LEAGUE WORLD CUP IDEAS

[PARRA_FAN]

I think if the World Cup has 14 teams, divided em into 2 groups:

Group 1:
Australia
England
Russia
Lebanon
USA
Samoa
Ireland

Group 2:
New Zealand
Wales
France
South Africa
Fiji
Tonga
Scotland

or 16 teams go with the same format as 2000, divide them into 4 groups:

Group 1: (Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne)
Australia
England
Lebanon
Italy

Group 2: (Auckland, Melbourne, Wellington, Christchurch)
New Zealand
Samoa
Ireland
Cook Islands

Group 3Townsville, Gold Coast, Darwin)
PNG
Russia
Tonga
Wales

Group 4: (NSW Country, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra)
France
South Africa
Samoa
USA

Quarter Finals (Canberra, Gosford, Aussie, Newcastle)

Semi Finals (Aussie or Colonial Stadium, Brisbane)

Final (Telstra Stadium)

 

[Big Bunny]

Perhaps if the top 3 seeded nations in a 12 team WC were allowed to bypass the early stages things might work better.

1. Australia
2. New Zealand
3. England


Below them you would then have the lesser lights fighting it out for the right to win one of three places in the final 6. Each of the pool winners would go through, no second chances being given. These nations each playing 2 games.


Pool A

Ireland
Lebanon
Fiji


Pool B

Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Russia


Pool C

Scotland
Tonga
Wales


The final 6 might look something like ( for arguements sake) Aus, NZ, England, Ireland, PNG and Wales. The possibility of there being any embarassingly one-sided matches would then be cut drastically.

1 v 6 - Aus v PNG
1 v 4 - Aus v Wales
2 v 5 - NZ v Ireland
2 v 3 - NZ v England
3 v 6 - England v PNG
5 v 4 - Ireland v Wales

From the second stage the team that finishes on top plays 3, whilst 2 plays 4. The winners go through to the final.

 

[CanadianSteve]

Keep the Tri-Series and call it the World Cup. Have an emerging nations (everybody else) WC at the same time. As some of the other nations hopefully improve, add them to the top tier WC, bringing it up to 4, 5, etc when other nations seem good enough to try it.

 

[dimitri]

there is one thing i think all you guys are forgetting

and that is rankings

before any pools are decided the rankings must be decided to see who plays in what pool

there is also a dilemma over whether GB&I should play as a singular country or break up into their individual nations

I believe if the world cup is to be played as 12 teams then GB&I should play as one

if the world cup is to be 16 teams then they should definitely play as individual nations

it also seems a bit silly to have them as one nation after the excellent work being done with the welsh conference, amateur internationals etc etc


So if the WC was to be 16 teams we would have to rank them before putting them into groups

the top 8 would be spread between the pools and the bottom 8 put in pools randomly


here is what my rankings would be, Im sure there will be plenty of debate


1- Australia -undisputed
2- NZ - continuing rise of warriors, possible 2nd nrl team
3- England- improvement in ESL and Team under Waite
4- Lebanon - great wins over france and other nations, with many pro players to call on, sure to be very competitive
5- Wales - will be competitive but a lot will depend on fitness of players like cunningham, and possible availablitiy of LLESTYN HARRIS
6- PNG - just edge out france after successful match against junior roos
without star players, plenty of quality pro players available
7- France- new super league side, excellent work being done,
8- Samoa - work starting to be done in islands, success of warrios and
other pro players around the world will ensure competitiveness
9- Ireland
10- Scotland
11- Fiji
12- Tonga
13 - Russia
14- South Africa
15- Cook Islands
16- QUALIFIER (possibly greece, italy, morocco etc etc)

 

[mono_mal]

8 teams is too little to compete in the World Cup whilst 16 is too many as proven in 2000.
On the further question on whether GB should participate as the home nations or the Lions I think they should be split into the home nations. This offers more strong teams and at the same time doesnt weaken England to a large extent.
I believe 6 teams should gain automatic admission being Australia, New Zealand, PNG, England, Wales, and France with the remaining 6 places gained through a qualifying process which was used to great success by the Union and Soccer World Cup.
The pools may be made up of the following:
Oceania (2 1/2 qualifiers)
Samoa
Tonga
Fiji
Cook Islands
New Caledonia

Europe (2 1/2 qualifiers)
Ireland
Scotland
Russia
Serbia
Holland

Meditteranean (1/2 qualifier)
Lebanon
Italy
Greece
Morocco

Africa-Asia-America (1/2 qualifier)
USA
Japan
South Africa
Canada
Kenya

The half positions would require the top Meditteranean team to play the third placed Oceania team to gain admission and the top place team from AAA to play the third placed Euro team to gain admission.

