A WORLD CUP kicks off in England in less than a month, being played at stadiums across the country, from Newcastle to London, from Merseyside to Hull. 

The same sport will see the biggest games of its English club season take place within the next week, with semi-finals taking place this weekend before a Grand Final at Old Trafford on Saturday.

It’s not unusual to see rugby league pushed out of sports sections, to the bottom of home pages, or to a couple of regional television news bulletins rather than national, but ahead of a countrywide World Cup and a showcase game that can attract up to 70,000 fans, you’d think there would be more of a fuss being made.

Now the NFL season has started over in the United States, you’re probably more likely to see, hear or read about American football — a league played on the other side of the Atlantic ocean — as you are about rugby league. (Which isn’t to say coverage of North American sports is a bad thing. They produce some great stories and interesting issues to cover, especially around player unions and club and league structure).

And you’re much more likely to hear about the highly controversial but nevertheless attention-grabbing association football World Cup being played in Qatar this winter, than the more wholesome one being played just down the road.

In an increasingly competitive battle for bandwidth in the more mainstream sports coverage, rugby league is regularly one of the sports that lose out.

The subject of rugby league’s lack of media coverage has been covered in this column previously, and the history of class divide between rugby league and rugby union in most of England is well documented. 

It’s perhaps no surprise that a London-based media run by an increasingly small number of companies, most with links to the Establishment, offers little variety, whether that be sporting or political.

Many will ask why one sport deserves coverage over another. Why should people be interested in this particular form of football as well as association, American, union and other codes? Gaelic sports, too, are some of the most entertaining you will see, but are rarely mentioned on this side of the Irish Sea.

During the next two months, rugby league will get a chance to show why it deserves more attention, and prove that it’s one of the most interesting and entertaining sports for people to watch and that the stories it creates are interesting to read and report on.

What comes first, the interest or the media coverage? They go hand in hand — women’s association football has shown as much, recently offering a breath of fresh air alongside the bloated men’s game, now boasting dedicated reporters across many of the main media outlets and newspapers who saw an opportunity in advance of the Women’s Euros earlier this year.

But many of those titles will no longer have regular, full-time rugby league writers, and though women’s rugby league has gained more recognition alongside the men’s game in recent years thanks to work within the sport, it suffers like the men’s game from a lack of broader coverage.

Rugby League has benefited this season from having several games broadcast on free-to-air television via Channel 4. Saturday’s semi-final which sees Salford travel to face League Leaders’ Shield winners, St Helens, will be the 10th game the high-profile TV station has shown. 

It would be good for the sport if it could show more in future seasons on top of the games on Sky Sports.

“I think they’ve done a good job,” said Saints head coach Kristian Woolf of the Channel 4 coverage.

“It’s a little bit different to what you get on Sky, and I’m certainly not bagging [criticising] Sky there. 

“I think [Sky presenter] Brian Carney [and pundit] Phil Clarke do a great job, their commentaries are always good and they do a good coverage of the game.

“What Channel 4 have been able to do is give something a little bit different, and I think that difference is great.

“The fact we’re on terrestrial TV takes us to a new audience, and no doubt it’s going to be a cracking game this weekend. 

“I hope the weather holds up and allows both teams to play a bit of footy, and I hope we get a full crowd down here. 

“Our fans have been outstanding this year and what we really need — and as an 18th man and to get us home — is them to turn out in droves and give us a full house and give us a great spectacle on TV. That's how we grow the game. 

“I think they’ve been a big part of that, Channel 4, and they’ve added a real positive spin to it as well.”

Broader, more varied sports coverage from mainstream outlets adds welcome variety to any form of media.

It was interesting to see rugby league get a mention in the Washington Post last week, especially in a political context. The article looked at how the sport is being used by the West in its tug of war with China to curry favour in the Pacific region, where the sport is popular.

The writer, Richard Glover, described rugby league as a “high-velocity, full-contact sport, featuring dazzling bursts of speed interspersed with what look like brief wrestling matches between players.” Sounds good. A bit like NFL but more free-flowing, you could say.

Wigan hosted Leeds in the first Super League semi-final last night, ahead of this Saturday afternoon’s game between Saints and Salford which kicks off at 1pm, before rugby league really gets its chance to shine at next weekend’s Grand Final and the subsequent World Cup. Let’s hope it gets the coverage it deserves.