US DATE TO TEST BEATTIE
ARL chairman urged to back NZ-Australia overseas game
SO PETER Beattie stands up this week and says if we don’t grow the game it will die.
OK, Pete, here’s your first chance to show your words have substance as chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission.
Because Sam Burgess is not kidding when he says only agendas are standing in the way of this mid-year Test match between England and New Zealand in the US.
If you listen to the people trying to kill the game in Denver, they will have you believe they are only looking out for player welfare because of socalled “grave safety concerns”.
Yet this week the doctor in charge of the NZ rugby league team came out and said pointblank the Denver heat, travel toll and altitude would not increase injury risk.
So who do you believe, Pete? Don’t let them hoodwink you on this.
It’s the NRL and its clubs who don’t want the Test, because it falls smack bang in the middle of State of Origin.
But as Broncos and England coach Wayne Bennett said yesterday: “The (NRL) games they are coming back to play will be quickly forgotten. But the game in America will never be forgotten.”
I also spoke to the highly respected former Kangaroo and All Black Brad Thorn.
Thorn, now the coach of the Queensland Reds, wasn’t up to date with all the controversy surrounding this game in Denver. And to be honest, he didn’t want to buy into whether or not it should go ahead because he said it’s not his business.
But Thorn did agree to talk about his vast experience playing at altitude and dealing with long-haul travel.
He’s played many games at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, which is several hundred metres higher in elevation than Denver.
“Funny you call today,” Thorn said. “We just got back from a long trip round the world.”
Get this: the Reds played two games in seven days – having flown from Brisbane to play in Argentina, then on to Brazil, to London, to South Africa to play and then back to Australia.
And after their first game in Argentina, they had 42 hours’ travel time before their second game in South Africa.
“We had a short flight from Argentina to Brazil and from there we were meant to fly to Cape Town,” Thorn explained.
“But (South Africa) wouldn’t take us because we hadn’t had some shots that they wanted us to have.
“So we got to the airport in London, stepped outside so we could then be coming out of London. Then we went back into the airport, flew another 11–12 hour flight down to Cape Town.
“Then we played the Stormers and got beaten by a try in the last minute.”
Asked if his team suffered any serious injuries, Thorn said: “We had no injuries. Came home fine.”
As for playing at altitude, Thorn said it is tough, “but you just get on with it”.
“Be professional. Be diligent with your preparation and recovery,” he said.
Burgess also made the point that injuries can happen anywhere.
“It is like me saying I am not playing this year because I might get injured,” the England skipper said. “There is a risk of injury when you walk across the street.”
Nathan Cleary didn’t have to travel to Denver last week to suffer a knee injury that could keep him out for 10 weeks.
Last year, Johnathan Thurston was injured during State of Origin. Josh Hodgson was injured playing for England at the World Cup.
It’s rugby league. It happens. While the NRL might be disadvantaged in the short term, James Graham said back in January: “We might all have to sacrifice a little bit, but for the greater good of the international game I would be happy to do it.”
But it seems the NRL doesn’t want to sacrifice, even though Beattie says if we don’t grow the game it will die.
“You look at Origin,” Bennett said, “it wouldn’t be where it was if we had given up on it in the early years.
“The players have shown they want to support the growth of international rugby league.
“Jason Taumalolo made his decision to play for Tonga last year. Tevita Pangai has now come out and said he wants to play for Tonga and not for Australia or NSW.
“The English players want to play for England.
“If the game is truly genuine about growing the international game, then that is why this trip has to go ahead.
“For England to get better they need more games, and the same for Tonga and Samoa and the Cook Islands, they all need opportunity.
“But if you take that opportunity away, they are going to say, ‘Well, what are we doing this for?’
“The game really needs to make a decision here, or in 10 years’ time we won’t have an international game except for Australia and New Zealand.”
Beattie has the power to make this happen. Now he has the chance to prove he means what he says.
‘‘ “YOU LOOK AT ORIGIN. IT WOULDN’T BE WHERE IT WAS IF WE HAD GIVEN UP ON IT IN THE EARLY YEARS. — WAYNE BENNETT