To make the competition less of a farcial matter the RLIF should enforce that to compete in the World Cup or qualifiers the country must have a domestic competition and the 25 man squad should include 8 players living domestically, restricting countries to be full of players using the Grandparents rule and giving players from the dom. comp to compete on a world stage.

To make the competition larger and ensure more games are played the 12 teams should be split into two groups of 6. The top country from each pool should go directly to the semis whilst the other two positions should be gained via play offs for the semis via A2 V B3 and B2 V A3.

 

[In-goal]

I still think that if we use anymore than 12 nations we will compromise the competition.

1: GB should be split into Home Nations
2: To be able to compete at the World Cup there must be a domestic League in that Country.
3: Nations must go through a qualifacation stage to have the right to play at the global show piece.

 

[yakstorm]

How about we take a leaf out of Cricket's World Cup and go for either 10 - 12 team World Cup divided into two pools.

Top three qualify for a Super 6, with then the final position making the semi's and the eventual final?

So say
Group A:
Australia
England
Russia
Scotland
Fiji
Tonga

Group B:
New Zealand
PNG
Wales
Ireland
France
Samoa

From those 12 you would have some pretty competitive matches, and as lead up you have qualifiers.

The top 3 from each of the groups enter the 'Super 6' where they then play the other 3 sides in that top 6, taking any points they have already earnt with them up.

Then after those games are done, you have Semi's and Final.

Perhaps it is extending the tournament for a handful more weeks than neccessary, but its a different 'alternative'.

Also allows for a clear 'New Zealand' group and clear 'Australia' group

 

[mono_mal]

yakstorm, interesting makeup as you have ommitted Lebanon.
Lebanon would have to be included as they possess one of the strongest sides and are off a very high quality.
A Lebanon side at full strength:
1. Bajouri (Souths)
2. Samia (Wests Tigers)
3. Saleh (Dragons)
4. Corrie (Sydney Bulls)
5. El Masri, Wissam (Newtown Jets)
6. El Masri, Hazem (Bulldogs)
7. Farah, Robbie (Wests Tigers)
8. Chamoun (Sydney Bulls)
9. Coorey (Brisbane Broncos)
10. El Hamed (Newtown Jets)
11. Najarrin (Newtown Jets)
12. Farah (Balmain)
13. Boulous (Guildford)

14. Azzi (Sydney Bulls)
15. Norah (Sydney Bulls)
16. Maroon
17. Nicholas (Souths Juniors)

18. Khoury
19. Salem (Sydney Bulls)
20. Mansour (Sydney Bulls)
21. Daher

 

[Tidus_Raider]

yakstorm, interesting makeup as you have ommitted Lebanon.
Lebanon would have to be included as they possess one of the strongest sides and are off a very high quality.
A Lebanon side at full strength:
1. Bajouri (Souths)
2. Samia (Wests Tigers)
3. Saleh (Dragons)
4. Corrie (Sydney Bulls)
5. El Masri, Wissam (Newtown Jets)
6. El Masri, Hazem (Bulldogs)
7. Farah, Robbie (Wests Tigers)
8. Chamoun (Sydney Bulls)
9. Coorey (Brisbane Broncos)
10. El Hamed (Newtown Jets)
11. Najarrin (Newtown Jets)
12. Farah (Balmain)
13. Boulous (Guildford)

14. Azzi (Sydney Bulls)
15. Norah (Sydney Bulls)
16. Maroon
17. Nicholas (Souths Juniors)

18. Khoury
19. Salem (Sydney Bulls)
20. Mansour (Sydney Bulls)
21. Daher

The good thing about the side you named is that they all seem to be young. Playing in the Jim Beam cup suggests these guys are talented enough. If half these guys can get a crack at first grade and go on to be successful, established players in the NRL then by the time a world cup does come around the Cedars are definately going to have a decent team on the international scene.

