FIFA Confederations Cup style international tournament

[England87]

Is this still in the pipe line as the replacement for the Four Nations?

I believe the IRL were looking at Australia, England, New Zealand & maybe France as proprietors of the tournament with Pacific Champions, Pacific Runners Up, Highest ranked European nation and a winner of a repechage play off to make 8 teams. 2 pools of 4 with Semis and a Final.

Likely a 4/5 week tournament depending on if there are midweek matches at the pool stage. Essentially a mini world cup but that was basically the Four Nations anyway.

Depending on this years World Cup I think there would be an appetite for this tournament played every second year so that there is a year in the cycle for teams to tour or for Oz to sit out if they insist.

 

[Irish-bulldog]

Is this still in the pipe line as the replacement for the Four Nations?

I believe the IRL were looking at Australia, England, New Zealand & maybe France as proprietors of the tournament with Pacific Champions, Pacific Runners Up, Highest ranked European nation and a winner of a repechage play off to make 8 teams. 2 pools of 4 with Semis and a Final.

Likely a 4/5 week tournament depending on if there are midweek matches at the pool stage. Essentially a mini world cup but that was basically the Four Nations anyway.

Depending on this years World Cup I think there would be an appetite for this tournament played every second year so that there is a year in the cycle for teams to tour or for Oz to sit out if they insist.

Definitely need to get the northern hemisphere teams playing southern teams more, every second year at least, otherwise they will continue to fall further behind.
The northern hemisphere needs to find a way to improve the cash flow, Rugby league in Australia gets monster TV deals, billions of dollars.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

The Four Nations was growing some real legs as a brand just as it was scrapped. We should re-instate it based on OP's idea. Owned by Aus, NZ, Eng & France, add the Pac and Euro champions to it each year and then those tournaments mean something more too. If we can get serious tournaments with serious stakes on each and every year, we will soon see the crowds, ratings and sponsors flood into the game.

New revenue streams can help England, France, the Pacific and developing nations.

Teams like Ireland, Lebanon and Greece will be more likely to get access to players like Keary, Moses and Ilias outside of the World Cup because they are playing in meaningful tournaments.

 

[Perth Red]

6 nations is needed next England, Aus, Samoa, NZ, Tonga and PNG played in PNG,NZ and Aus.

France, Scotland, Ireland and Wales play a 4 nations in Europe
Fiji, Lebanon and Cook Is play a 3 nations in southern Hemi
Emerging four nations tournament- USA, Jamaica, Greece and Italy

There's you calendar for next Oct/Nov!

 

[England87]

I think a six nations tournament would be too many games played. Also for international interest a minimum of 2 Northern Hemisphere teams outside of England should qualify. France 100% need to be involved as they can financially afford to host and tour.

 

[Perth Red]

I think a six nations tournament would be too many games played. Also for international interest a minimum of 2 Northern Hemisphere teams outside of England should qualify. France 100% need to be involved as they can financially afford to host and tour.

France are not competitive and no one is filling a stadium to watch them get trounced every game. 6 nations is 5 games each plus a final. I don't think 6 games is too much in a period of mid Oct-end of Nov. The biggest challenge is playing it in southern hemi and getting fans and tv interested! we have RLWC this year and 2025 in europe so we need 2 years of southern hemi tournaments in between imo.

 

[jim_57]

France are not competitive and no one is filling a stadium to watch them get trounced every game. 6 nations is 5 games each plus a final. I don't think 6 games is too much in a period of mid Oct-end of Nov. The biggest challenge is playing it in southern hemi and getting fans and tv interested! we have RLWC this year and 2025 in europe so we need 2 years of southern hemi tournaments in between imo.

Leaving France out of everything and them getting no high profile games for the next 2 years won’t help them get stronger. More importantly it definitely won’t help their preparations for hosting a World Cup in 2025.

France should be in everything next couple of years if we’re serious.

 

[England87]

France are not competitive and no one is filling a stadium to watch them get trounced every game. 6 nations is 5 games each plus a final. I don't think 6 games is too much in a period of mid Oct-end of Nov. The biggest challenge is playing it in southern hemi and getting fans and tv interested! we have RLWC this year and 2025 in europe so we need 2 years of southern hemi tournaments in between imo.

Big call on not filling stadiums mate. Excluding a genuine international side from this proposed tournament would be a bit short sighted imo.

 

[England87]

This Confed tournament should switch hemispheres every second year. You can have a world beating Tonga, Fiji, Samoa but until France are *competing* against the top sides regularly, Touring and hosting in packed 15-20k boutique stadiums with a bees dick of local media coverage then league will never become an genuine international sport.

The future is France.

 

[Perth Red]

Big call on not filling stadiums mate. Excluding a genuine international side from this proposed tournament would be a bit short sighted imo.

Paying 50 bucks to watch France get 50 plus on them is not high on anyones list, especially apathetic Australian RL fans!

 

[Perth Red]

This Confed tournament should switch hemispheres every second year. You can have a world beating Tonga, Fiji, Samoa but until France are *competing* against the top sides regularly, Touring and hosting in packed 15-20k boutique stadiums with a bees dick of local media coverage then league will never become an genuine international sport.

The future is France.

France wont compete until they have at least 80-100 players playing in SL or NRL. Thats the reality.
Unfortunately there aren't a lot of French heritage players playing RL so they aint getting the talent depth that other small PI nations enjoy.
Having Catalans in SL for 20 years hasnt made a jot of difference to France's competitiveness sadly. Putting them out there to get flogged by the 5 strong nations every game is hardly going to help build them.

