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2023 Eight Nations

S

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,563
I think we can have a 6 nation Oceania Cup (Oz, NZ, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, PNG) mid RLWCs

No need to include Europe

On 1st year Oz & NZ should tour England playing 3 tests

And 3rd year England to tour Oz and NZ playing 3 tests

As the big 3 wont play qualifiers for some time

Or just go with Oz tour of England in year 1 and Kiwis tour in year 3
 
L

LeagueXIII

First Grade
Messages
5,966
I think we could have a 4N in both hemispheres.

I would also like to se France and Wales developed as they have players.

As for England I would like to see them play France once a year every season rotating home and away, possibly also Wales.

Then at the end of the season we have an Australian tour with three tests plus one off tests with Samoa and Tonga. This gives England 6 or 7 games a year. The following season NZ can tour playing 3 tests and one off games against Fiji and PNG. Also playing their mid season tests v France and Wales again this would give them 6 or 7 games.
As for the pacific teams when they tour they can also play France and Wales each.

The other two years of the 4 year cycle can be taken up by 4N and WC.

Mix it up to keep it interesting.
 
The Great Dane

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,785
Foreign Legion said:
www.zerotackle.com

Talks underway for historic Pacific Island Test series

A new international rugby calendar is also in the works.
www.zerotackle.com www.zerotackle.com
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I can almost guarantee that those games would run at a loss. That begs the question, who's picking up the bill?

It'd be great if these sorts of games were feasible (and if the IRL can find a way to make it feasible then great), but it's just stupid to throw away money like that. It'd be a better use of resources to take the tens of thousands of dollars it'd cost to host each of those games and inject it directly into the grassroots of each country, rather than play expensive one off games that'll have little to no significant long term effects on the prospects of the sport in each nation.
 
W

wain

Juniors
Messages
331
The Great Dane said:
I can almost guarantee that those games would run at a loss. That begs the question, who's picking up the bill?

It'd be great if these sorts of games were feasible (and if the IRL can find a way to make it feasible then great), but it's just stupid to throw away money like that. It'd be a better use of resources to take the tens of thousands of dollars it'd cost to host each of those games and inject it directly into the grassroots of each country, rather than play expensive one off games that'll have little to no significant long term effects on the prospects of the sport in each nation.
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agreed re the money aspect.
I think with the large amount of Polynesian populations in certain cities in Aus/nz that we find a happy medium between finance and domestic growth…how about a 3 game series with one game in western Sydney, one in Auckland and third game rotates between home matches in Tonga or Samoa? Or one game each in Tonga and Samoa and the third match rotates between syd and Auckland?

that way growth cost is offset by the commercial game.
 
Last Week

Last Week

Bench
Messages
3,646
Honestly, tours need to come back but in a different format. The years before and after a world cup.

Year 1 - RLWC
Year 2 - Tours
Year 3 - 6 Nations
Year 4 - Tours

Tours should be along the lines of:

Week 1 local matches
Australia vs New Zealand
Tonga vs Samoa
PNG vs Fiji
England vs France
Scotland vs Ireland
Lebanon vs Wales
Etc etc. Doesn't matter.

Then for the next 5 weeks, teams from one Hemisphere tour the other.
 
MKCS

MKCS

Juniors
Messages
552
For me I like the idea of tournaments occurring internationally but there isn't much use in throwing first tier nations in tournaments where they are going to just smash teams.

For mine they should do a four nations premier tournament featuring Australia, England, New Zealand and another nation that can be competitive, for mine next year that'd be Samoa but it could change every time they did it, this could be done annually.

Secondary competition could occur which could maybe be your six or eight nations, for mine a tournament between the likes of Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, France, Lebanon and Scotland could be a lot of fun and quite competitive with very few blow outs.

The rest of the nations would compete in the emerging nations tournament. That could include the teams that are some way off. You could have your Wales, Greece, Jamaica, USA, Canada, Wales, Asian sides etc all in here.

