2021 Qualifiers

[Pommy]

There'll be a lot of teams at the 2021 RLWC who have players in their ranks who speak with an Aussie or Kiwi accent, including which ever team progresses in the last qualifier spot.

I mean that pretty much what I said in the post you quoted.

 

[playdaball]

There'll be a lot of teams at the 2021 RLWC who have players in their ranks who speak with an Aussie or Kiwi accent, including which ever team progresses in the last qualifier spot.

Or Northern English accents

 

[siv]

Live stream of today's USA v Cooks game

 

[Burns]

Looks pretty amateur. Really need to try and make the qualifiers more of an event for 2025

 

[Storm13]

Being live streamed in 2fps

 

[deluded pom?]

How is Sonny Pettybourne anywhere near this team?

 

[Burns]

Cool Islands doing this easy, up 10-0

 

[Force]

How is Sonny Pettybourne anywhere near this team?

Looks more like the team chef.

 

[Force]

Cool Islands doing this easy, up 10-0

Mistakes from the Cooks are letting the USA off the hook. That wind must be pretty harsh.

 

[Force]

A bit of a mistake-a-thon that but congrads to the Cooks who take the last qualifying spot.

 

[adamkungl]

USA had a real dig and were in it for 70 mins. Considering the calibre of players their opposition had compared to them, their coach has done a fantastic job. Some big decisions at USARL and National level need to be made in how they progress. Where they're at now would be a good step, but a poor plateau.

Congrats to Cook Islands for returning to the World Cup. Good chance they cause some upsets as they did a few weeks ago at 9s.

 

[latingringo101]

USA did better than I thought they'd do. Still well done cooks

 

[Force]

USA had a real dig and were in it for 70 mins. Considering the calibre of players their opposition had compared to them, their coach has done a fantastic job. Some big decisions at USARL and National level need to be made in how they progress. Where they're at now would be a good step, but a poor plateau.

Congrats to Cook Islands for returning to the World Cup. Good chance they cause some upsets as they did a few weeks ago at 9s.

The Cooks made too many mistakes and gave away needless penalties. They helped the US to keep the scores close. A couple of caught balls and the score would've looked different. Cooks looked the more dominant team for most of that match.

 

[siv]

Good to see the Cooks finally get onto the world stage

They have narrowly missed out for years

 

[Dakink]

Congrats to the Cooks who have earnt there spot. I was hoping the US could cause an upset if nothing for the chance to further develop a market of 300 million people compared to 16000. Cooks though we're the better team and deserve the chance to go to the WC.

Hard to watch though...stream quality was shyte..

 

[adamkungl]

Assuming that the 8 quarter finalists qualify for 2025*
Depending on the pool drawings, it is theoretically possible for 7 Pacific/Oceania nations to pre-qualify for 2025.
That would not be a good result for the wider sport.

*I have no expectation this will change
Less qualifiers means less work and cost for the IRL and governing bodies.
Even Rugby Union pre-qualifies 12 nations.
On the other hand, FIFA only pre-qualifies the hosts.

I'm mostly fine with the current system, although I'd probably bring it back to just semi-finalists if given the choice

 

[siv]

I would rather only pre-qualify 2 nations and the hosts

Everyone else should go through qualifiers

 

[Force]

Now that the qualifiers are over, I hope to see one change.

Do regional qualifiers but for those that fail in their regionals, go into a tournament like the Emerging Nations with the remaining world cup spots up for grabs. Some Nations got more than one chance to qualify, I think its fair for all teams who miss out to have another chance, not just some. The tournament will determine who the 'best of the rest' is as some teams face tougher opposition to qualify in their regionals than others.

 

[The Partisan]

Is a HIGHLIGHTS only link (say max. 10 mins) around for the USA V Cook Islands game ? Tried to find one with no success as yet.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Do we really need to pre-qualify teams other than the hosts?

We have bi-yearly regional cups starting next year which include Euro, Oceania, MEA and the America's. You'd have to change the format of them though:
2022

• Euro Cup (4 nations) 2022 - top 3 qualify for 2025, 4th place to Euro qualifying round 2
• Euro Shield (4 nations) 2022 - top 3 qualify for Euro qualifying round 2, 4th place to repechage
• Oceania Cup (4 nations) 2022 - top 3 qualify for 2025, 4th place to Oceania qualifying round 2
• Oceania Shield (4 nations) 2022 - top 3 to Oceania qualifying round 2
  
• America's Cup 2022 winner qualifies for 2025, 2nd place to repechage
  
• MEA Cup 2022 (including Lebanon) winner qualifies for 2025

2023

• Confederations Cup (top 3 Oceania, top 3 euro, MEA and America's winners), two pools of 4, play everyone in your pool, winners of each pool play in a final
• Euro qualifying 2023 (4 nations) top three qualify, 4th place to repechage
• Oceania qualifying 2023 (4 nations) top three qualify, 4th place to repechage
• Repechage 2023 (4 nations) top 3 qualify

2024

• Regional Cups (non WC qualifying)

2025

• World Cup