Understanding the 2021 World Cup Qualifiers

[Force]

Pool A: Australia, Samoa, Italy, Canada
Pool B: England, PNG, Scotland, Cook Islands
Pool C: Tonga, Lebanon, France, USA
Pool D: Fiji, NZ, Ireland, Wales

Everyone seems to have accepted Scotland will get their house in order by play-offs....I hope so, we cant go losing another International team.

 

[Last Week]

Have you got England ranked 1 there ya daft sod?

Home nation is seeded first.

Lebanon deserve to be placed in the same 2nd pot along with NZ yeah

So you're totally going to ignore the prior rankings/previous performances from before the World Cup?

 

[roughyedspud]

Yes....

They went out of the world cup in the 1/4s deal with it...as it stands nz aren't even the biggest or best team in nz anymore...Tonga are lol

 

[Force]

NZ just need a better coach. Once they scrap the 'NZ only' coach criteria and get a proper coach will they get back up there.

 

[Rory]

The RLIF haven't released rankings since October before the World Cup Tournament started. So, based on the October rankings, the pots and the results from the world cup, I predict

A: England (host nation goes to group A I’m pretty sure)
B: Australia
C: Tonga
D: New Zealand

Add the qualified teams

A: England, Fiji
B: Australia, Samoa
C: Tonga, PNG
D: New Zealand, Lebanon

Add in pot 2 (Scotland, France, Ireland, wales)

A: England, Fiji, Scotland,
B: Australia, Samoa, France
C: Tonga, PNG, Ireland
D: New Zealand, Lebanon, Wales

Add in pot 3 USA, Italy, Jamaica/Canada, Cook Islands

A: England, Fiji, Scotland, USA
B: Australia, Samoa, France, Italy
C: Tonga, PNG, Ireland, Jamaica/Canada
D: New Zealand, Lebanon, Wales, Cook Islands

Interesting sort of groups, Group D is Group B from 2000 as well, not intentional.

 

[bowes]

Pool A: Australia, Samoa, Italy, Canada
Pool B: England, PNG, Scotland, Cook Islands
Pool C: Tonga, Lebanon, France, USA
Pool D: Fiji, NZ, Ireland, Wales

Everyone seems to have accepted Scotland will get their house in order by play-offs....I hope so, we cant go losing another International team.

There's no chance of Scotland getting up to scratch

 

[Pommy]

There's no chance of Scotland getting up to scratch

I think Scotland is pretty much done. They haven’t bothered themselves whilst getting an easy run of it, there’s nothing to suggest they’re going to make an effort now.

 

[adamkungl]

Have you got England ranked 1 there ya daft sod?

No. And even if I did, the first team in the pool doesn't matter, it's just an ordering thing.
Whether you have England in A or B (or C or D), a randomly drawn team still has the same chance of being placed against them.
So England as hosts were placed in pool A for appearances sake.

 

[adamkungl]

Devils advocate: here's a potential SuperPool + Wildcards structure

A: Australia, New Zealand, PNG, Scotland
B: England, Ireland, Lebanon, USA
C: Tonga, France, Wales, Canada
D: Fiji, Samoa, Italy, Cook Islands

How it works:
The top 2 from group A progress to the QFs, and the top 1 from each other group.
The final 3 quarter finalists are chosen by 'wildcard' format,
ie. the remaining teams are ranked in table format on wins and points differential, and the top 3 progress.
This avoids the Ireland/Samoa problem of RLWC2017.
Unfortunately it creates a slightly less elegant quarter finals picture than straight pools.
The Pool A runner up and the 3 Wildcards are randomly drawn into the Quarters against the pool winners.

QF1: A1 v ?1
QF2: B1 v ?2
QF3: C1 v ?3
QF4: D1 v ?4
where ? = (A2, Wc1, Wc2, Wc3)

 

[roughyedspud]

And that's a no to the super pool from me..

 

[titoelcolombiano]

I think we need to have four pools with two advancing from each but I still think we need two of the big three in the same pool so we have a blockbuster opening game to the tournament. If the pools were something like this we could schedule so each week of the pool stages had a marquee game:

Australia, England, Scotland, Canada
New Zealand, France, Wales, USA
Tonga, Samoa, Lebanon, Italy
Fiji, PNG, Ireland, Cook Islands

Australia v England
Tonga v Samoa
Fiji v PNG

Quarter finals could look something like this:
Australia v PNG / Ireland / Cook Islands
New Zealand v Samoa / Lebanon
France / Wales v Tonga
Fiji v England

Our WC has reached a point of maturity where the quarter finals are fairly entertaining affairs and if Ireland and Lebanon continue to strengthen and France and Wales can pull their full-strength squads together there is genuine doubt about who will go through from each pool in second place other than the Aus / England pool.

