Blowout scores a bore? Or an opportunity?

[Gobsmacked]

The format is good.

2 Americas teams qualify for 2025 so USA have pretty much been gifted a spot along with Jamaica.

Geez, didn't know that.

 

[jim_57]

The format is good.

Geez, didn't know that.

I’m going off of someone’s breakdown of the qualifying system elsewhere and assuming they are correct 2 Americas teams qualify from Jamaica, USA, Canada and Brazil/Chile.

So essentially if all goes as expected USA will replace Greece. Greece have to beat one of Italy, Scotland, Ireland or Wales or Cook Islands in a repecharge. Unless a nation like Germany or Serbia use a heap of heritage players to shake things up I don’t see many surprises.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

The World Cup isn't the problem, the format is perfect, its the lack of meaningful tournaments and matches. between world cups. We started to get it right before Covid struck with the Oceania Cup involving Australia and New Zealand. Talk of a confederations cup, Euros involving England. More of this is needed after this WC...

The concerning thing for me was hearing Greg Alexander say a week or so ago that we can't do this every year, we can't play 5 weeks of footy after the NRL season.

Can't we? Why not? I really want the international game to start making serious money because when that happens, all the talk of overplaying will disappear instantly.

In terms of the depth of quality teams at the world cup, there is hope...

England will always be strong despite some ridiculous comments in the media before this tournament saying they'd be shit. They have 10 / 11 professional clubs worth of players to choose from and just like pre-covid, their best and brightest will start making their way to the NRL, giving the national team even more of an edge.

New Zealand are as strong as ever and with the NRL talking up improving NZ pathways, that will only get better for the Kiwis.

PNG and Fiji will be where Tonga are now in the next couple of world cup cycles, the Hunters and Silktails are perfect to connect their considerable domestic talent to a professional system and feed players into the NRL. The beauty of these two with these pathways setup is that their players will be eligible for them, and them only providing continuity in the national team, a luxury Australia, England and New Zealand have always enjoyed. Not sure what is happening with Pacifique XIII but if they get into the QLD Cup it will boost New Caledonia and Vanuatu significantly also.

Tonga and Samoa will stay strong for the foreseeable future due to their diaspora, but a plan does need to be made to develop talent from the islands. Same with the Cook Islands.

France finally are building a professional player pool to the point where their national team can rely 100% on professionals into the future which will improve them. A few of their best into the NRL will only make them better.

Wales are rebuilding with home grown products (not heritage and Union imports like some of the good Wales teams of the past). Hopefully their two professional pathway teams can make their way up to the Championship and they can over time build a fully professional player pool in Superleague for the national team to pick from.

Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Lebanon and Greece are all in a similar boat, meaning that their national team will vary in quality depending on the heritage players they have to pick from (Scotland's 2016 4 Nations team v their 2022 WC team is a good example of this). They are all working hard to develop players but a European Club competition for all of these nations to enter clubs into (like the proposed Euro XIII's - not sure if that is still happening) would be a way to accelerate that. The Euro comp would sit a level above their respective domestic comps as a pathway for their best players to progress and act as a shopfront for their best young talents to be picked up into a professional system.

All of the above along with an international calendar so the national teams can play meaningful matches every year, will mean that the world cup gets stronger and stronger with each edition.

Let's face it though, this current world cup is the strongest we've had so far and despite whinging from some fans and some non-fans, the media beat up hasn't been anywhere near as bad as previous editions which is a step forward.

Future World Cups organisers should get on the front foot and get high profile NRL and SL players to express how meaningful it is to play for their country in the tournament's marketing. And at the same time it will demonstrate the diverse backgrounds we have in the game... make sure you use players born in those countries so that the run of the mill NRL and SL boofhead fan doesn't just go to the old 'they are Aussies or Englishmen in a different shirt'.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Just read the majority of the social media comments...its nearly 2-1 in the negative.

That's the case with any topic on social media

It's been lackluster, to the fact where I didn't bother watching the majority of the games or turned them off after 20 mins. Just read the majority of the social media comments...its nearly 2-1 in the negative. Also discussing with work colleagues, the majority who knew about the tournament agreed its been hard to get into. The main negative was the ease of tries that were being scored that was off putting. The margin between the top and bottom is the biggest it has ever been. The change in rules by adding the six again to speed up the game has had a massive impact.

That's not even close to being true. The previous three editions of the tournament have had 10, 14 and 14 teams respectively and the gap between the best and worst is roughly the same, meaning we've expanded the number of teams in the middle that are better than in the past.

The last and only other time we had a 16 team world cup was 2000, when Russia, Fiji and South Africa were copping the pummellings (Aus 110 - Russia 4). Since that world cup, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, PNG, France and Lebanon have all improved dramatically and Italy has arrived as a consistent world cup nation.

If Tonga-Samoa, England-PNG, Aus-NZ all give us epic matches and the final is good, the same whingers will be crapping on about how good it is.

 

[taste2taste]

That's the case with any topic on social media

Every RLWC has more negative than positive social media comments. They are mainly from Union trolls who can't stand the fact we have a world cup. The irony is Union has just as many blow outs in the group stages and thier eligibility rules are sometimes as bad as ours. I'm still not sure how Ben Te'o and lesley vainikolo qualified to play for England.. but anyways.

 

[Gobsmacked]

We have 4 great games this weekend!
That's right! 8 high quality international teams! 8!
France would make it 9!
9 fully professional international teams!!!
I'm over the moon!
Imagine how jealous the AFL truly are? They've been on an expansion battle with League... sure GWS lol

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Every RLWC has more negative than positive social media comments. They are mainly from Union trolls who can't stand the fact we have a world cup. The irony is Union has just as many blow outs in the group stages and thier eligibility rules are sometimes as bad as ours. I'm still not sure how Ben Te'o and lesley vainikolo qualified to play for England.. but anyways.

