1997 World Club Challenge

In 1997, the World Club Challenge was restructured to include 22 clubs from the Australasian and European Super League competitions and was known as the World Club Championship. As it was contested over 6 rounds in 2 hemispheres, with AU$1,000,000 prize money (GBP 640,000), the competition was prohibitively expensive to stage, and it reportedly lost over $5,000,000. This, coupled with the poor ratings and attendances that were achieved both in Australia and Europe, led to the competition being postponed for a number of years.

1997 tournament tables

The Australasian and European teams were each divided into two pools for the 1997 World Club Challenge. Each pool had six teams, with the exception of Australasia B, which had the two lowest placed Super League-aligned teams and the two newly formed teams: the Hunter Mariners and the Adelaide Rams. The finals series was contested between the top three teams in Australasia Pool A and Europe Pool A, and the top team from Australasia Pool B and Europe Pool B.

Australasia Pool A

Europe Pool B

Round 3

Round 6

emi-finals

Final

Aftermath

The dominance of the Australasian sides in the competition led to the Rugby Football League appointing Joe Lydon to head a commission to provide an explanation.cite book | last = Robinson | first = John | title = Super League Official Annual 1998 | publisher = World International | date = 1997 | pages = pp. 42 | isbn =0-7498-3389-0 ]

References

ee also

*World Club Challenge
*Super League (Australia) season 1997
*Super League II
*Brisbane Broncos 1997

External links

* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970606/ai_n14105225 "Global show hits Knowsley Road" - article by Dave Hadfield at "The Independent" (London), June 6, 1997]
* [http://www2.hunterlink.net.au/~maajjs/sum/int1997.htm#World%20Club%20Challenge 1997 World Club Challenge at hunterlink.net.au]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19971018/ai_n14138360 "World Club Championship Final - Broncos' early burst" - article by Dave Hadfield at "The Independent" (London), Oct 18, 1997]
* [http://www.superleague.co.uk/wcc_1997.php?rid=321 1997 World Club Challenge at superleague.co.uk]