China threat, record NRL deal could ‘destroy’ rugby union in the Pacific

Friday, 10 July 2026

Thirty years ago, rugby league in Australia was on a path of mutually assured destruction after the Federal Court overturned a previous ruling and permitted Rupert Murdoch to launch the rebel Super League, dividing the sport into two competitions. The game was locked in a civil war, alienating supporters, reducing television audiences and diluting sponsorship dollars.

It took less than one season for both parties to recognise that a merger was necessary. The National Rugby League (NRL) was born in 1998, a competition underpinned by a gambling culture that has grown so powerful that it is now an arm of Australian foreign policy, used to strengthen political loyalty across the Pacific and act as a bulwark against growing Chinese influence in the region.

The NRL this week signed a record £2.76 billion (approx NZ$6.5b) seven-year television deal, a 90% increase on the previous rights agreement. For context, the Canal+ broadcast deal for the Top 14 and ProD2 in France is worth £600m over five years. TNT bought the Gallagher Prem rights for £200m over the same period.

The Australian government has invested £311m (A$600m; approx NZ$729m) to back the launch of a new NRL expansion team in Papua New Guinea, a country of 10m people who consider rugby league to be their national sport, and development pathways across the Pacific. Players for the PNG Chiefs will receive tax-free salaries and luxury accommodation with access to a private island. Jarome Luai, the Samoa and New South Wales stand-off, is their first marquee signing.

PNG is of strategic importance to Australia as China spreads its influence into the Pacific. There is a clause in the NRL funding agreement that allows Australia’s government to revoke all investment and disband the franchise if PNG commits to any policing or security deal with China, confirming rugby league as a foreign policy tool. James Marape, the PNG prime minister, said that the new NRL team was “pivotal in anchoring the PNG-Australia relationship”.

Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister and a big rugby league fan, has been racing to shore up defence ties with Pacific neighbours since 2022, when the Solomon Islands signed a security pact which could permit Beijing to build a naval base.

Before the State of Origin decider in Brisbane on Wednesday, Albanese and the prime ministers of PNG, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji signed a partnership which commits £130m of Australian government money - 41% of the overall PNG investment project - to the growth of rugby league on the islands.

“The Pacific could become the biggest nursery for the NRL with this strategy,” Peter V'landys, chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission, said.

Rugby union has no issues with an NRL team in PNG. The template for the expansion team was the Australian government’s investment in the Fijian Drua franchise in Super Rugby, which has been a success story on the island. Another soft power project, Drua generates about £37m a year in GDP in Fiji. Albanese announced increased Drua funding on Monday.

What concerns rugby union officials is the sheer amount of Australian taxpayers’ money that will be directed towards “making rugby league prominent” in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa; a war chest that one source said was designed “to kill off rugby union in the Pacific”.

David Pocock, an independent senator and former Wallabies captain, has challenged the government repeatedly on the policy. “This seems designed to essentially set up a talent pathway for league and just to ship players to Australia, and I strongly disagree with that,” he said.

Jessica Collins, another Australian senator, described the policy as “colonialism”. There was no consultation with the governments of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga and there are concerns about oversight. Sources fear that schools will be compelled to switch their sports programmes from union to league in order to access funds for new facilities. “We will have people on the ground in schools running competitions,” V’landys said.

The chief executive of the Samoa Rugby Union said the NRL investment could be “the nail in the coffin for Samoan rugby”. Fiji view the investment programme as an attempt to “overshadow rugby union’s deep cultural roots” and strip the game of talent.

Ironically, the Australian government’s investment in rugby league on the Pacific islands has pushed the three respective rugby unions closer to China.

The Fiji Rugby Union has signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Rugby Football Association as “a commitment to build bridges through rugby”. The Tonga Rugby Union chief executive visited China last month “to seek government help”.

Rugby Australia is working with Fiji, Samoa and Tonga on a joint proposal for a £77m package of government funding to help strengthen the sport across the region.

