Wayne Bennett, the England coach, is keen for his club side Brisbane to be involved in the World Club Series, saying the Broncos would be fully behind coming to England to play in the tournament despite growing discontent from rival NRL clubs about the concept.
A number of Australian sides, including this year’s Grand Final runners-up Melbourne Storm, have said they will not come to England and play in next year’s series, with the Storm in particular against the idea of participating in what they consider to be nothing more than a friendly against Super League opposition as part of the expanded competition.
Wigan will still face Cronulla Sharks in the World Club Challenge in the annual battle of the sport’s two major champions, and initially, it had looked like the format would revert back to the traditional one-game event.
However, Bennett said if Brisbane were invited, they would happily take part. “We would be keen to travel,” he said. “I spoke to Nigel [Wood, the RFL chief executive] on Monday night and told him that the whole concept has got the club’s backing.
“We love coming over, we’ve enjoyed it in the last couple of years as a club and we’re also trying to host one here in the pre-season. But if that doesn’t come to fruition and there’s a vacancy to come over to England we will certainly go.
“The other clubs have all got their reasons I’m sure but we don’t find it interferes with our season really.
“ We’ve played in a Grand Final, gone for the World Club Series and started the following year well, so I can’t find a fault with it.”
The series, which is expected to run for a third season as planned in 2017, could yet see a Super League side – likely to be Hull or Warrington – travel to Australia and take on NRL opposition.
Bennett, speaking from his Brisbane base before his arrival in England later this week for the Four Nations, also revealed Sam Burgess is one of two contenders to become his first captain of England.
He is on the hunt for a new captain after the current captain, Wigan’s Sean O’Loughlin, was not considered for the tournament because of injury.
Bennett, who has worked with Burgess in the past, said the 27-year-old will be in the running following his return to the 13-man code from his controversial spell in rugby union with Bath last year.
“The captain will be one of two players: James Graham and Sam Burgess,” he said. “They’re the two in the category when it comes to the leading contenders but I want to talk to the RFL chairman [Brian Barwick] and Nigel when I arrive this weekend to see who it will be. I want to hold off and see their view on that before I decide who it is. But they’re certainly the two leading contenders.”
Media speculation in Australia had suggested Bennett was considering picking a number of Australian-born players for the Four Nations. Although there were no such inclusions in his final 24-man squad, Bennett said he would have no issue with doing so if he felt they were the right people for the job.
“I was considering any player that was eligible for England, whether they were Australian-born, Australian-based or English,” he said. “The speculation didn’t faze me in any way but it got out of control here: it was purely media-driven in Australia. At the time I said nothing about it but I’ll pick the best 24 players to play for England in my opinion. If they happened to be Australian-born, I would have stood by that.”
Bennett also revealed he is interested in England travelling to the southern hemisphere to take part in the growing mid-season round of international fixtures next year. Alongside the traditional Anzac Test between Australia and New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji also break from league action to play fixtures and he said it would be encouraging if England could be involved as his plans for next year’s World Cup gather pace.
“There’s an opportunity for England to come and be a part of that,” he said. We’ve got a great opportunity where we can play more Test matches – it’s not going to be perfect but we can play more international games.”
The RFL will confirm its new sponsor for Super League on Wednesday, with bookmaker Betfred understood to be taking over from First Utility. The governing body will also confirm the long-awaited replacement for Blake Solly as the Super League general manager on Thursday, with an external appointment expected.