 

[yakstorm]

My apologises Mono, it was not an intentional miss. But I spose that is one of the strengths of a smaller World Cup is there is a greater number of 'strong' teams. Like perhaps even a combined Pacific side could be considered, plus Lebanon and say USA??

The main thing League needs to aim for, is to have the tournament, from there it can expand.

 

[Misanthrope]

First up, I've got to applaud you for suggesting the cricket WC format. It's been completely overlooked, and in my opinion, would be an excellent layout.

I'd suggest pools be as follows

A
Australia
Papua New Guinea
France
Wales
Lebanon
Qualifier- Fiji, Cook Islands, Japan etc. (Pacific)

B
New Zealand
England
Ireland
Samoa
Tonga
Qualifier- Ireland, USA, Russia etc. (Northern Hemisphere)

Then have those who don't qualify play in an Emerging Nations tournament, and use them as curtain raisers.

I'd be against merging the likes of Tonga, Fiji, Samoa etc. into one 'Pacific' side. It works for the UK because they are a united nation- but combining a lot of vastly different island nations would just isolate the team.

Chris

 

[knights 2004]

Another way to generate crowds would be to have Emerging Nations clashes as curtain raisers.

now where have i heard that idea before?
oh wait it was the idea that started the whole thread
hmmm.........

 

[In-goal]

There are so many variables we can look at how long? how many? how much?

We need a tournament that dosen't drag on for 2 months like the coma ball, i think 5 or 6 weeks absolute tops is right.

 

[Parra_Eels]

i think the best suggestion so far is splitting it into the sevens format with cup,bowl,plate and emerging nations. that would be tremendous.

 

[Misanthrope]

Another way to generate crowds would be to have Emerging Nations clashes as curtain raisers.

now where have i heard that idea before?
oh wait it was the idea that started the whole thread
hmmm.........

Mate, if you want to be pedantic- I made the suggestion about Emerging Nations playing curtain raisers two days before you in a separate thread.

http://www.leagueunlimited.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5290&start=0

I'm certain I'm not the first to come up with it- but I'm not going around claiming it as my own and snapping at anyone who brings it up. Did you ever think maybe I didn't read the four line thread opener?

Chris

 

[dimitri]

i think splitting it into subdivisions

cheapens the event

the best thing to do is to have the teams split into pools

not ridiculous plate/bowls divisions

 

[knights 2004]

chriswalkerwateva ur name is guy.
dont cry about it.
i wasnt snapping, i just thought it was funny to have a thread stating the non-new idea, then have another person underneath it saying, oh wait heres an idea

light hearted observation, dont cry

 

[In-goal]

The importance of the event must not be cheapened at any cost, I think there needs to be the main group and simply an under tournament for emerging nations.

I would like to see some of the emerging nations standup and look to host the event, much like the proposed South African event.

 

[***MH***]

i think a davis cup type championship will benefit international league a lot further rather than having one huge tournament at once,

having a tree, knock out style championship competing through the calendar year with the Grand Final at the end.
through the year, teams would play there way through the tree until they lose, leaving the two most consistent teams to battle it out at the end.

a tree like

Round 1
During April

Australia
v @ Sydney
Wales

Ireland
v @ Dublin
Lebanon

Italy
v @ Rome
France

England
v @ London
Papua New Gunni

Fiji
v @ Suva
New Zealand

Scotland
v @ Edinburgh
Russia

USA
v @ New York
Tonga

South Africa
v @ Cape Town
Western Samoa

Round 2
During June

Australia
v @ Beiruit
Lebanon

France
v @ Paris
England

New Zealand
v @ Auckland
Scotland

Tonga
v @Tonga
Western Samoa

Round 3
during August

Australia
v @ Brisbane
England

New Zealand
v @ Christchurch
Tonga

Final
during October

Australia
v @ Sydney
New Zealand

 

[Stevo_G]

they say the tri series finishes in 2006, 2008 is a clean slate of wc
what happens in 2007

gb never be split up they, full england never play