Pay dispute threatens league World Cup

This year’s Rugby League World Cup is in danger of being a farce or called off with players threatening a boycotting.

The Rugby League Players Association is in a pay dispute with the NRL over how much they should get from next year and the fight has turned ugly, with both sides having dug in and firing shots at each other through the media.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that the RPLA is considering striking during the end of season tournament, which will be co-hosted by Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

The strike has already been spoken about informally, with the players feeling it would be better for them to boycott this, rather than State of Origin.

Without NRL players in the World Cup, the tournament would become meaningless and a financial disaster. Seven games are due to be held in New Zealand, including the semifinal at Mt Smart Stadium.

The fallout is over how to split the new $AU2 billion TV deal with it reported that the two parties are $170 million apart in how much they feel players should get over the five years of the TV deal.

Kangaroos captain Cameron Smith says the players are up for a fight over this and won’t back down.

He hasn’t ruled out strike action after being angered by the NRL’S ‘‘inflammatory’’ response to pay demands from the RLPA.

He was fuming over recent leaked NRL emails to all clubs that claimed the RLPA collective bargaining agreement proposal was unaffordable and showed ‘‘an apparent disregard for the game’’.

Smith - who is the RLPA general president - called for cool heads ahead of their next round of talks on June 5 but said the players’ union would be digging their heels in over their proposal.

‘‘We have done so in the past but the players and the RLPA aren’t going to run away this time,’’ Smith said.