\u201cI\u2019d like to see, you know, six, seven weeks, eight weeks of international football, which we can do. And I think you\u2019re getting to the stage now where that could be a reality in the next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg Peters has stepped down as CEO of NZRL. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
However, Peters said the NRL \u2013 which operates from February to October \u2013 is preventing test expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not critical of them. It\u2019s just that their whole season is full up. Look at it. We had a Warriors sellout in Napier a couple of weekends back. We had the All Stars on Sunday nearly sold out. Then we had the announcement about State of Origin<\/a>, then we have Vegas<\/a>, and we\u2019re only just at the beginning of March.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s quite a big season now, and to find that window is when the money equation is driven out of clubs, broadcasting deals and clubs pay the players, which we fully respect; it gets harder for the international game. <\/p>\n \u201cBut I think broadcasters, media partners and sponsors are now seeing the value in that international game, and it\u2019s capturing hearts and minds across the world. Look at the Ashes series in the UK last year and our own game against Tonga at Eden Park, amazing spectacles for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Peters said there is momentum behind international rugby league that will continue.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a great freight train coming down the track now, with the players advocating for it big time. They\u2019re big time into wanting to play for their country, wanting to play for their culture and the international game.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t do that for money. The money\u2019s nothing, nothing compared to State of Origin either. But they do it for the love of the jersey and the love of their culture. Even if you did want to stop it, you wouldn\u2019t be able to now because it\u2019s just coming down the train track at a fast rate of knots, and we\u2019ve got to embrace it and get on that train and make it the best it possibly can be.\u201d<\/p>\n With the Rugby League World Cup taking place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea later this year, the Pacific Championships will pause until 2027.<\/p>\n The Kangaroos were absent from last year\u2019s edition due to a three-match series with England, but Peters said they will be back next year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t sat down with them and talked about what that looks like yet, but they\u2019ll be back in that, and as I say, the players want to play in it and the Tongans and Samoans are powers and forces to be reckoned with now. Isn\u2019t that great? You\u2019ve got more teams that can win the World Cup as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Nathan Limm<\/a> has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast<\/a> and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019d like to see, you know, six, seven weeks, eight weeks of international football, which we can do.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,258148,2685,21695,17269,1862,74841,3389,15499,2877,26582,12536,158,258149,222403,258147,258151,258150,760,15343,85,231,3205],"class_list":["post-516603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blocking","tag-chief","tag-executive","tag-expansion","tag-game","tag-greg","tag-international","tag-kiwis","tag-league","tag-major","tag-more","tag-nrl","tag-outgoing","tag-outlined","tag-peters","tag-preventing","tag-roadblock","tag-rugby","tag-schedule","tag-sports","tag-test","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Go Media Stadium Mt Smart and Eden Park sold out for Pacific Championship tests last year. Photo \/ Photosport.<\/p>\n