 

[Force]

I think Scotland is pretty much done. They haven’t bothered themselves whilst getting an easy run of it, there’s nothing to suggest they’re going to make an effort now.

That really sux....Im hoping they pull their finger out, we cant afford to lose them.

 

[Dakink]

That really sux....Im hoping they pull their finger out, we cant afford to lose them.

Question i ask is why cant we afford to lose them? Minimal domestic activity. Doesnt seem to add much. Would love to be proved wrong but would rather nations with actual domestic setups and prospects for the future

 

[langpark]

Question i ask is why cant we afford to lose them? Minimal domestic activity. Doesnt seem to add much. Would love to be proved wrong but would rather nations with actual domestic setups and prospects for the future

I think he means it in the sense that they can at least muster an international side that can hold their own at a World Cup. People complain about blowout scorelines, if Scotland disappear, we suddenly have to find 3 new decent sides between now and next World Cup.

 

[Force]

Question i ask is why cant we afford to lose them? Minimal domestic activity. Doesnt seem to add much. Would love to be proved wrong but would rather nations with actual domestic setups and prospects for the future

International Rugby League is weak as it is, losing another Nation that can foot it with some of the bigger Nations is a further step backwards. I just hope they sort themselves out.

 

[bowes]

I think he means it in the sense that they can at least muster an international side that can hold their own at a World Cup. People complain about blowout scorelines, if Scotland disappear, we suddenly have to find 3 new decent sides between now and next World Cup.

Cook Islands are probably better than Scotland on the field and have a reasonably decent amateur set up (six clubs who run first team, reserves and multiple youth and junior teams)

Canada and Jamaica are probably the next best, but I expect we'll see one of them and one out of Russia or Serbia

 

[langpark]

Cook Islands are probably better than Scotland on the field and have a reasonably decent amateur set up (six clubs who run first team, reserves and multiple youth and junior teams)

Canada and Jamaica are probably the next best, but I expect we'll see one of them and one out of Russia or Serbia

Yes I agree with that. But what I'm saying is it's not like we can name a dozen nations waiting in the wings, we can count them on one hand. I agree they are not irreplaceable, but it's not ideal if they disappear completely from the RL map.

 

[DC80]

I think he means it in the sense that they can at least muster an international side that can hold their own at a World Cup. People complain about blowout scorelines, if Scotland disappear, we suddenly have to find 3 new decent sides between now and next World Cup.

They can't muster a side though - "they" being the operative word. Their squad is entirely a product of the English, Australian and NZ game. The one player that is Scottish in their last squad - David Scott - plays his rugby for Batley in Yorkshire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Rugby_League_World_Cup_squads#Scotland

There is no Rugby league scene in Scotland so there's nothing to disappear. Id say the same for Ireland too. We need to establish the game first in both countries for the sport to have something to lose. The Cook Islands are much more deserving of a spot, as are Canada. There needs to be a criteria that the sport has some sort of scene in a country before it gets in our showpiece tournament.

 

[siv]

I hope the major qualifying games are scheduled for Oct-Nov 2020

Any preliminary matches should occur mid year 2020

Which countries can actually compete in the 2021 RLWC qualifying cycle that havent qualified based upon current rules ?

 

[adamkungl]

It's 2018.
The qualifiers were promised to be completed in 2019 and there's no word of a finalised format yet.

The last word was in December:
"In total, there will be seven European teams, six from Asia-Pacific (already decided), two from the Americas. The 16th and final spot will be decided by a play-off tournament featuring the No.1 Middle East/African nation, the third-best team from the Americas and a seventh Pacific nation side. '

As has been pointed out for nearly 12 months, this doesn't make sense, because it ignores Lebanon's auto-qualification. 7 Europe + 6 Asia-Pacific + 2 America + 1 Lebanon + 1 playoff = 17 nations.

The fairest answer is for both Europe and America to lose a guaranteed place and go into a second playoff against each other.

In terms of scheduling, the early European rounds should be played now but we've heard nothing.