If anything they'd be better off hosting touring Fiji and PNG sides in France. At least they could give them a game and build off that.

 

[jim_57]

France wont compete until they have at least 80-100 players playing in SL or NRL. Thats the reality.
Unfortunately there aren't a lot of French heritage players playing RL so they aint getting the talent depth that other small PI nations enjoy.
Having Catalans in SL for 20 years hasnt made a jot of difference to France's competitiveness sadly. Putting them out there to get flogged by the 5 strong nations every game is hardly going to help build them.

If anything they'd be better off hosting touring Fiji and PNG sides in France. At least they could give them a game and build off that.

PNG beat GB a few years ago and they probably had less than 10 NRL/SL players at the time and now. Likewise Fiji beat NZ with probably a quarter of that magic number. Tonga and Samoa probably don’t even have that.

They need more players in Super League sure, backwards promotion/relegation doesn’t help that. They also need more exposure and high profile games to build the game in France ahead of the World Cup. Just assuming they’ll get flogged by 50+ and everyone will cry is defeatist.

 

[Perth Red]

PNG beat GB a few years ago and they probably had less than 10 NRL/SL players at the time and now. Likewise Fiji beat NZ with probably a quarter of that magic number. Tonga and Samoa probably don’t even have that.

They need more players in Super League sure, backwards promotion/relegation doesn’t help that. They also need more exposure and high profile games to build the game in France ahead of the World Cup. Just assuming they’ll get flogged by 50+ and everyone will cry is defeatist.

PNG was a one off, not done it before and unlikely to do it again, that whole tour was a disaster for GB for some reason.

Fiji produced the mother of all upsets in 2017. Again it was a one off anomaly, they havent beaten a top side before or since and most recently lost to PNG.

They do when you look at heritage eligible players. Also the reality is the quality of those players is far superior to what France is producing. Largely due to them be in the NRL system from being children.

I'd love to see France competitive but they are a very long way off that and games against the second level of sides like PNG and Fiji would be better for them than getting thrashed by the top 5 countries.

its not an assumption, take a look at the last ten years of results for France against the top 5 nations.

30-10 v England
44-6 v England
36-6 v England
52-6 v Australia
40-6 v England
84-4 England

 

[England87]

PNG have done it several times actually. 7 games in ten years is too small a sample size.

 

[Last Week]

PNG was a one off, not done it before and unlikely to do it again, that whole tour was a disaster for GB for some reason.

Fiji produced the mother of all upsets in 2017. Again it was a one off anomaly, they havent beaten a top side before or since and most recently lost to PNG.

They do when you look at heritage eligible players. Also the reality is the quality of those players is far superior to what France is producing. Largely due to them be in the NRL system from being children.

I'd love to see France competitive but they are a very long way off that and games against the second level of sides like PNG and Fiji would be better for them than getting thrashed by the top 5 countries.

its not an assumption, take a look at the last ten years of results for France against the top 5 nations.

30-10 v England
44-6 v England
36-6 v England
52-6 v Australia
40-6 v England
84-4 England

England/GB have beaten Australia twice in 20 years. Should they be restricted to playing PNG, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa?

 

[titoelcolombiano]

On the revival of the 4 nations:

It's a must, it was a great brand that was growing legs just as it was canned. We are ready for it to return and grow into a 6 nations tournament. France are a must due to them being the 2025 host and being a G8 country a key target for growth of the international game.

On France:

They sent their best team in a long time to this WC, they've got more pro players than ever before. They are improving, but so is everyone else. They'll be fine, especially as Toulouse will being or on the edge of SL moving forward. They'll go into all world cups moving forward with a fully professional squad. The next step is to get the very best of theIr players into the NRL

 

[titoelcolombiano]

My main concern for the international game is a comment from Greg Alexander (who is high up in the Penrith admin, and you'd imagine other club bosses think the same way) that we can't do this every year, referring to the 5 weeks of internationals after the NRL season

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[Jim from Oz]

Brandy says we can't do international RL every year, the next day the NRL proposes a new pre-season competition FFS !

NRL considers introducing new pre-season competition for 2023

The next pre-season could look like no other in history as the NRL ponders a new 18-team summer competition played for points and prizemoney.

www.smh.com.au

 

[England87]

IRL should have a hard and fast rule that Tier 1 side play minimum 3 internationals per season.

The old four nations worked because it was short and sharp while the tri nations in the mid 00's was probably too many games over too long a period.

Its really not hard to schedule ffs. Lets lock in the next 8 years now!


2023 Kangaroo/Kiwi/Lions tour

2024 8 Nations (Southern Hemisphere hosts)

2025 World Cup (France Hosts)

2026 8 Nations (Northern Hemisphere hosts)

2027 Kangaroo/Kiwi/Lions tour

2028 8 Nations (Southern Hemisphere hosts)

2029 World Cup (Oceania Hosts) - Australia, Fiji, PNG, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga hosts - Eden Park Final)

2030 8 Nations (Northern Hemisphere hosts)

 

[Billythekid]

Brandy says we can't do international RL every year, the next day the NRL proposes a new pre-season competition FFS !

NRL considers introducing new pre-season competition for 2023

The next pre-season could look like no other in history as the NRL ponders a new 18-team summer competition played for points and prizemoney.

www.smh.com.au

I’m not saying it’s a bad idea but we already don’t have enough space for the womens game. I think it makes more sense to make that a stand-alone product than trying to extend the NRL season even longer. There is no need to match the NAB cup (seriously who cares?) more international games would be FAR more beneficial.