I think it'd make a lot of sense to up the rep rounds per year as well, currently there is 1 but if we could get it to 3 that could be amazing for the growth of the game.

Also, every 2 years I think I'd have the World Cup Nines not unlike the 2018 or 2019 tournament we saw. I don't know if the NRL plans to use the concept again but maybe over 2 weeks a city could host an international nines tournament and an NRL nines tournament

Ultimately this is all easier said than done, I think the most important thing is that these teams are playing together regularly.
 
titoelcolombiano

titoelcolombiano

First Grade
Messages
5,357
siv said:
I would like to see

England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland play in a 4N
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I'm not sure I would like to see that. Scotland has become awful in the last 6 years somehow, surely France would get a run before them? Or are you coming from a home nations angle?
 
titoelcolombiano

titoelcolombiano

First Grade
Messages
5,357
I've been thinking about this more and more and I've been looking at RU models. They aren't too dissimilar to us, just further down the path. They have 9 or 10 tier 1 nations split into two comps:

6 nations for the Northern Hemesphere and The Rugby Championship for NZ, SA, Aus & Argentina. The nations competing in those tournaments have been hand-picked with the right mix of top level competition and development. We probably need to do the same thing at our stage of international development.

So who are our teams that are top level and who needs to be included because they have potential to reach a high level?

Australia
New Zealand
England
Samoa
Tonga
Fiji
PNG
France

All of these nations meet the following criteria:

1. can field a professional squad of players (or in the case of PNG & Fiji are quickly on the way there as they have quality professional pathways that will get them there over the next 5 - 10 years)

3. Can host test matches and pull good crowds (Tonga & Samoa would use Auckland and Western Sydney for most home games to ensure financial viability, but they certainly have the fans to help the competition be a commercial success).

3. Have star players that are commercially appealing for sponsorships and TV ratings (Tedesco, Cheese, Dom Young, Luai, Taumalolo, Kikau, Olam, Gigot)

Play this tournament regularly (I would like yearly but would settle initially for 2 years after the world cup until the IRL has the financial and political power in the game to make it an annual event), get sponsors on board, get TV on board in both hemispheres and persist with it and the competition and nations within it will grow. These are our 8, there are no nations outside of this that are close.

Why France and not Lebanon?

France is a G7 country with much more financial upside for RL than Lebanon. Also, France can field a home-grown professional team, Lebanon's strength at the moment, as awesome as it has been in terms of boosting the game back in Lebanon, is still heritage players. That's fine, it is what it is and whilst it lasts they should run with it to help build the game back at home.

What about Samoa & Tonga? They are all heritage players.... yes, but they are the only heritage based team that can beat tier one nations. Combined these two have taken down Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and England over the last 5 years. These two definitely need to put pathways in place but the reality of their national sporting teams in any sport is that the majority of them will always come from Aus or NZ.
 
S

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,563
I would like to see France, Spain, Italy maybe Germany or Holland grow to gether
 
docbrown

docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,515
Going back to my original post and thinking about how this 8 Nations structure might play out based on WC scores:

Week 1 (cross pool games):
AUS v NZ, ENG v FRA, PNG v TON, FIJ v SAM
Week 2: AUS v PNG, ENG v FIJ, NZ v SAM, FRA v TON
Week 3: AUS v ENG, PNG v FIJ, NZ v FRA, TON v SAM
Week 4: AUS v FIJ, PNG v ENG, NZ v TON, FRA v SAM
Final standings:
Pool A: Aus 4, Eng 3, Fij 1, PNG 0
Pool B: Sam 4, NZ 2, Ton 2, Fra 0

Week 5: AUS v SAM

That said there’s a lot of coin flip games. NZ could beat AUS and/or SAM. ENG could beat AUS. PNG could beat FIJ. TON could beat SAM and/or NZ. It could just as easily be an England vs NZ or Tonga final based on just 1 or 2 results changing. The only sides I see that are definitively out of the running are France and PNG. Fiji could make it by beating England.
 
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