Friday 20 February 2015 13:45, UK
Australia’s incoming National Rugby League head strategist has warned England must cut back on the number of games played if the sport is to push for a bigger place on the world stage.
Shane Richardson, who will leave his role as South Sydney chief executive to take up the post with the NRL on March 2, says Super League clubs must put quality over quantity if they want to expand the game.
The former Gateshead and Hull chief executive is in England to witness his dream of an expanded World Club Challenge become reality.
After 15 consecutive years as a stand-alone fixture between the NRL and Super League champions, the concept has been expanded to include three teams from each hemisphere in the first move towards a Champions League-type tournament.
The new World Club Series kicks off in Warrington on Friday when the Wolves take on St George Illawarra, before Wigan host Brisbane Broncos and Super League champions St Helens face South Sydney.
Richardson wants to see the series become firmly established in the calendar, along with a fully-integrated international programme, and is determined to persuade his fellow countrymen to take the international game seriously.
'Challenge'
"You can't have the National Rugby League in Australia run separately from England," he said. “If you're going to put rugby league on the world stage, you've always got to include what we're doing in England and France.
"We've actually grown apart and we've never given international football the kudos it deserves - we will in the future.
"The biggest challenge we've got is that England still thinks you can play 40 games a season whereas we're working with our players to reduce the number of games.
"We want quality, not quantity, but that's not the case in the northern hemisphere, which is ridiculous."
The new expanded format of the World Club Challenge looks set to be a success, and Richardson said the “experiment” had been a gamble.
"No-one knew what it would be like," he said. "As it turns out, it looks like we've got sold-out stadia which says it's a success.
"The thing I've got to admire about the English rugby league is that they've taken on all these challenges to try and expand the game without a lot of support.
"All the financial risks here are with the clubs who have taken it on. We've got to start taking risks, it's as simple as that. We've got to have confidence in our great game that we can take it to another level.”
