Muristek
Twenty-five years on, the World Club Championship remains one of rugby league’s most bizarre and misguided ideas
By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required
Imagine sending Toulouse, Wakefield, Salford and Hull KR to Australia to play a series of games against Penrith, Melbourne, South Sydney and Parramatta. It would be madness, wouldn’t it? Well, that’s what happened 25 years ago this week, in what was described by Souths icon George Piggins as “one of the greatest farces ever perpetrated upon the Australian sporting public”. Harsh but probably true.
Ill-thought, illogical and elongated, the World Club Championship was a car crash of a tournament. But it is remembered with perverse enjoyment by many who were there to play, coach, report or watch it. In his new book Two Tribes, Steve Mascord recalls the event in 1997 with unashamed relish. He was reporting on the ‘Super League War’ every day for the Sydney Morning Herald and loved it. Now he has gone back to speak with 100 of the people involved.
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