Name change suggested

Press, 14 July 1987, Page 38

Name change suggested

NZPA staff correspondent Port Moresby Rugby league may need a change of name if it is to expand into countries such as the United States, according to New Zealand Rugby League chairman Mr George Rainey. “It may be sacrilege to some people in rugby league,” he said yesterday, “but it is a matter to be looked into.” Mr Rainey said that his Australian counterpart,

Mr Ken Arthurson, had told him of confusion in the United States and parts of France between rugby league and rugby union. Mr Arthurson has been in the United States to help promote the New South Wales and Queensland clash in California on August 6. Mr Rainey said that the International Rugby League Board had decided that the game had to be established on an

amateur basis in the United States to succeed. “The United States is dominated by professional sports and it is clear to anybody that it will be difficult to market rugby league as a professional sport,” he said. “But it is such a huge country that, even if rugby league is established only on an amateur level, the United States will produce teams to match Papua New Guinea and France.”