This month marks the beginning of the Rugby League World Cup 2021, which has been delayed for a total of five years. The tournament will be held in England, which also serves as the host nation, and Australia, which is the defending champion.
Fans who pay close attention will have noticed that despite the fact that it is the year 2022, all of the branding makes it seem as though we are still in the previous year. This is an extremely significant difference.
Why, then, is it being referred to as the RLWC 2021? And was there a reason why it was given such an unusual name?
Why is the Rugby League World Cup in 2021 being referred to as the RLWC?
The reason why the Rugby League World Cup is called the 2021 Rugby League World Cup is solely due to the fact that this competition is scheduled to take place in the year 2021.
As part of the sport’s four-year World Cup cycle, which was instituted following the 2013 and 2017 iterations of the tournament, the competition was supposed to have taken place during the fall of the previous year. However, the tournament was postponed.
However, despite the fact that several countries were prepared to travel, in June of last year, the Australian Rugby League Commission and the New Zealand Rugby League announced that they would not participate in the tournament if it was held due to safety concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. This ultimately led to the organizers being forced to postpone the event.
Has something similar ever occurred before?
The 2021 Rugby League World Cup is not the first major sporting event to be impacted by the pandemic, and as a result, it is not the first to have its dates rescheduled.
After being delayed by one year from their original dates, both Euro 2020 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were finally held in the previous year. Both events had been postponed from their original years.
In a manner very similar to that of the RLWC 2021, the organizers have made the decision to keep the branding of the original event. This was done in order to guarantee continuity and to possibly avoid the additional costs required for an entire rebranding.
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