Jon Wilkin says international rugby league will “definitely not” be as big as union

Today Shaun Wane spoke to the press as he begins his preparations for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.

All of this comes around talks that there could be a series against Tonga at the end of the year but also in light of reports down under that England will be left out of “a secret plan” to bring back the Four Nations with New Zealand, Australia, Samoa and Tonga set to compete.

Following this, when asked by Jenna Brooks on The Bench podcast if they can envision international rugby league being as big as union, Jon Wilkin said: “No. Definitely no.”

Then Kevin Brown said: “It’s hard to see right now at this moment in time. We need to come together as a sport. The Australians it just doesn’t look like they want to be a part of that. They value Origin a bit higher than the international game.

“I’m really really excited and energised about the Pacific Islands like Tonga, Samoa and Fiji and what they’re doing at the minute.

“I just hope we can because when I picked a rugby ball up, it wasn’t to play for six teams, it was to play for England and that was my dream.

“It almost got even sweeter for me because I played a little bit, then was out of it for almost ten years and then I got back in and it felt even better then.

“I just hope for our sport that we get to test ourselves, we should play Australia more.”