AN NRL takeover of Super League seems to be gathering pace at the minute.
The talk was accelerated earlier this year when ARL Commission chief Peter V’landys expressed his interest in growing the northern hemisphere game ahead of Wigan Warriors’ clash with Warrington Wolves in Las Vegas.
Speaking to Code Sports back in February, V’landys said: “We’re looking at the UK.
“Never say never. That’s if they want us. The first thing is there’s always two people to an agreement if they want us, we’ll certainly look at it.”
“If they approached us, we’d certainly look at it.”
But, if the NRL did get involved, then a likely rebrand would follow. If so, which three names could the northern hemisphere competition realistically be called?
NRL Europe (NRLE)
The NRL Europe seems to be the most popular avenue of the rugby league fraternity with even the hashtag #NRLEurope gathering momentum on X. Given that it would be an NRL-led takeover, including the NRL name in the rebrand would make a lot of sense – and the Europe aspect would quite clearly describe where it is based. It would also the Australian competition to firmly ally the northern hemisphere game with its own as one brand.
European Rugby League (ERL)
The European Rugby League (ERL) would bring along another abbreviated example that could join the plethora of such organisations around the world. It would also say what is on the tin – it is European Rugby League with the inclusion of Catalans Dragons in the top flight. To include the word ‘Super’ with ‘European’ would be ridiculous considering the prevalence of football’s European Super League in the public eye at present and would ensure that rugby league would take an even further backwards step against the UK’s most popular sport. European Rugby League has no frills but may be exactly what the sport needs.
Ultimate Rugby League (URL)
Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont came up with the idea of ‘Ultimate Rugby’ on social media, but that could soon be confused with rugby union, so why not Ultimate Rugby League? The game needs a snappy new headline and something that doesn’t get involved with other sports. Type in ‘Super League’ in Google and, at times, netball and football’s European Super League idea arrive first instead of rugby league’s Super League. The only trouble with Ultimate Rugby League is, its abbreviated form would be URL which could potentially hamper Google traffic.
