Ireland to replace France in Quad Nations?

[kiwileaguefan]

I have read some news articles saying that Ireland maybe replacing France in next years Quad Nations, fingers crossed it happens.

 

[thommo4pm]

I like how Ireland performed during the RLWC, however to just replace France with Ireland is not the way to go.
I still believe the teams should earn their spot, and right now I'd have France ahead of Ireland if it was an automatic selction.
The domestic scene in France is a lot stronger than Ireland's.
And that is by no means a shot at Ireland, cause they have made some massive progress over the last few years.
It's good that Ireland are being mentioned as possibles though.

 

[pcpp]

WHYYYY?

Have a qualification process to determine the best team to go through. Play it every year.

It's a stupid kneejerk reaction. If Ireland were in the Quad Nations next yeaar I wouldn't be surprised if they were beaten by 50+ every game.

 

[Glen from the Mount]

Based on results at this WC, France do not deserve to be included while Ireland do. However, what about PNG and Fiji - Why are they excluded?

 

[Brownie.Kougari]

Based on results at this WC, France do not deserve to be included while Ireland do. However, what about PNG and Fiji - Why are they excluded?

$

 

[kiwileaguefan]

Based on results at this WC, France do not deserve to be included while Ireland do. However, what about PNG and Fiji - Why are they excluded?

Because its in the NH

 

[bobbis]

I hope this doesn't happen, if France does get replaced by Ireland the message is don't develop players recruit Australians and English. If you want the game to develop overseas you need to give countries that develop domestic players an incentive. The standard of French domestic players is alot better than Irish domestic players and the game has a more popular base and alot more potential. Throwing away France for sides that pack their team with Australians and Englishmen will only hurt the game.

 

[adamkungl]

Just because France choked big time doesn't mean all plans in regards to them should be thrown out the window. I've completely changed my mind on this, I'm thinking that for now, maybe the best idea is to keep it as TriNations, with the up and comers playing each other a few times a year in their own series'. Eg. Pacific Cup - Fiji PNG Samoa Tonga . European Cup - Ireland Scotland France Russia. Play them as curtain raisers to TriNations, SOO, etc. As long as they get frequent games, that's all that matters imo. And I think the idea of playing them as curtain raisers to existing big events has massive potential. Guaranteed crowds.

 

[yakstorm]

Ireland played best in the conditions, and full credit to them, but lets be realistic, they won the exact number of games that France won in the 2008 tournament....

Doesn't exactly make them necessarily the second best nation in the Northern Hemisphere, I mean Scotland beat Fiji who beat France and Ireland, does that mean they should be in the Quad Nations? No it shouldn't.

The best way for the RLIF to do this is to have a qualification process for the fourth spot. Maybe because 2009 is so close, we can't slot one in before next years tournament, so let France get the leg up there just for their results over the past 5 years (not the last 2 games)...of course on the condition they get rid of Monie...

 

[screeny]

I hope this doesn't happen, if France does get replaced by Ireland the message is don't develop players recruit Australians and English. If you want the game to develop overseas you need to give countries that develop domestic players an incentive. The standard of French domestic players is alot better than Irish domestic players and the game has a more popular base and alot more potential. Throwing away France for sides that pack their team with Australians and Englishmen will only hurt the game.

True dat.....

France is a long term strategic choice, not a bunch of ring-ins.

 

[NRLMad]

At the end of the day; I believe we need to look much further than 1 or 2 results to decide who deserves a spot in the 4 Nations. I can't see how France should lose their spot on this basis.

The plan for 2009 should be to include:
1. France; OR
2. Combined Pacific Nations team

Ireland have surely come on in leaps & bounds, but are they better than 2 teams that should have been in the world cup - Lebanon or Wales? I doubt it.

We need a co-ordinated and planned approach that ensures that we're not shooting ourselves in the foot.

 

[NRLMad]

Another important note is that France has been hit by injury big time:
Rinaldi, Wynn, Greseque, ... We're not seeing their best team on the paddock.

 

[marv]

Another important note is that France has been hit by injury big time:
Rinaldi, Wynn, Greseque, ... We're not seeing their best team on the paddock.

But in some ways that further enforces the opinion that there not ready, If they cant beat Fiji or Tonga with a couple of players out, what would NZ or Australia do to them?

 

[marv]

but are they better than 2 teams that should have been in the world cup - Lebanon or Wales? I doubt it.

Well they qualified ahead of Lebanon and Wales were absolutley toss, so yeah, they were.

 

[NRLMad]

Any team would find it hard to overcome losing both of their dummy halves.. Liken it to losing Cameron Smith & Gidley;

1,6,7,9 - if you have these covered you'll win the majority of your games.

 

[NRLMad]

If you look at the results in the qualifying you will find that Lebanon actually drew twice (16-16, 18-18) with Ireland. Scotland also won 1 & lost 1 to Wales. On aggregate, Scotland went through to WC08. Wales then had to compete during the repechage & lost out to Samoa.

Lebanon has a decent domestic competition & would have beat Ireland - if Robbie Farah made himself available for their clash.

Also, the Crusaders will be playing in the ESL next year - hence; you'd envisgae overall that they'd be more ready than Ireland.

 

[bartman]

Surely not?

How are Ireland going to bring together all the ex-pats again next year to take part in their quad nations team?

At least all of France's players seem to live in the Northern hemisphere...

 

[screeny]

If you look at the results in the qualifying you will find that Lebanon actually drew twice (16-16, 18-18) with Ireland. Scotland also won 1 & lost 1 to Wales. On aggregate, Scotland went through to WC08. Wales then had to compete during the repechage & lost out to Samoa.

Lebanon has a decent domestic competition & would have beat Ireland - if Robbie Farah made himself available for their clash.

Also, the Crusaders will be playing in the ESL next year - hence; you'd envisgae overall that they'd be more ready than Ireland.

Yeah, but Ireland were without Blanche, Richards, Tandy, McIllorum and Platt for those matches too, so Lebanon wouldn't have even gotten a draw IMO.

 

[>zuzu<]

I would not mind a revise of 2 different competitons played.

Lets say a 5 Nation consisting of:

AUS
NZ
ENG
FRA
IRE

And then a Pacific Island tournament:

SAM
TON
PNG
NZ MAORI
IND AUS

 

[bartman]

On the right track imo... but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We have to go from 3 to 4 first before we hit 5 - and in the Pacific we have nothing at the moment.

Play Australian Indigenous v NZ Maori as part of NSW City-Country early in the year.

Pacific mid-year Origin - held in NZ at same time as State of Origin:
Combined Pacific Islands (NRL players) v New Zealand

Mid year England v France test - held in England/France.

Northern Hemisphere end of year Quad Nations - held in England/France:
England
France
New Zealand
Australia

Pacific end of year tournament - held mostly in NZ, until Islands are ready to host an occasional game:
Fiji
Samoa
Tonga
PNG
NZ Maori
(minus one team each year, who will take turns touring Europe)

Europe end of year tournament - held in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, England:
Ireland
Wales
Scotland
+ one touring Pacific team each year


When you want to have a Quad nations hosted in teh southern hemisphere, make it:
Australia
New Zealand
England
best of the five Pacific teams (instead of touring Europe)

And simply tick France back into the Europe end of year tournament to give them a break.