A Rugby League World Cup starts this week and you didn’t know. That’s a huge problem

Did you know the Rugby League World Cup starts this week? If you’re reading this in the north of England then the answer is probably yes. If down south then I suspect the answer is much more likely to be no. This is a huge problem. Rugby league has one of the most watchable products in British sport. It is fast, physical, easy to understand and packed with elite athletes. Yet once again, as its biggest international tournament approaches, it’s trapped inside its own bubble. The issue is not the quality of the sport. It’s the distribution and storytelling. Four years ago, the 2022 Rugby League World Cup was everywhere. Every match was available through the BBC. England’s opening game against Samoa reached a substantial audience and, importantly, the tournament brought people into the sport who had not previously watched rugby league. This time, every match sits exclusively on Premier Sports in Britain and Ireland. That might make commercial sense in a rights negotiation,