IRL NINE NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

[England87]

With the IRL looking for another showpiece tournament in between world cup cycles I think a unique short and sharp tournament would be ideal for the development of the international game.

Below is the example of the 'Nine Nations Championship' that could be held in alternating hemispheres every two or four years.

Qualifying nations would be the eight World Cup quarter-finalists plus a wildcard.

eg:

2023 NINE NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP (Held in Australia, New Zealand & PNG)

A
AUSTRALIA 2
TONGA 4
FRANCE

B
NEW ZEALAND 1
FIJI
PAPUA NEW GUINEA

C
ENGLAND 3
SAMOA
IRELAND

SEMI-FINALS

NEW ZEALAND vs TONGA
AUSTRALIA vs ENGLAND

FINAL

NEW ZEALAND vs AUSTRALIA

Teams play each other round-robin in their respected pool. (2 games) followed by Semi-Finals involving the Pool Winners and the highest finishing 2nd ranked team (most likely based on points difference, which ideally would make games not involving the 'big 3' as must-watch.

With pools of 3, there would be a bye week for every team in the tournament, these byes would be decided by a draw. The tournament would last for five weeks. The reason why ive gone for 3 teams per pool instead of 4 is to avoid games that don't matter and would have little interest to fans and the potential broadcaster. Less is more and this event needs to have a different feel than a World Cup.

I believe this would be the ideal replacement for the old Four/Tri Nations and give the Pacific teams & France in particular another global competiton to look forward to.

Thoughts?

 

[England87]

For shits and giggles, below is layout of the tournament with reasonable crowd predictions. I would have a double header every round plus the semi finals.

Week 1
FIJI vs PAPUA NEW GUINEA Port Moresby 15k
ENGLAND vs SAMOA Brisbane 40k*
AUSTRALIA vs TONGA Brisbane 40k*

Week 2
NEW ZEALAND vs PAPUA NEW GUINEA Hamilton 15k
TONGA vs FRANCE Parramatta 25k*
SAMOA vs IRELAND Parramatta 25k*

Week 3
NEW ZEALAND vs FIJI Auckland 15k
ENGLAND vs IRELAND Townsville 20k*
AUSTRALIA vs FRANCE Townsville 20k*

Week 4 SEMI-FINALS
NEW ZEALAND vs TONGA Melbourne 30k*
AUSTRALIA vs ENGLAND Melbourne 30k*

Week 4 FINAL
NEW ZEALAND vs AUSTRALIA Sydney (SFS) 40k

 

[welshmagpie]

Some fair thinking. One element I don’t like however is that some teams would only get two fixtures across what would essentially be a 5 week tournament. How would they compensate for this?

 

[England87]

I think there’s pros and cons of every potential tournament. If you take into account every side would play a pre tournament test and most likely one home and one away for European teams.

eg: France vs Wales in Avignon &
France vs Cook Islands / Lebanon / prime ministers 13 etc in Campbelltown / Leichhardt / Redcliffe etc

If you look at it like that then it’s essentially a 3 test “tour” minimum for all nations.

This tournament is essentially designed for every game to matter to the make up of semi finals. Imagine the interest in an Australia v France game in week 3 if they had hypothetically lost to Tonga. Not only do they have to win but win well to qualify for the semi finals.

Plus I’m not a fan of post tournament games to decide final positions aka 6th vs 7th ranked teams but to each there own

 

[Perth Red]

Just host a proper 12 team world nines like we had in Sydney. Let potential host cities bid for it.
Its so RL to host it once then put it back in the cupboard for another decade or two.

What was this that was supposed to be in Samoa last year?

TOURNAMENT DRAW

worldnines.com

According to this there is supposed to be another one here next year?????

INTRL - Rugby League World Cup 9s

INTRL - Rugby League World Cup 9s

www.intrl.sport