Pacific Championships 2024

[Clarkent]

Fk me that's a good team.

If Talagi does indeed play 6 for Penrith next year and goes well, he'd almost certainly be preferred over Asi, with Tago the logical replacement at centre. And agree with another post having Leniu on the bench and starting Su'a in the second row..

The middle rotation of Haas, Utoikamanu, Leniu and May/Hunt is just nuts, especially if Tino is also there.

The problem has always been the spine for island teams. But I feel like they're getting better every year. Samoa pretty much looking set with RTS,Talagi,Luai and CHT at hooker as there spine for the world cup. I don't think Faalogo will be better then RTS in 2 years. But he needs to be in a team that will play him for 80mins every week at fullback

 

[Perth Red]

Be good if we threw Lebanon in as an invitational side and had 4 Nations in the top tier of the Pacific Championships.

Cup: Aus, NZ, Tonga, Lebanon
Bowl: PNG, Fiji, Cook Is

Promotion and relegation between the divisions by having the last place cup v first place bowl playoff, instead of a bowl final.

Aus, NZ, Tonga and Samoa rotate touring England.When England come down under, they are the invitational side and two are relegated.

Y1: Aus, NZ, Samoa, Lebanon / Tonga v England and France

Y2: Aus, NZ, Tonga, Lebanon / Samoa v England and France

Y3: NZ, Tonga, Samoa, Lebanon / Aus v England and France

Y4: WC

Repeat but Y3 in the next cycle NZ goes to England instead of Aus.

When the WC rolls around you have had:

Aus playing 3/4 tests a year
NZ playing 3/4 tests a year
Eng playing 4 tests a year
Samoa playing 3/4 tests a year
Tonga playing 3/4 tests a year
Lebanon playing 3/4 tests a year
PNG playing 2/3 tests a year plus PMXIII
Fiji playing 2/3 tests a year
Cook Islands playing 2/3 tests a year
France playing 2 tests against top tier opponents (mid season v England and post season v the SH touring team), then two against European opponents like Wales, Ireland, Serbia etc.

That gives each of our world cup nations the ability to build a squad, combinations, team culture, style of play, continuity etc. All things that will allow our game to be taken more seriously on the world stage.

Games need to be competitive.
Should be:
Cup 4 of the following: Aus, NZ, Tonga, Samoa, PNG or England (depending on other tours)
Bowl 4 of the following Fiji, Cook Is, Lebanon, France, Jamaica, USA (depending on other tours)

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Games need to be competitive.
Should be:
Cup 4 of the following: Aus, NZ, Tonga, Samoa, PNG or England (depending on other tours)
Bowl 4 of the following Fiji, Cook Is, Lebanon, France, Jamaica, USA (depending on other tours)

Lebanon's record is reasonably competitive...

2017 WC
10-29 loss to England, hardly disgraceful
0-34 loss to Australia, hardly disgraceful
29-18 win against France
22-24 close loss to Tonga who almost made the final

2022 WC
12-34 loss to New Zealand, hardly disgraceful
32-14 win over Ireland
74-12 win over Jamaica, putting them to the sword as a good side should
4-48 loss to Australia, many, including NZ & Eng have suffered scorelines like this against the Kangaroos.

I'd say they are only slightly less than Samoa and Tonga have been recently and we may as well make the most of them while Mitch Moses is around, because once he retires they'll return to the pack like Ireland and Italy have once their top class heritage players moved on.

 

[League Unlimited News]

Fixtures finally official:

2024 Pacific Championships Draw Announced

The National Rugby League (NRL) has today announced the draw for the 2024 Pacific Championships to be played in four countries across four consecutive weekends in October and November.

www.nrl.com

 

[jim_57]

Good to see a promotion/relegation game, although that doesn’t explain what happens when Samoa comes back in 2025. Maybe planning 4 teams in the Cup which would be better.

 

[Wb1234]

Good to see a promotion/relegation game, although that doesn’t explain what happens when Samoa comes back in 2025. Maybe planning 4 teams in the Cup which would be better.

Tonga and Samoa have to be in the same group

Nz will probably tour England or even Australia so number of teams stays the same

 

[taste2taste]

Wowzers, good to see Fiji hosting games.

