Paul Wellens, new coach of Europe's top rugby league club St Helens, says he believes the Super League champions are in talks with NRL victors Penrith over a potential World Club Challenge next year.
"The club are discussions about how that (fixture) may look. From a coach's perspective, it'd be a fantastic opportunity to take on that Penrith team," enthused Wellens, as he was unveiled on Wednesday as Saints' coaching successor to hugely successful Australian Kristian Woolf.
"Penrith are fantastic, what a team they are, but this team has earned an opportunity to take on that challenge.
"We'd love, as a club, to be able to put ourselves in a situation to do that."
Saints won three successive Super League grand finals under Woolf and will be going for a fifth consecutive title in all under the Australian's former right hand man Wellens, who called it a "huge privilege" to take up the position.
Saints, though, have missed the chance to play the annual showdown between the English and Australian champions, which has been shelved for two years amid much feeling among Super League clubs that there's not much enthusiasm in the NRL for the World Club Challenge.
When it was last held in 2020 just before the COVID pandemic struck, Sydney Roosters came over to defeat the Saints 20-12 and extend their record as the Challenge's most successful club with a fifth triumph. An Australian club has won seven of the last eight editions.
But Panthers' coach Ivan Cleary has said he'd be keen to see his side go for global glory, noting recently: "Let's go ... it's something that everyone would always want to be part of."
St Helens chief executive Mike Rush also wants to see the Challenge introduced but accepted there had to be a will from all parties to get the game on amid all the logistical complications and problems with the rugby league calendar for any Anglo-Australian event.
"I'm not going to lie and say we haven't had discussions with Super League and the NRL about whether we can make a World Club Challenge work," Rush told Rugby League Live.
"There are hurdles you've got to overcome, including the cost of travel, and a World Cup this year too.
"It shifts pre-season plans and if England and Australia both make the World Cup final, our players are returning to their clubs even later than usual.
"They could be arriving in England two weeks into their own pre-season if that happened.
"But the game, and I mean clubs, the governing bodies and the NRL, have to provide some buy-in and make a long-term commitment about whether it wants a World Club Challenge.
"For me, we really need it. Not just because it's our turn this time, just for the good of the game. I hope we can get it on."
