Diego Costa was born in Brazil, but yesterday decided to represent Spain against the country of his birth. The Atletico Madrid player is a holder of Brazilian and Spanish passports, but is suddenly being held up as some sort of traitor by next year’s disgruntled World Cup hosts.
Costa’s feelings of what national pride means would be soothed by studying images of the slightly eccentric Rugby League World Cup, a place in time where it feels like you can choose your country of origin. If you look and sound like Mick Dundee, no problem. You can just make it up as you go along. No questions asked. Not that Spain are in the grip of Rugby League Word Cup fever. In the host nation, it has barely caught the sniffles.
Amid some farcical happenings, a four-nation event of a sport with limited appeal worldwide mainly confined to Australia and a corridor of Northern England has somehow been turned into a blooming 14-nation World Cup. Somebody will need to explain to this onlooker why this barmy arrangement can possibly be viewed credible using the term ‘world’.
In New South Wales, they can’t get enough of Rugby League, but that isn’t necessarily the path to enlightenment. Some sporting Sydneysiders can’t get enough of gambling, sucking the life out of a 20-deck of smokes and sinking a few schooners before laying off a few bets on the nags at the local TAB. All this can be done before settling down to watch men like Sonny Bill Williams careering into other blokes representing the Sydney Roosters.
One wonders how much money the Aussies are punting on the Rugby League World Cup? They should have a bet on the winning try at this tournament being scored by a guy who has no links to Australia, or Australia’s National Rugby League. Long, long odds.
Whatever else is made of Rugby League, titling it a World Cup is as odd as suggesting the baseball World Series between Boston Red Sox and St Louis Cardinals has some sort of competition beyond the US.
The BBC will tell you otherwise because they have bought rights to broadcast the Rugby League World Cup, but this is a four-nation tournament with large swathes of the rest having some tenuous links to their respective countries through parents or grandparents.
Rugby Union toils to make any meaningful imprint beyond the national obsession of football in Scotland. Rugby League is about as visible in Scotland as a Tory MP. Yet the Scots have a side in this tournament.
It was interesting listening to Danny Brough, the forthright captain of Scotland, give his thoughts on his team, aptly titled The Bravehearts, before their fascinating 26-24 win over Tonga in Workington last night. Born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire it was even more amusing to hear him speak with the sort of accent that makes Dickie Bird look urbane. The flat cap and whippet can be left in the changing room before he pursues some sort of sporting glory despite most of Scotland being unaware the country has a Rugby League team.
Ireland go by the nickname of The Wolfhounds. Jack Charlton’s Irish football team consisting of men like Tony Cascarino, Chris Morris and Mick McCarthy, who were seemingly capped after stopping off in Dublin Airport for a pint of Guinness, were more authentic back in the day.
The Italy team are not all Aussies. They have one French geezer and another guy from Argentina who grew up in Italy.
Italy had to see off those pesky Lebanese to reach the tournament proper. Lebanon used to contain all Aussies, but have managed to encourage a few locals to pick up the cudgel, a case of “G’day mate, how ya travelling? Just sticking some hummus on my Chicken shawarma.”
Without lamenting the effort of the strapping men who make a living out of Rugby League, one particularly admires the ongoing Sky Sports pundit Mike ‘Stevo’ Stephenson and his brave bid to resurrect his Rugby League museum after the financial collapse of its home in Huddersfield earlier this year, this is a sport that has virtually no chance of usurping Rugby Union as the sport’s main code because it doesn’t have the same broad appeal.
A 45,052 crowd turned up at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to watch Australia overcome England 28-20 in the tournament opener. They should be there at the end. Australia will have a vested interest whatever happens.
Warrington and Rochdale have been applauded for hosting full houses, but look at where they are located? England being watched by capacity crowds in Huddersfield and Hull is hardly breaking new ground. The Old Trafford final will be a sell-out because it is in the North.
Plenty of Australian parents don’t care for exposing kids to Rugby League for a very good reason, the same issue North American parents have with American football: it seems to be British Bulldogs with a ball. An aggressive type of sport that is fuelled by machismo, men with arms like thighs and blows to the system that hit so hard it rattles the ancestors. This is how the Aussie public traditionally like their team games, but the more artful nature of football and the ball at the feet is slowly beginning to register in the collective psyche of the Aussie public.
A cliquish media in Australia, compliant in denouncing football as a game played by European immigrants used to confuse Rugby League and Aussie Rules football with football – the only game solely played with your feet – derided as soccer. Attitudes began to change when Australia qualified for the 2006 World Cup finals. Football is a truly global game. The Rugby League World Cup is tinpot by comparison. Italy are apparently only on 200 quid a week in expenses to represent the land of their forefathers.
Some of the antics Rugby League players indulge in make you recoil in horror. None more so than John Hopoate, a former player who once became known as ‘Stinkfinger’ Down Under for upsetting unsuspecting opponents with strategically placed digits. The image of Rugby League being played by characters who like their sport with unnecessary levels of aggression is hard to shake off.
The Aussies should not fret too much. After indifferent returns in various sports recently, here is a tournament where they win even if they lose with blokes called Gavin, Brendan and Kade turning out for Italy. They will certainly have a hand in whoever picks up the trophy. Just be glad old ‘Stinkfinger’ is nowhere near it amid the continuing confusion of contorted national identity.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/24689785
Rugby League "World" Cup so barmy that Australia win if Italy win
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