Rhinos chief eyes challenge expansion

Friday 26th February 2010

Leeds Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington is calling for an expansion of the annual World Club Challenge into a six-team tournament, starting in 2011.

As the Rhinos prepare to do battle in a one-off fixture with Australian champions Melbourne Storm at Elland Road on Sunday, Hetherington believes the time is right to throw the tournament open to the top three clubs from Super League and their NRL counterparts.

"I'd like to think the RFL and the NRL could grasp the opportunity that has been given to them by the clubs that have competed in this tournament, particularly over the past five years, and grown its credibility and status," said Hetherington. "On Sunday we are going to see a crowd in excess of 25,000, which is fairly unique because this is the only cup final you get with only one set of supporters."

He added: "The level of crowds in recent years has been quite outstanding and shows there is terrific interest.

"Now is the time to extend it further to a six-team tournament. You would still have the World Club Challenge but it would reward another four teams.

"It's effectively Leeds Rhinos' game on Sunday but it needs to be more representative of Super League.

"If you look at the way sport has gone in general, there is a real appetite for internationalised club games.

"In soccer there is the Champions League and in rugby union you've got the Heineken Cup. This is rugby league's opportunity - and its only opportunity - to internationalise the club fixtures."

Hetherington's proposal would be a scaled-down version of the ill-fated 1997 World Club Championship which featured all 22 Super League clubs in both Europe and Australia and produced a host of one-sided matches.

"We believe we will be able to compete," he said. "We've shown that year on year. We were miles adrift in 1997 but now we can certainly compete."