Steve Georgallis at North Queensland Cowboys has done an incredible job and I think they will be competitive and from a diplomacy perspective it has helped legitimise the sport in Greece.” “We are also starting to see player declarations for Greece. And of course Australia and New Zealand will turn up incredibly strong. “I’m really looking forward to seeing Papua New Guinea, I think PNG will be a force to be reckoned with. “We start off now with potentially the game of the tournament in England v Samoa and then a repeat of the semi-final from the last two tournaments Australia and Fiji. That is super exciting, maybe a bit daunting from an England perspective. “We now start off with five men’s teams who legitimately based on selections could lift the trophy. “When players are sticking their hand up and choosing Samoa or Tonga, what happened with Fifita and Taumololo in 2017 was the start of that and it’s a tidal wave. “There is a revolution that is happening 12,000 miles away in Australia and from an international perspective that is tremendously exciting,” he said. Speaking exclusively on this week’s Love Rugby League Podcast, Dutton predicted the most competitive ever international rugby league tournament.

That’s the view of Rugby League World Cup chief executive Jon Dutton who says the pledges of allegiance to Tonga by Jason Taumololo and David Fifita in 2017 have lit the fuse for what has now happened five years on.

A tidal wave of players committing to their international nation of heritage means that five men’s teams have a realistic chance of winning the World Cup.

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