LEEDS RHINOS Chief Executive Gary Hetherington has urged the whole of British Rugby League to get behind the Rugby Football League Chairman Simon Johnson and to try to demonstrate to the Australian Rugby League Commission that it has made a crucial error in deciding not to attend this year's World Cup, with New Zealand also making a similar decision.
Johnson responded strongly to the Australian announcement, saying, “They believe the problems are insurmountable. The difficultly I think for us is that this selfish, parochial and cowardly decision is one that needn’t have been taken. The Rugby League World Cup organisers have bent over backward to offer every assurance to the Australians and to the Kiwis."