1997 World Club Championship


The 1997 World Club Championship was an expansion of the World Club Challenge concept by Super League. The rugby competition was restructured to include all 22 clubs from the Australasian Super League and the Super League championships and was known as the Visa World Club Championship due to sponsorship. As it was contested over 6 rounds in 2 hemispheres, with A$1,000,000 prize money, the competition was prohibitively expensive to stage. This coupled with the poor ratings and attendances that were achieved both in Australia and Europe reportedly resulted in a loss over $5,000,000, and the World Club Challenge was not staged again for a number of years. No British teams progressed further than the quarter finals, with two Australian teams reaching the final : the dominant Brisbane Broncos club and the ill-fated Hunter Mariners.

1997 tournament tables

The Australasian and European teams were each divided into two pools for the 1997 World Club Challenge. Each pool had six teams, with the exception of Australasia B, which had the two lowest placed Super League-aligned teams and the two newly formed teams: the Hunter Mariners and the Adelaide Rams. The finals series was contested between the top three teams in Australasia Pool A and Europe Pool A, and the top team from Australasia Pool B and Europe Pool B.

Australian Super League

Pool A
ClubPlayedWonLostDrawnForAgainstDiff.Points
Brisbane Broncos66002705221812
Auckland Warriors66002688218612
Cronulla Sharks66002305417612
Penrith Panthers660025612013612
Canberra Raiders651030210819410
Canterbury Bulldogs6420218121978

Pool B
ClubPlayedWonLostDrawnForAgainstDiff.Points
Hunter Mariners66002265017612
North Queensland Cowboys65102289213610
Adelaide Rams6420170681028
Perth Reds6420148104448

Super League

Pool A
ClubPlayedWonLostDrawnForAgainstDiff.Points
Wigan Warriors624089212-1234
London Broncos6150136238-1022
Bradford Bulls606082228-1460
St Helens R.F.C.606096270-1740
Warrington Wolves606078256-1780
Halifax Blue Sox606056340-2840

Pool B
ClubPlayedWonLostDrawnByeForAgainstDiff.Points
Paris Saint-Germain413024890-422
Leeds Rhinos4130264138-742
Oldham Bears4130252130-782
Salford City Reds4130244130-862
Sheffield Eagles4130254168-1142
Castleford Tigers4040252116-640

Matches

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Playoffs

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

In their only year of existence, this would be the only Final that the Hunter Mariners would appear in.

Teams

Match Details

Aftermath

The dominance of the Australasian sides in the competition led to the Rugby Football League appointing Joe Lydon to head a commission to provide an explanation. The general conclusion was that the Australian sides were no more skillful than the European teams, the main difference as it had been in international football since the late 1970s, was fitness, something that they were working on by the time of the season ending Super League Test series between the Super League Australian's and the Great Britain Lions in England in November.