By STEVE MASCORD
SUPER League managing director Rhodri Jones has defended the decision to leave no space in next year’s draw for a mid-season England international.
Rugby League Commercial hosted a media briefing on Tuesday morning to launch and explain aspects of next year’s schedule, including Magic Weekend, broadcast arrangements and the play-offs.
During the virtual media opportunity, Jones conceded there was nowhere in the calendar for England to play before the World Cup and that national coach Shaun Wane had not been consulted in the planning.
“There is no spare weekends in the calendar,” Jones said.
“There are, however, some weekends in Super League where there are no games on a Sunday so there is the potential opportunity for squad gatherings Sunday afternoons, Monday mornings.
“But in terms of actual fixtures, there is no space in the calendar.”
But Jones rejected the suggestion England would therefore be handicapped going into the World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, as a result.
“No, I wouldn’t say they are,” said Jones. “It’s up to Super League to deliver the intensity that gets the players ready for that international period at the end of the year.
“I think it’s well debated around who would we play (mid-season), would it be a competitive fixture?
“We have had games against France for a couple of years and the reason why that hasn’t continued, I guess, is because of the perceived lack of quality on the field, or lack of contest on the field.
“If the contest is there on the field, you’d look to incorporate it but the reality is that the view is that the contest isn’t there.
“As you can see, it’s a fully loaded domestic season … it’s a fantastic-looking calendar … and hopefully puts the England players in the right shape in terms of the World Cup.”
Asked if expanding the competition from 12 to 14 teams and theoretically spreading the available talent more thinly would help achieve this, Jones said: “It’s a good question.
“I think everyone at the starting line in February will certainly have aspirations to get into the play-offs and to get to the grand final.
“So you hope that … that will mean some intensity on the field and that continues though the course of the season.
“What we’ve tried to do is to make sure that there is stuff around all the fixtures so the fixtures feel like they have the intensity – certainly off the field.
“And then ultimately it’’s up to the players on the field to deliver that,
“But I think ultimately there’s a World Cup at the end of the year. It’s a pretty big carrot in terms of aspiration for players so I’d like to think we’d see the best of the players throughout the course of the year.”
Asked why Wane was not consulted, Jones answered: “Because we are guided by the framework that we have to work within, in terms of … we have a clear end date, we have a relatively clear start date and we have to try and get everything into those two dates.
“There was no consultation with Shaun on it. When we were doing it, to be fair to Shaun, he probably had other things on his mind, namely preparation for the Ashes series and the actual series itself.”
Jones said Wane and his staff had been “across” the decision to have no mid-year Test before it was announced.
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