However, the NRL is already winning the battle to sign the best schoolboy rugby players in Australia and it is aggressively scouting talented teenagers in New Zealand, some as young as 15. With 17 NRL clubs, rugby league is capable of offering more opportunities than union, more money and often a faster route into the professional game. Rugby union has always had the international game as its great selling point.

The NRL’s growth strategy is designed to expand the sport outside of Queensland, New South Wales and the M62 corridor in England, and build a genuine international scene in rugby league. “[The broadcast deal] gives us the platform to not only grow the game here in Australia, but globally,” V’landys said.

Mark Evans has a rare perspective on the situation, having worked as chief executive of the Drua and of Melbourne Storm in the NRL. “Ten years ago I wrote a paper saying they need eight competitive teams to begin an international game,” he said. “At the time we had three [Australia, New Zealand and England]. Now we have five because Samoa and Tonga could beat England. If you think the PNG project will work and if you could get Fiji, you are up to seven.

“It looks to me like the aim is to be the code of Australasia. That NRL money could be transformational in a small country like Samoa or Tonga. It is geopolitical soft power and alignment and cultural influence. Do countries look up to China or down to Australia? You will never dominate New Zealand [with rugby league]. The roots of rugby union are too deep. But look at football in Wales, where the cultural clout of football is bigger than ever.”

Rugby league is certainly making significant cultural gains. V’landys said the NRL had doubled its audience in the past five years through a series of bold growth initiatives, including the opening weekend in Las Vegas, and television coverage with high production values.

The New Zealand Warriors have been a slow burn but they now attract sell-out crowds of 25,000 in Auckland. Last month they packed out the new stadium in Christchurch for a game against the North Queensland Cowboys, demonstrating that a market exists on the South Island for the NRL’s 20th expansion club.

Perth Bears will be launched next year with the PNG Chiefs to follow. Brisbane remains a contender for the 20th club but V’landys is also excited by the prospects in New Zealand. “With additional investment [from the new TV rights deal], you’re going to see substantially improved participation,” he said earlier this year. “It’s going to have a multiplier effect. This is the opportunity for the game to grow at a rate it’s never grown before and be sustainable in both dollars and players.”

New Zealand Rugby is alive to the threat, not just from rugby league but the NFL, which is extending its influence into Pacific nations, basketball and football. Steve Lancaster, the new chief executive of NZ Rugby, believes there is enough talent in the region to support both codes but he acknowledged that the NRL had stolen a march on rugby union in multiple areas.

“China’s influence in the region has grown massively. We have seen the Australian government become much more active, using rugby for sports diplomacy purposes. The NRL have benefited massively from that,” Lancaster said.

“The NRL continues to grow in profile. They market well. It is a great competition. They have been really proactive in talent identification and recruitment, not just in New Zealand but across the Pacific region. But that is OK. There is enough talent in this country and in this region to support both forms of the game. For one code to be strong, it doesn’t mean the other has to suffer. They can both thrive.

“I’m always a bit of a philosopher. When I look back at the origins of rugby and league, one was always considered a mercenary sport and rugby’s values were amateur. I think we’ve always had this inherent conservatism as a sport.

“For too long [in New Zealand] we have stood on the sidelines while people have perpetuated a somewhat negative narrative around rugby union. We need to do better at promoting our game, telling stories, engaging people better. There is definitely an appetite to do things differently. We have got the Greatest Rivalry [tour to South Africa]. We have got the British & Irish Lions women touring next year. These are innovations.”

When rugby league was locked in its civil war in the mid-1990s, Super Rugby was being launched with the backing of a £410m investment over 10 years from Murdoch’s News International. Now the tables have turned.

“When you have these big sport entities that have massive resources, they look to grow their footprint,” Lancaster said. “The NRL and football are particularly active. Rugby is in the fight. I know World Rugby is aware of the importance of this region. It is incumbent on the game to ensure we don’t slip backwards when other codes are becoming more active. If we sit on our hands, then the threat in the region is very real from NRL and football.”

- The Times