Qualifying Pools - Apparently comfirmed

[donny donny]

Confirmed*

Confirmed News: 2013 RLWC qualifiers begin late 2011. Pool A - Italia, Lebanon Russia & Serbia. Pool B - USA, Jamaica, Japan, South Africa. It is a 14 team RLWC.

Automatic teams are: Aus, NZ, Eng, PNG, France, Wales, Fiji, Scotland, Ireland, Samoa, Tonga & Cook Islands.

The above was posted on the International board by "CQ Italia" who is involved with Italy Rugby League.

If true I'll be hoping Lebanon and USA make it.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

I agree, Lebanon and the USA look to be the strongest out of all the teams, don't know much about South Africa though, they could give the USA a good run.

 

[Mr_Ugly]

Confirmed News: 2013 RLWC qualifiers begin late 2011. Pool A - Italia, Lebanon Russia & Serbia. Pool B - USA, Jamaica, Japan, South Africa. It is a 14 team RLWC.

Automatic teams are: Aus, NZ, Eng, PNG, France, Wales, Fiji, Scotland, Ireland, Samoa, Tonga & Cook Islands.

What is the basis for Wales and the Cooks automatically qualifying I wonder?

 

[Mullins_y2k]

Cooks won qualification for the Pac Cup beating samoa or was it tonga..and didn't wales win the european ball or something like that?
I like the look of these pools, I hope it's true!

P.S those qualifiers better be televised!

 

[adamkungl]

What is the basis for Wales and the Cooks automatically qualifying I wonder?

Wales have an ESL side, Cook Isl made the PI Cup final?

 

[thommo4pm]

I'd like Serbia and Lebanon to get there. Maybe the US also.
I know only 2 teams can go through though.
Do we know how these qualifiers will work?
Winner of each pool advances?
Hope that's not the case, as Pool A looks a lot stronger than Pool B.

 

[westie]

If it goes like that, the Atlantic pool will pretty much just be set up to get the Yanks through.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

We could see USA make the World Cup for the first time, after 4 attempts.

I dont know how South Africa and Russia have been since the 2000 World Cup, whether theyve improved or not.

 

[Kurt Angle]

I'd like to know the basis for Ireland automatically qualifying, Wales I can understand.

 

[RedVee]

I'd like to know the basis for Ireland automatically qualifying, Wales I can understand.

Making the previous WC.

 

[deluded pom?]

We could see USA make the World Cup for the first time, after 4 attempts.

Four attempts? They never had any intenton of playing in the 1995 WC proper, failed to qualify in 2000 and 2008. Third time lucky Parra ;-)
By the way I've still to see these qualifying groups confirmed anywhere.

 

[bowes]

I like the look of these pools, I hope it's true!

I like the look of the Atlantic Pool, but the European pool is a disgrace. When we have pre-existing tournaments they should be used as pre-qualifiers, if say Ukraine beat Russia this year (as is entirely possible) then Ukraine will be told to f*ck off and Russia will get invited to the qualifiers despite being worse. A good way to tell countries they're not welcome in our sport and that they should be playing RU, unless a change is made

 

[nadera78]

I don't believe any of this. We had weeks of rumours regarding this years European comps and all of them turned out to be false.

So, if you don't mind, I'll wait for an official announcement on these.

 

[YANTO]

From a decent and competative 2008 qualifying pool,europe has now got nothing more than "pub" teams playing for fun.
Whose fault is this??
Lack of funding,lack of development or the lack of faith in rugby league making inroads from the RLEF/RLIF??

To all you guys down under Serbia,Italy,Germany,Czech Republic,Holland,Estonia,Ukraine,Latvia,Lebanon etc etc would be out of place in CRL group seven.

Big raps to the guys (like myself) who try their hardest to give the game some credability but things are just not happening and in my opinion the game has gone backwards in the last four years in europe.

 

[hutch]

From a decent and competative 2008 qualifying pool,europe has now got nothing more than "pub" teams playing for fun.
Whose fault is this??
Lack of funding,lack of development or the lack of faith in rugby league making inroads from the RLEF/RLIF??

To all you guys down under Serbia,Italy,Germany,Czech Republic,Holland,Estonia,Ukraine,Latvia,Lebanon etc etc would be out of place in CRL group seven.

Big raps to the guys (like myself) who try their hardest to give the game some credability but things are just not happening and in my opinion the game has gone backwards in the last four years in europe.

thats sad to hear, if it wasnt for people like yourself our game would certainly struggle to keep growing around the world. it is so frustrating that the people who run the international side of things are holding the game back so much. keep at it mate, we will get there one day hopefully.

 

[Misanthrope]

I read in other places that qualification would involve twenty teams, but above I see only eight teams. Am I missing something? Or are there just conflicting reports?

EDIT: Oh, wait. Twelve teams automatically qualifying probably constitutes 'twenty teams involved in qualifying' under RLIF rules.

 

[bowes]

http://www.google.com/translate?u=http://www.rrlf.ru/&hl=ru&ie=UTF8&sl=ru&tl=en

First round of qualifying games in Europe listed. Teams to play each other twice, once in 2011 and once in 2012 for the qualifying spot

 

[Evil Homer]

Good news that at least one of those nations will qualify. A shame they don't all have a fair chance.

 

[DINGb@T]

I thought you needed a four team domestic competition to be able to participate in the WC. How do Japan qualify?

 

[bowes]

Apparently Japan aren't in now for that reason was mentioned on another thread so just 3 in Atlantic