Let's hope the tickets are priced to sell out the stadium, the last thing we need is outrageous ticket prices and the stadium 75% empty.

Ticket pricing is important for the whole tournament, international footy at the end of the season is a hard sell...even Origin was a dud when played end of season.

 

[taste2taste]

Good to see a promotion/relegation game, although that doesn’t explain what happens when Samoa comes back in 2025. Maybe planning 4 teams in the Cup which would be better.

The promotion relegation as a good thing, it gives the bowl teams something to play for. But in reality we are many years away from a team getting promoted, Fiji and PNG are along way off beating a Pacfic Championship team.

 

[Perth Tiger]

I've always thought that we need to include the USA in the Bowl comp as regular entrants. If they were guaranteed games every year against quality opposition I am sure they would be able to start developing funding sources and attract a better quality of player. Could also use Hawaii to host games to make travel not to bad.

If we are going to continue with Vegas it makes sense to develop the USA national team further

 

[Coastbloke]

Good to see a promotion/relegation game, although that doesn’t explain what happens when Samoa comes back in 2025. Maybe planning 4 teams in the Cup which would be better.

Australia will be playing England in Australia

 

[Wb1234]

Australia will be playing England in Australia

Is that a seperate series or part of the pacific cup

 

[Bobby DIGital]

I feel the Kangaroos don't want to play Samoa or Tonga in Sydney, because they don't want their fans to be outnumbered in their own country like we were. They take those games to Qld instead.

 

[Wb1234]

I feel the Kangaroos don't want to play Samoa or Tonga in Sydney, because they don't want their fans to be outnumbered in their own country like we were. They take those games to Qld instead.

Roos v Tonga at mt smart would probs sell out

 

[undertaker]

Wish it were 4 teams in each competition (Pacific Cup, Pacific Bowl) instead of 3.

Kangaroos only playing 2 tests in the group stage is pathetic. The organisers don't care about test match football.

 

[jim_57]

The promotion relegation as a good thing, it gives the bowl teams something to play for. But in reality we are many years away from a team getting promoted, Fiji and PNG are along way off beating a Pacfic Championship team.

Wouldn’t say Fiji are that far off if they can get heritage buy in. PNG likewise but probably not as strong “on paper”.

Fiji have a Jersey Flegg team playing a full season against NRL club under 21s, give that a few years and should start to see even better results. Likewise the inevitable pathways PNG will need with an NRL team coming.

 

[jim_57]

Australia will be playing England in Australia

Yeh I’ve been tuned out, forgot about that. Be good if they could play both but won’t happen.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

The promotion relegation as a good thing, it gives the bowl teams something to play for. But in reality we are many years away from a team getting promoted, Fiji and PNG are along way off beating a Pacfic Championship team.

I don't know about that, they are definitely the next tier down but their record isn't too bad considering the win ratio of Samoa and Tonga against the big three also:

Tonga
- win v Australia in 2019
- win v Great Britain in 2018
- win v NZ in 2018

Samoa
- win v England in 2022

Fiji
- win v New Zealand in 2017

PNG
- win v Great Britain in 2018

Fiji have a record against Tonga of 5 wins, 7 losses and a draw and a record against Samoa of 8 wins and 4 losses. Fiji are the only team other than Australia, New Zealand, England to make the World Cup Semi Final three times. They really perform well at international level.

PNG are 0-2 against Samoa and have beaten Tonga 7 times to 1 with one draw.

Fiji and PNG are only going to get stronger now with the Hunters (and potentially NRL team), plus the Silktails and regular internationals. It wasn't that long ago that Samoa and Tonga were talked about in the same way and the current Samoan squad are looking like they could be a real title threat at the 2026 World Cup.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Good to see a promotion/relegation game, although that doesn’t explain what happens when Samoa comes back in 2025. Maybe planning 4 teams in the Cup which would be better.

Australia are playing England next year so the Pacific Cup will be NZ, Samoa, Tonga

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Is that a seperate series or part of the pacific cup

Ashes, so it will be separate.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

I feel the Kangaroos don't want to play Samoa or Tonga in Sydney, because they don't want their fans to be outnumbered in their own country like we were. They take those games to Qld instead.

They might be shocked then because Ipswich and Logans have plenty of Polynesians