8 Nations - Intercontinental Cup ideas/format/etc

[adamkungl]

What do we think or what do we want this to look like. All we know so far is that we're supposed to be having an 8 nation tournament in the 2nd year between World Cups.

'Federations Cup' and 'Intercontinental Cup' have been thrown around - personally I hope they come up with a much more interesting name. Needs to be marketable (ie unique and interesting), hold prestige, and not steal the World Cup's thunder.

It's reasonable to assume that the 8 Nations will be:

Australia
New Zealand
England
#1 European nation
#2 European nation
#1 Pacific nation
#1 American nation
#1 Middle East-Africa* nation

The last 5 being seeded either by World Cup finishing, or preferably the previous year's regional tournaments, giving them more value.

*A note on how we do regions. Currently we have the Asia-Pacific Federation and the Middle-East Africa Federation. Since there's no Asian nation even close to matching the likes of Cook Islands or Niue, for grouping and tournament qualification purposes I think it's better at this stage for Pacific to be a standalone region, and all of Asia grouped with Africa. The likes of Thailand and Philippines in the next 10 years would be better matched against South Africa and Lebanon than Cook Islands or Tonga.


I've got a couple of format ideas floating around but I'm interested to see what other people think first.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

f**k knows what they'll come up with.

One major variable will be who hosts it if it's a tournament. That could dictate who plays.

I think it should be be big three, two from Europe, two Pacific and one from Americas. I know that leaves out Lebanon and South Africa but it's hard to justify Lebanon getting a walk up start just by being better than one other team. Those two would perhaps have to join one of the others. Lebanon to Europe and South Africa to Americas and make it Atlantic maybe. Ideally I'd love to see Europe split into east and west too to allow Serbia or Russia in but that's no chance. Pacific teams could be based on the Pacific tests, although Cook Islands are left out of those.

Chances are it'll end up being the big 3 and four or five heritage teams whichever way they do it. France and PNG should be there but will probably miss out to Scotland and Samoa or something.

 

[adamkungl]

Chances are it'll end up being the big 3 and four or five heritage teams whichever way they do it. France and PNG should be there but will probably miss out to Scotland and Samoa or something.

It would be nice if France and PNG actually beat their competitors since they actually have first choice professional players who aren't the top 3s leftovers. But they're both notorious under-performers.

 

[roughyedspud]

I would go with

England
Australia
New zealand
Euro 1
Euro 2
Pacific 1
Pacific 2
World qualifer

That gives us scope to have european & pacific qualifiers..ie euro & pacific cups with the two finalist qualifying for the IC cup..

We could also have somekind of "emerging nations cup" to find the "world" qualifer..id put russia,serbia in this with south africa,usa,canada,jamaica etc

 

[roughyedspud]

I'll post a detailed qualification process tomorrow while im waiting for the Eng v oz game to start

 

[jim_57]

Chances are it'll end up being the big 3 and four or five heritage teams whichever way they do it. France and PNG should be there but will probably miss out to Scotland and Samoa or something.

To avoid this I'd have a "pre-qualifier" for any nation who meets specific domestic criteria. Have a play-off between the 2 sides in Europe and Pacific that best meet the criteria, with the winner qualifying and the loser entering the qualifying tournament with other sides from their region.

So essentially it would look like this if played tomorrow

Euro 1 - France V Wales
Euro 2 - France/Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Serbia/Russia
Pacific 1 - PNG V Fiji
Pacific 2 - PNG/Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Is/Solomon Is./Vanuatu
Atlantic - USA, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa

 

[LESStar58]

I would leave Australia, NZ and England out of the whole thing and let the lower tier nations complete for actual silverware rather than just letting one of the usual suspects win it.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

If WCs are decided by qualifiers and on-field performance generally, this could be different. If there's two from each of Euro an Pacific they should just include France and PNG automatically along with the big three. After all these are the five nations that play the game seriously. Bit tough on Wales but hopefully they'd qualify anyway. Of course if we had half decent rules it wouldn't be as much of an issue because the ring in teams wouldn't be as strong.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Ideally the eight would be:

Australia
NZ
England
France
PNG
Fiji
Wales
USA or Canada.

And there'd be a women's comp with the same, except Russia instead of Wales and Canada would definitely be in (assuming their presence in the WC means they will actually have women's RL).

 

[paulmac]

Ive said this a few times but I don't want this tournament to be a pseudo WC. I would limit it to 6 teams and call it the Champions Trophy. Former World Cup champions automatically qualify (Aus,NZ,Eng) plus the Champions of Europe, Oceania and the winner of the Atlantic Cup(USA,Can,Jam,SAf).So my 4year cycle would look like this
2017 RLWC
2018 Continental Cups
2019 Champions Trophy
2020 RLWC qualifiers
2021 RLWC

 

[deal.with.it]

You could go about it two ways:
Auto qualify the nations that meet rigid KPIs (Aus, Eng, France, PNG, Wales, NZ). And then qualifiers for nations that meet the next level of KPIs (Serbia, Fiji, Jamaica, Lebanon etc).

Or you could have a full qualifying process for all nations.

If you had the latter, then the qualifiers could either be something like 4 from RLEF and 4 from APRLC.

Or you could do it in regions, and have an auto place for MEA - with the idea that it would foster growth in other nations and government funding because they want to qualify for the intercontinently cup, much like Euro nations do for the UEFA tournament.

