2023 - Oceania Tri-Nations (Pacific Championship)

[titoelcolombiano]

I’m a bit old school when it comes to tests and much prefer a 3 match series over these one off ‘tournaments‘.

a series feels like they are playing for something, these one offs feel like exhibition games.

Ideally this year should have been
Australia v nz
Samoa v fiji
png v france
Eng v tonga

same for women.
8 games a weekend for 3 weeks.
far more worthwhile.

I completely respect that everyone has their own preferences, but I prefer the tournaments to see different sides match up against each other and to give more nations top quality matches.

Oh man do I miss the four nations. As a game we can't afford not to big up the Aus, NZ, Eng dynamic and have them play each other every year. Then throw in the best of the challengers.

Due to the growing competitiveness in the international game it would have to be a 6 nations min at this point but 6 is a difficult number to structure a tournament into a four week window so I'd have an 8 nations (two pools of four and a final between the pool winners) or two 4 Nations tournaments, a championship and bowl with P&R and regional qualifying structures under the bowl.

4N Championship: Aus, NZ, Eng, Samoa
4N Bowl: Tonga, Fiji, PNG, France

Europe: Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy
MEA: South Africa, Lebanon, Nigeria, Ghana
Americas: USA, Canada, Jamaica, Chile
Asia Pacific: Cooks, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Japan

In many ways this is better than the traditional world cup structure and a return to the RLWC format of the 80s & 90s where matches were played over a 4 year cycle that culminated in a final.

Any minnow that makes their way even to the bowl stage has to earn their way there by winning consistently and having a decent player pool (IRL should ensure that only full members with proper domestic comps can enter so even if the team is fully heritage, the game is being played and developed at home).

 

[Matua]

@Clarkent Cuz, can you tell your countrymen to stop spamming the comments on the Kiwis instagram.

Those players are NZers playing for NZ.

 

[Canard]

I wonder how much the ARLC pays these guys?

AMMI Park????? f**k me

 

[Last Week]

I wonder how much the ARLC pays these guys?

AMMI Park????? f**k me

View attachment 80815

What's wrong with AAMI Park?

 

[jim_57]

What's wrong with AAMI Park?

The picture has a typo.

 

[Nutz]

I wonder how much the ARLC pays these guys?

AMMI Park????? f**k me

View attachment 80815

AAMI...I had to look at it three times. Well spotted.
As a tiger supporter it's taken me over 40 years to learn how to spell Leichhardt Oval properly and I still just write LO ha ha.

 

[Nutz]

The picture has a typo.

 

[docbrown]

Everybody knows AMMI Park. The Famous Melbrone Strom play there.

 

[RedVee_8]

This NZ team deserves full houses. They were excellent today.

 

[Bobby DIGital]

Go the f**kin Kiwis.

 

[Clarkent]

Go the f**kin Kiwis.

Awesome game by the Kiwis I hope they give it to the Aussies and win the whole thing

 

[Clarkent]

Not a good start by the new coach. His selections were worse than Parish!! You have to pick legit halves but he picked one who doesn't even play in the halves fulltime and he doesn't have a good kicking game. Volkman should've been the 7 from the start and Levi should've been the 2nd hooker. On the positive note a lot of the young players in the Samoan team will learn from this and Sua Faalogo is going to be a superstar without a doubt. Kiwis experienced players really stepped up today. And I hope they smash the Aussies up.

 

[jim_57]

Samoa back to being underwhelming, granted they had a lot of outs but still pretty poor.

There better be some sort of promotion or at least an opportunity for PNG & Fiji to make the top tier next year. Wouldn’t surprise me if they’re locked to the 2nd tier again though.

 

[Perth Red]

Let’s be honest if it wasn’t for a 50-50 semi win last year the Samoans have actually done very little despite all the hype About how PI teams are growing. Been very disappointing this tournament,

awesome crowd though! Far louder and probably more numerous than kiwi fans.

 

[Clarkent]

Let’s be honest if it wasn’t for a 50-50 semi win last year the Samoans have actually done very little despite all the hype About how PI teams are growing. Been very disappointing this tournament,

Literally 13 players missing from the last world cup facing a team who have been playing together for years lol calm down mate

 

[taste2taste]

Let’s be honest if it wasn’t for a 50-50 semi win last year the Samoans have actually done very little despite all the hype About how PI teams are growing. Been very disappointing this tournament,

Samoa have been right around where you'd expect them with thier missing players and the lack of NRL experience, thier spine has a combined 1 NRL game experience

 

[Clarkent]

Samoa have been right around where you'd expect them with thier missing players and the lack of NRL experience, thier spine has a combined 1 NRL game experience

Exactly. You put Luai and CHT in the halves and a full nrl season under Gordon Kum Tong and Sua Faalogo next year and this Samoan team will be back to their best. Kiwis spine controlled the gane well today and they looked awesome

 

[Jim from Oz]

What was the attendance figure? Thanks

 

[yakstorm]

What was the attendance figure? Thanks

23,269

 

[yakstorm]

Samoa, Tonga and even PNG are all at a similar position to where the Kiwis were in the early 2000s. At full strength they could match it with anyone, though they lacked any significant depth in key positions.

The islands have the added difficulty where the likes of Australia & New Zealand will try to pick their most inform players as well, further hurting their depth.

The only way that can be addressed is through building depth. From a participation perspective, there is no shortage of eligible players coming through the ranks, so it's then just about ensuring these sides keep getting regular internationals each year, even if there is the occasional thrashing.

The last thing we want to do is repeat the mistake the game made with Wales in the 90s of not giving the team regular fixtures and opportunities.