St Helens’ win over Penrith Panthers showed that Super League can compete with the NRL.
This has led to suggestions that rugby league needs to make more of the World Club Challenge and former Penrith and Leeds Rhinos player Matt Adamson told Serious About Rugby League that the sport needs to consider bringing back the once used 1997 concept which consisted of group games and knockout games in a Champions League like system.
In Adamson’s view the sport would be a lot stronger if this system had continued beyond 1997:
“I was a part of it in ’97 and they should never have lost it, the game would have been better for it if we had it.
“It would be a great spectacle from a television point of view. I’d love to see it back, I know it would be hard work and everyone would look back at what happened and the results in ’97 and how ‘they got beat by 50, they got beat by 60’ and all that.
“But that was just a starting point, they should have stuck with it because the game would have been better for it. If we were 20-30 years down the track everyone would be better for it. I go to back to your Halifax, Widnes and those clubs that played a part back in those days and they would have been better for it.
“Internationally it would have had a big impact too, it’s sad but maybe somebody will find a way to budget for it and get it back on the platform.”