Yep... Craig Gower for Italy anyone? They use heritage and residency as good as we do, especially when they were establishing newer nations

 

[taste2taste]

We have 4 great games this weekend!
That's right! 8 high quality international teams! 8!
France would make it 9!
9 fully professional international teams!!!
I'm over the moon!
Imagine how jealous the AFL truly are? They've been on an expansion battle with League... sure GWS lol

I've finally coughed up for Kayo ( first time subscriber ) for the remainder of the tournament.

Tonga V Somoa and Eng V PNG will be worth fee alone.

 

[taste2taste]

Yep... Craig Gower for Italy anyone? They use heritage and residency as good as we do, especially when they were establishing newer nations

Haha yes I'd forgotten about Gower playing Union for Italy
I think I'll make it a piont of trolling the next Union World Cup as hard as they troll us.
I'll be kept very busy posting about thier boring blow outs and asking why is the Japanese team made up of Kiwis

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Haha yes I'd forgotten about Gower playing Union for Italy
I think I'll make it a piont of trolling the next Union World Cup as hard as they troll us.
I'll be kept very busy posting about thier boring blow outs and asking why is the Japanese team made up of Kiwis

They're hypocrites mate. They established their international game on the back of heritage players just like we are doing now. There are certain countries like Samoa and Tonga that will never be 100% born and bred Samoans or Tongans in any sport either due to the low populations on the islands and the large number of diaspora in countries like Australia and New Zealand. They have no basis for taking the moral high ground on this one.

 

[Gobsmacked]

Just playing into the trolls hands even discussing it.
The fact that there trying to pull it down is proof how quickly it's moving ahead. Union and AFL are Threatened by league both domestically and internationally and the simple fact is it's the best sport. It encompasses all the physical attributes into one fast paced, skillful, brutal sport. Something for everyone.

 

[kiwileaguefan]

Union threatened by League Internationally?

 

[Gobsmacked]

Union threatened by League Internationally?

Especially NZ.
It's only a matter of time and they know it.

 

[taste2taste]

Union threatened by League Internationally?

They certainly spend alot of time bagging the RLWC, you'd wonder why they'd bother wasting thier breathe on such an unthreatening tiny sport.

Yes it's a much bigger sport than league, it'll take us about 40 years to get to where they are now, but living in NZ you are probably under the false impression Union is much bigger than it actually is ? It's played in the UK, the south of England , south of France and a few universities in South Africa and Argentina and is well behind soccer, cricket, Galic football..etc in all those countries. Here in Australia rugby is dead last in participation and TV ratings.

Besides, the All Blacks can barely beat Japan these days... I guess they've lost too many players to the unthreatening NRL

 

[titoelcolombiano]

They certainly spend alot of time bagging the RLWC, you'd wonder why they'd bother wasting thier breathe on such an unthreatening tiny sport.

Yes it's a much bigger sport than league, it'll take us about 40 years to get to where they are now, but living in NZ you are probably under the false impression Union is much bigger than it actually is ? It's played in the UK, the south of England , south of France and a few universities in South Africa and Argentina and is well behind soccer, cricket, Galic football..etc in all those countries. Here in Australia rugby is dead last in participation and TV ratings.

Besides, the All Blacks can barely beat Japan these days... I guess they've lost too many players to the unthreatening NRL

Not only that... they bag us for the use of heritage players but their international squads are still rife with 'residency' and 'heritage' players, even in established nations... just a very quick look I had, showed how many in their international squads are not from the country they represent all of the following vary between 5 and 16 players each

Japan
Wales
Ireland
Scotland
Australia
Italy
Tonga
Samoa

They aren't as huge globally as they make out. The big difference between the two Rugbys is that they prioritise internationals and hold important competitions every single year.

 

[Perth Red]

Especially NZ.
It's only a matter of time and they know it.

Not sure if you know the NZ landscape but NZRU has an annual revenue of $188.7milion. NZRL has a revenue of $8.7million.
I dont think we are challenging much with figures like that!

 

[Gobsmacked]

Not sure if you know the NZ landscape but NZRU has an annual revenue of $188.7milion. NZRL has a revenue of $8.7million.
I dont think we are challenging much with figures like that!

The Warriors spend 10 just on their cap, i forget what the grant is but the path forward for NZ Rugby League is another NRL side.

 

[Perth Red]

The Warriors spend 10 just on their cap, i forget what the grant is but the path forward for NZ Rugby League is another NRL side.

that wont make a dent when the two bodies have a $180mill a year revenue difference.
I cant believe NZRL survive on less than $9mil a year! The NRl give them a piddly $250k a year, even less than NRLWA gets lol.

 

[kiwileaguefan]

that wont make a dent when the two bodies have a $180mill a year revenue difference.
I cant believe NZRL survive on less than $9mil a year! The NRl give them a piddly $250k a year, even less than NRLWA gets lol.

NZRL have been very clear in discussions with us that the only income they have is through the Kiwis. During a RLWC year they make a loss with the profits all going to the governing body.

No mid season tests is really going to hurt NZRL next year.

 

[Matua]

Especially NZ.
It's only a matter of time and they know it.

Is this a genuine belief of yours? It's very misguided. League is a wee bit of a lull in NZ at the moment. I was talking to some mates back home and they haven't watched even any highlights of the RLWC. I think too with the Holden Cup gone that we're past the peak of NZ schoolboys switching to league in preference to rugby academies.