Sports

Sydney to host ‘festival’ of rugby league in new World Cup 9s tournament

Twelve countries will contest the inaugural World Cup 9s at the new $300 million Western Sydney Stadium over two days next October.

Key points:

  • The 9s game is being touted as a potential boost to flagging crowd numbers
  • The tournament will see countries such as Tonga, Fiji and PNG take on Australia and New Zealand
  • The NRL says it players are "desperate" to represent their country

The short-format league game has been played for more than 20 years but this tournament will mark the first four-yearly World Cup.

"Imagine Fiji, PNG, Samoa, Tonga up against Australia, New Zealand, England," NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said today.

"It will be a festival with pools and then semi-finals and finals."

The fast-paced game runs for 20 minutes — two nine-minute halves with a two-minute half-time break.

Each side has nine players, with six interchange players, and only five players from each side form a scrum after a double knock-on.

Interest in rugby league is growing on the international stage, with last month's match between Australia and Tonga in Auckland attracted a sell out crowd of 26,000.

Yet domestically the NRL has been grappling with attaining and increasing crowd numbers.

This version is being touted as a potential boost to the game.

"Nines is a very important part of the strategic objective for the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) already this year," RLIF chief executive Nigel Wood said.

"We've played nines at the Commonwealth championships in Brisbane, next year nines will be played in the Pacific Games."

The near-completed Western Sydney stadium, with three men posing for a photo

Four women's teams will also compete in the competition, which is scheduled for two weeks after the NRL grand final next year.

Despite concerns from some quarters of player fatigue, the NRL insisted it would attract the best players.

"We have taken the concept through all of our clubs and the players' association, we've looked at player workload," Mr Greenberg said.

"But bringing nines to the international game will have great success, this is players representing their nations — different to playing for their clubs."

The Auckland Nines competition was scrapped in its fourth year, 2017, but Mr Greenberg said the NRL was confident that playing the tournament at the end of the season would see it survive long-term.

"They desperately want to play for their countries," he said.

"We are looking to put international fixtures in place at the end of each season where there is a clear international window."

As debate continues about future funding for Sydney's stadium upgrades, the NRL boss had a message for both sides of politics.

"If you build facilities like [Western Sydney Stadium], the world's very best events will continue to come," he said.

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