prospect of drafting in Indigenous and Maori representative sides to replace Australia and New Zealand but, in a further blow, all 16 National Rugby League clubs last week issued a statement calling for the tournament to be postponed until 2022.
Simon Johnson, the Rugby Football League chairman, recently stated that a postponement until next year presented a logistical challenge, with many of the stadiums due to stage matches in the men’s, women’s and wheelchair tournaments — Anfield, St James’ Park, Elland Road, the Emirates and Old Trafford — set to be unavailable.
Dutton said: “We’re bitterly disappointed — we’ve worked tirelessly as a team for the past six years, but clearly over the weekend it became apparent that we couldn’t continue. It would have been irresponsible to carry on, so we looked to 2022.
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“Clearly we’ve got some work to do and, in the current health environment, we can’t predict the future given the health challenges facing Australia and New Zealand right now.
“Collectively, as a sport, we’ve got to show resilience and overcome adversity. There has got to be a togetherness within the international rugby league community and make sure that everyone turns up, brings their best players and that we stage a truly world-class tournament next year.”
Asked how close the tournament came to being scrapped altogether, Dutton added: “I think it’s fair to say we did come close to cancellation. Ultimately, I guess, the least worst option was to postpone. There are a lot of people hurting at the moment because of the time and energy that has been invested so far.
“But as administrators, we don’t have a right to take the hopes and dreams of players to play in a tournament. For that reason, we fought so hard to ensure we could stage a World Cup. Unfortunately that will be next year.”
Organisers face a difficult logistical challenge, though, to stage the event in 2022.
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Dutton said: “There will be some disturbance, inevitably, but we have spoken to our 18 host cities and we expect all of them to stay with us. There might be some change to the venues, but overall I think we will come out in a very similar place.”
If the tournament can be rearranged for 2022, organisers will want to avoid a clash with the Fifa World Cup in Qatar from November 21 to December 18.
It seems inevitable that the re-arranged tournament will be played earlier in the year, and Dutton added: “We have some draft dates for 2022 and are having conversations with Super League and the Rugby Football League. We wouldn’t expect to go against the Fifa World Cup, for understandable reasons.”
Dutton admitted there “clearly conversations to be had” with government over securing additional funding for the tournament for the next 12 months to cover the costs of rebates to sponsors and ticket refunds.
The Sports Minister, Nigel Huddleston, said: “I am disappointed that we’ve needed to take the decision to delay the Rugby League World Cup.
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“Despite working tirelessly to explore solutions that would allow us to go ahead as planned, circumstances beyond our control have meant that postponing the Rugby League World Cup until next year is the strongest option for staging a successful tournament.
“In the best interests of the sport and its millions of supporters around the world, I look forward to the Rugby League authorities in all competing nations accommodating a rearranged tournament in 2022, so we can put on the spectacle the fans deserve.”
