Guernsey Press

Kevin Sinfield unhappy with international plans

Former England captain Kevin Sinfield has criticised Australia over their proposed four-year international calendar, arguing it would damage preparations for the 2021 World Cup.Australia Rugby League chairman Peter Beattie cased a stir with both the Rugby Football League (RFL) and the International Federation (RLIF) by unveiling plans for a Kangaroos tour to the UK in …

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Former England captain Kevin Sinfield has criticised Australia over their proposed four-year international calendar, arguing it would damage preparations for the 2021 World Cup.

Australia Rugby League chairman Peter Beattie cased a stir with both the Rugby Football League (RFL) and the International Federation (RLIF) by unveiling plans for a Kangaroos tour to the UK in 2019.

That would mean putting on hold the eagerly-anticipated return of the British Lions, who were due to tour down under in 2019 and receive Australia in 2020, 12 months out from the World Cup being staged in the UK.

Jon Dutton, chief executive of the 2021 World Cup, says high-profile international fixtures in the UK in 2020 are vital if organisers are to reach their target of getting three-quarters of a million people through the turnstiles.

“For us in 2020 it is critical that there is international rugby league played here,” Dutton said.

“We have to stimulate a new market to achieve our target and to do that we need good quality international rugby league and that has to happen in 2020.

“I’m slightly disappointed that the calendar isn’t fixed.”

Dutton was speaking in MediaCityUK at the launch of a legacy programme designed to invest up to £20million into the grass-roots game.

Sinfield, the newly-appointed director of rugby at Leeds, was also at the launch in his role as 2021 World Cup ambassador and echoed Dutton’s concerns.

“I sit here with a little bit of disappointment,” said Sinfield, who still works one day a week as the RFL’s director of rugby.

“I had an understanding of what the international calendar was going to be for the next four years and suddenly it looks like there may be some doubt with that.

“We need meaningful fixtures as a nation leading to the World Cup.

“I thought 2020 would be the year we’d get to play for the Ashes again and I’d be really disappointed if that’s changed.”

Under Beattie’s schedule, England would host a Four Nations Series in 2020 involving France, Papua New Guinea and Fiji while Australia would meet New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa in the southern hemisphere.

“I was disappointed in the plans put forward for England,” Sinfield added.

“I mentioned the word meaningful and I mean this in the most respectful way but we need to be playing the best teams in the world – Australia and New Zealand, regularly, and I’d include Tonga in that as well.

“That’s really important for our programme going forward.

“When the decision was made for the Lions tour to be in the calendar I think we were all delighted.”

The RFL is still hoping the 2019 Lions tour can go ahead and will be represented at the next RLIF meeting in Singapore on the last weekend of July when plans are expected to be finalised.

Sinfield added: “The next few weeks is going to decide a number of different factors on where we go, but at the moment I’m pretty disappointed because we’ve been working off the plan we were given some time ago.”

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