The current status of rugby league in the UK is one of huge uncertainty following the recent changes at the RFL and Sky Sports’ pundits have had their say.
Nigel Wood has taken up an interim role at the Rugby Football League following the resignation of Simon Johnston and that decision has sparked plenty of controversy.
Wood had previously been paid a significant sum when leaving the RFL in January of 2018. however, he will lead a strategic review of the game after Super League owners supported a move to bring him back in.
Two of those leading figures were Leigh’s Derek Beaumont and Leeds Rhinos’ Gary Hetherington with the pair releasing a statement at the time of Wood’s appointment.
That appointment has now been described by Sky Sports Rugby League presenter Brian Carney as a essentially “a coup” with Carney leading a debate between Paul Sculthorpe and Jon Wilkin.
Carney explained: “I’m talking about Nigel Wood returning to the RFL as interim chair in a coup essentially by a couple of clubs from Super League and representing the Championship and League One to oust Simon Johnston and insert Nigel.”
Rugby League tipped for whirlwind few months after RFL ‘coup’
In response, Sculthorpe, who is the only man to win back-to-back Man of Steel awards, said: “For me, we’ve got to take the game forward, I’m not one for looking backwards. I think things need changing, we need strong leadership, we need people who are going to make decisions, stop all the votes for what the game wants, somebody take control of it, and tell us what we’re doing.”
Former Saints captain Jon Wilkin agreed, labelling it as a decision that looks regressive and arguing that “politics have crippled” rugby league.
Wilkin stated: “I think the optics of this decision are one of regression, of a retreat to a previous position. When we’re trying to align ourselves with the commercial success of the NRL, I ask myself, what do they view when they look at this and what does it say about our ambition?
“The politics have crippled our game, it’s created inertia, we’ve got death by committee, death by democracy all the time and we need to get aligned behind the vision, the commercial vision.”
Ominously, Carney then spoke openly on what he foresees happening with the presenter claiming that the coming weeks and months will be more explosive than the mid-1990s when Super League was formed and rugby league flipped from a winter sport to a summer sport.
He said: “I’ve spoken to many people involved in it at a very, very intimate level. People that should be involved at an intimate level and aren’t, they’re standing on the periphery. Some people who are well outside and looking in at things. I’ve canvassed all of these opinions and I’ll say this, 30 years ago next month, April 1995, was described as one of the most significant and tumultuous months in Rugby League history.
“That will be a teddy bear’s picnic compared to what is coming down the line in the game of Rugby League in the next weeks and months. It is going to blow. If jaws were on the floor in the last two or three weeks, what is coming down the line is going to knock that into a cocked hat.”
Jon Wilkin didn’t disagree, adding: “Strap in! Strap in because it’s gonna get messy before it gets tidied up and Nigel Wood might be the man with the sweeping ban and brush cleaning up.
“It could be exciting Brian. It could be the change that changes things.”