 

[langpark]

I believe, it will be 8 nations from Northern Hemisphere then 8 Nations Southern Hemisphere in the other.

Otherwise all it is, is a mini-World Cup.

 

[BuderusIsaBeast]

I would keep it simple and have the 8 Quarter finalists from the World Cup qualify. They would also get aut qualification to the next World Cup so all other teams can start there World Cup qualifying matches on the same year.

So you have the top 8 playing in the tournament and the rest starting World Cup wualifiying

 

[East Coast Tiger]

I believe, it will be 8 nations from Northern Hemisphere then 8 Nations Southern Hemisphere in the other.

Otherwise all it is, is a mini-World Cup.

Four nations is just a really mini WC.

There's barely eight teams in the SH that have the status to play qualifiers.

 

[adamkungl]

To avoid raining on the World Cup's parade, the best thing to do is make it a different kind of competition.

The most obvious way to run an 8 team tournament is 2 separate pools of 4 playing round robin and then a final or finals with the winners. Ie. a mini-World Cup.

I would aim to avoid this in a big way.

Firstly, don't have it hosted as a tournament single event. Play all games except the final home/away. The advantages to this are
a) Differentiation from WC
b) Reduce length of travel for all teams (but more trips)
c) Most importantly, ensures Rugby League is showcased in every playing nation
d) no neutral games.

The second issue is how to structure an 8 team home/away series.
I'd split it into 2 pools - Northern and Southern.
Northern = England, European, North American teams
Southern = Australia, NZ, Pacific, Asian, African teams (should they feature in the tournament)

From there I have two ideas:

One is a 10 round series played throughout the year. Each nation plays their own pool home and away for 6 games, and the other pool once each for 4 games, 2 home and 2 away.
*If reality kicks in and time and money don't permit, this can obviously be cut down to 7 games basic round robin and the 'pools' above become meaningless.
example draw using the teams i suggest above:

mid-season
home leg

1 NZ v Aus, Sam v Lebanon, Eng v Fra, USA v Sco
2 NZ v Sam, Aus v Lebanon, Eng v USA, Fra v Sco
3 Lebanon v NZ, Aus v Sam, Sco v Eng, Fra v USA

post-season
north leg

1 Eng v Aus, Fra v NZ, Sco v Lebanon, USA v Sam
2 Eng v NZ, Fra v Lebanon, Sco v Sam, USA v Aus

south leg

1 Aus v Fra, NZ v Sco, Sam v Eng, Lebanon v USA
2 Aus v Sco, NZ v USA, Sam v Fra, Lebanon v Eng

home leg 2

1 Aus v NZ, Lebanon v Sam, Fra v Eng, Sco v USA
2 Sam v NZ, Lebanon v Aus, USA v Eng, Sco v Fra
3 NZ v Lebanon, Sam v Aus, Eng v Sco, USA v Fra

final @ London


Idea #2 is to play the 2 pools in 4 Nations round-robin format for 3 games. After 3 games, re-seed them with the top 2 from each going into a 'Cup' pool and the bottom 2 going into a 'Shield' pool. Play 3 more games in the new pools and a Cup final to decide the winner.
Total 7 games.

 

[roughyedspud]

My intercontinental cup qualification (ICQ) process

European qualification,6 teams, 2 groups of 3,winner of each group qualifies for the IC cup the following year,maybe play a final to decide "european champions"

France
Wales
Scotland
Ireland
Italy
Lebanon

Pacific qualification,4 teams,1 group of 4,play each other once,top 2 qualifies for the IC cup the following year,maybe play a final to decide "pacific champions"

Png
Tonga
Samoa
Fiji

World qualification,emerging nations world cup, 8 teams,ENWC winner qualifies for the IC cup the following year

Usa
Canada
Jamaica
Russia
Serbia
South africa
Cook islands
A N other

so if the intercontinental cups are in 2019 & 2023...qualifiers would be in 2018 & 2022

 

[jason1359]

Australia
England
New Zealand
Pacific 1/ Samoa
Pacific 2/ Fiji
Euro 1/ Scotland
Euro 2/ Ireland
American/ USA

African and Middle East would have to play Europe quallifiers to make the promotion/relegation stage

 

[roughyedspud]

Why europe though? why not a pacific team?

I like your format but even it up

England
Euro 1
Euro 2
Australia
Nz
Pacific 1 -.this makes 3 nations guaranteed from both regions
Pacific 2 / africa-middle east playoff
Americas 1

 

[adamkungl]

Why europe though? why not a pacific team?

I like your format but even it up

England
Euro 1
Euro 2
Australia
Nz
Pacific 1 -.this makes 3 nations guaranteed from both regions
Pacific 2 / africa-middle east playoff
Americas 1

This is what I'd go with.. just noticed I only had 7 nations in my OP lol.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

What about having three rounds of group games and a final, but having each round in one venue or country?

For example:

Round 1: PNG
Round 2: NZ
Round 3: Australia
Final: TBA but Brisbane or Auckland.

Or

Round 1: USA
Round 2: France
Round 3: England
Final: Somewhere in the north.

It would make it quite different to the WC. Play double headers in places like Port Moresby over a Saturday and Sunday (Kumuls on one day, Roos on the other), maybe the same at two French venues of appropriate size. Games in Aus, NZ and England could be stand alone depending on the teams and venues. I think that would spread them around, be quite fun and interesting, show off the game to various markets and send a message that the game has a wider footprint and it would be possibly attractive to host cities.