{"id":358949,"date":"2026-01-08T12:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358949\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:59:11","slug":"leeds-rhinos-legend-suggests-radical-changes-to-revive-international-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358949\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos legend suggests \u2018radical\u2019 changes to revive international rugby league"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Barrie\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Leeds Rhinos legend and Sky Sports pundit Barrie McDermott has put forth three ideas to help revive international rugby league.<\/p>\n

Internationals are the pinnacle of almost every sport in the world but for rugby league, they are often an afterthought. That is slowly changing with a more established international calendar created and the recent revival of the Ashes<\/a> helped, even if the actual on-field product did not.<\/p>\n

However, it still must be said that international rugby league still trails behind the domestic product in terms of passion and former Leeds Rhinos man Barrie McDermott has suggested three ways to change that.<\/p>\n

Posting on his LinkedIn<\/a>, McDermott underlined the fact that the sport does not lack \u2018passion or talent\u2019 but he argued that it needs \u2018bravery, ambition and the confidence to think beyond what we\u2019ve always done\u2019.<\/p>\n

That surmising argument came after he put forward three suggestions which he claimed were maybe radical but in his view, absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n

How Barrie McDermott would save international rugby league<\/p>\n

The first of McDermott\u2019s suggestions was that the Great Britain moniker should be revived with the ultimate argument put forward by the ex-Leeds Rhinos man being that it \u2018makes international rugby league feel bigger than one flag\u2019.<\/p>\n

He explained how those from Welsh, Irish and Scottish backgrounds perhaps can\u2019t support an English team, whereas a Great Britain identity \u2018brings those people back in\u2019.<\/p>\n

A second suggestion was a need for meaningful games, something we can all agree on. McDermott called for: \u201cWe don\u2019t just need more games, we need more meaningful ones. Fewer fixtures with no context, more with rivalry, narrative and time to breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDermott also called for the return of the \u2018Rest of the World\u2019 concept, stating it cannot be either a \u2018gimmick\u2019 or \u2018filler\u2019 but a key part of the calendar.<\/p>\n

The idea he put forward called for: \u00a0\u201cA genuine invitational side made up of the absolute best players from across the game, as many RL playing nations invited as possible like the Barbarians model. Played against a host nation, in that nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake it an honour to be involved and an event fans actually look forward to. That\u2019s how you could build profile and give international rugby league something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it stands, England don\u2019t even know if Shaun Wane will be coaching them for the upcoming Rugby League World Cup<\/a> with Wane\u2019s position still under review. They also won\u2019t play a game before that tournament<\/a>, again showcasing the way the domestic game is prioritised over the international.<\/p>\n

Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our\u00a0YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos legend and Sky Sports pundit Barrie McDermott has put forth three ideas to help revive international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-358949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}