Phil Clarke: Building on the success of the World Club Series
Wednesday 22 February 2017 15:46, UK
Phil Clarke looks back at the World Club series and what Super League needs to do on the back of their success.
We've waited years for a good win against an NRL side and then got two within the space of 24 hours.
Well done to both Warrington and Wigan for putting some pride back into the Betfred Super League.
For the last few years, the games haven't really been competitive. At last, we got to see not just a close contest, but two great games as well.
Cronulla threw almost 270 passes in the game at Wigan and tested the Warriors defence to the max, especially in the second half.
Despite all their ball movement, they only managed to make one clean break. Interestingly, Wigan made 211 passes, Warrington 221 and the Broncos just 184, but they did have the least possession.
I said during the commentary that most of the 50/50 calls needed to go in Wigan's favour if they were going to collect their fourth World Cup Challenge title and, as it turned out, they all did!
In fact, I'd like to know how the Cronulla try in the left corner was disallowed when the point of the ball must have touched the In Goal area first, but that's all irrelevant now.
The important things for me are:
- Can the results get more people playing rugby league?
- Do those wins help England's confidence in the World Cup at the end of the season?
- How do we get more people watching the sport on the back of the wins? (Neither game was sold out)
- Will global success attract more sponsorship income for the tournament in the future?
- Now that the Super League clubs have played to their potential, will it make the NRL club's more interested in a World Rugby League Champions Trophy?
I appreciate that one competitive year doesn't mean that the Super League sides are as strong as those in the NRL, but we now need the players in the Super League to use this experience to drive up the standards of the competition.
They then need the administrators to work together to grow the event, which leaves us, the supporters with the challenge of attending. If we're serious supporters of the sport, we need to demonstrate that by making the matches 'must see' events.
We already have a £1million game in this country. I think that the best way to make this match or series mean something is to give the winners another £1million. It would get the rest of the NRL more interested and make it a better game.
