NRL supremo Peter V’landys has confirmed he will fly to England during the Ashes to hold talks over a possible investment from the competition into Super League.
The prospect of Australia’s premiere competition investing into the English game has been on the agenda for most of this year. However, events here – notably a coup to remove the previous RFL hierarchy as well as expansion to 14 teams – had been a factor in those talks cooling.
But V’landys has confirmed he will speak to several club bosses during the Ashes tour to get a firmer grip on how the NRL can potentially influence the growth of the British game. It is understood he will not hold formal talks, but will instead speak with clubs who are closely allied to the NRL hierarchy about a possible investment.
He told Triple M: “We’re looking at it. We want to make sure rugby league survives in England and we want to make sure it’s vibrant and healthy.
“We got them to Vegas and it gave them a stimulus which increased their ratings and they’ve introduced all the rule changes we made.
“Their crowds are up, their ratings are up and there’s some shoots there that can be expanded. We go over there for the Ashes and we’ll be speaking to the clubs to see how we can help. We’ll look at it because it’s important to have a strong English competition.”
V’landys admitted that a strong British game could only help and influence the growth of rugby league on a global scale, too.
He said: “We were approached by the England rugby league to take the game over there because they needed some assistance in promoting the game over there.
“They came to Las Vegas and had plenty of benefit because it got their season off to a flying start. As I said, international football is a priority for the commission and we’re going to continue to grow the international game. We do have that international factor and we need to expand it as much as possible.”
