Release of International Calendar..

[Coastbloke]

Well - Here it is. Right through to 2030. Thoughts most welcome..

Ashes, Kangaroo, Kiwi tours revived in new International Calendar

International Rugby League maps out future to 2030

www.nrl.com

 

[siv]

Looks good

Hope it become reality

 

[Clarkent]

Any matches for the island teams? All I see is confirmed games for mostly England

 

[TDD91]

10 team world cup is ridiculous IMO, especially with 8 qualifiers already in. 16 worked nicely, even though it gave some one sided games because it gave hope to smaller nations. 10 teams won't have the likes of Jamaica or Greece in their first major tournaments and shuts out developing nations like Serbia, Canada & Nigeria.

 

[Coastbloke]

Great to hear that a Calendar is set. The fact that Vlandys has ‘approved’ it is a plus lol

I was ok (after a while) with scrapping 2025 RLWC to have a fully organised 2029 RLWC with no less than 14 teams..

Tours are great. No problems there. Tri and Four Nations in both hemispheres is good.,

What I don’t like is absolutely (it seems) no mid season activity. Another example of bully boy ARLC pressure..

Still nothing on 2023 Southern Hemisphere

 

[Coastbloke]

Any matches for the island teams? All I see is confirmed games for mostly England

In another article about a fortnight ago, apparently PNG will host a Tri Nations with Fiji and Cooks in 2023. Nothing official yet

 

[Perth Tiger]

Well it is better than nothing but pretty underwhelming. Can’t see how this will benefit anyone but the big three and maybe Tonga and Samoa.

unless they put some real effort into the regional championships, but unfortunately I doubt they will

 

[Last Week]

Somewhat concerning is that only full member nations will be eligible for the world cup, and there's only 18 full members.

With 8 of them already qualifying that means that any other qualifying, that means the other 2 spots will be two of Jamaica, South Africa, Cook Islands, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Ukraine and Wales.

It's pretty clear that of those nations, Jamaica, South Africa, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine will not be getting passed the rest.

It also means the likes of Greece and the USA aren't able to play. Funny considering if this happened two world cups ago, the USA would automatically qualify, but now they aren't eligible to qualify.

 

[Last Week]

2023 - England vs Tonga x3
2024 -?
2025 - 'Ashes' Tour. England vs Australia x3
2026 - Men's and women's World Cups
2027 - NZ tour England
2028 - Women's World Cup. Australia tour England
2029 - ?
2030 - Men's World Cup

That's really all we've been told. This year looks like we might get Australia vs NZ vs Samoa if we're lucky, but the way the players are carrying on I won't be holding my breath.

This is a half arsed 'calendar.' Apart from world cup years, it's just two nations confirmed to be playing matches in any year.

 

[siv]

Somewhat concerning is that only full member nations will be eligible for the world cup, and there's only 18 full members.

With 8 of them already qualifying that means that any other qualifying, that means the other 2 spots will be two of Jamaica, South Africa, Cook Islands, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Ukraine and Wales.

It's pretty clear that of those nations, Jamaica, South Africa, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine will not be getting passed the rest.

It also means the likes of Greece and the USA aren't able to play. Funny considering if this happened two world cups ago, the USA would automatically qualify, but now they aren't eligible to qualify.

Agree when they chopped it back to 10 teams

Means only 2 extra plus the 8

How they get to 2 will be at least interesting

What was the structure before?

Think it was 1 super pool of 4 and 2 pools of 3

Where #4 team in super pool couldnt play in the final 4

 

[parrawentyfan]

I have to say I am glad that they are at least thinking about international RL (which is a sad state for an international RL federation).

It is great they have come up with a long term calendar that reflects many of our ideas. Big win for them and well done.

Negative - reducing WCup to 10 teams is so counter intuitive. Best way to kill off emerging nations.

I also don't understand why Singapore aside from junket purposes. Don't go there unless there is some meaningful local interaction. I would like to see RLIF/NRL/RFL do a trial of picking one Asian market and flooding it with media - paying for local sports channel coverage etc. Pick somewhere cheap and give it a try. Doesn't even need to be a whole country - just a province. To see if something is nurtured.

 

[Llangennech]

I have to say I am glad that they are at least thinking about international RL (which is a sad state for an international RL federation).

It is great they have come up with a long term calendar that reflects many of our ideas. Big win for them and well done.

Negative - reducing WCup to 10 teams is so counter intuitive. Best way to kill off emerging nations.

I also don't understand why Singapore aside from junket purposes. Don't go there unless there is some meaningful local interaction. I would like to see RLIF/NRL/RFL do a trial of picking one Asian market and flooding it with media - paying for local sports channel coverage etc. Pick somewhere cheap and give it a try. Doesn't even need to be a whole country - just a province. To see if something is nurtured.

what? ffs. can we get more ppl watching and playing in England, NZ and Victoria first please. If nations don't want to play RL then that's their problem. This sounds okay, this announcement. WC in even years, yeah I prefer that. Hopefully there will be a Tri-Nations up here in 2024 involving NZ and Australia.

 

[Iamback]

The International game needs to make money, No issue with 10 teams in that case

 

[RedVee_8]

So they decided to not take the Mid East money. I guess they were afraid the crowds would be disappointing.
I’m Disappointed that they cut it to 10 teams.

But maybe I get to go to the UK and see a game over there

 

[The Great Dane]

When was the last time one of these calendars actually panned out?

Seems like they announce them to get the poms to stop whinging, then ignore them lol.

 

[jim_57]

It’s pretty bare bones but something to build around at least. Hopefully these regional tournaments aren’t too half baked and there is some opportunity for tier 2s that aren’t Samoa or Tonga to play some bigger games.

 

[siv]

4th team in the super pool was the big issue in the old format, basically meant the 4th or 5th best team couldnt play finals

Plus 8 out of 10 quarter finals means the pool games mean very little

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Yawn, get rid of the Ashes and Kiwi tours and bring back the 4 Nations... in fact make it a 6 nations... Aus, NZ, Eng, Tonga, Samoa, France.

Under that play regional tournaments each year.

 

[Perth Red]

Well at least they got the ARLC to meet, thats something! Dont agree with a 10 team WC, dont agree with splitting the WC's. the media profile works best when at same time imo. Byummer about World 9's, thats a great pre season tournament opportunity.

Rest is very light on in any detail. Good to see touring coming back but as said these calendars have been agreed on before and rarley see out their duration.

So looks like we have:

2023
Eng v Tonga 3 match series
Aus,NZ&Samoa tri series
PNG,Fiji, Cook Is tri series

2024 ?
2025 ?
2026
Mens Womens and Wheelchair RLWC
2027?
2028 Womens RLWC, Mens?
2029?
2030 Mens RLWC

Still a lot of unknowns. Likely ARLC will continue wanting to runt he tri nations series in 2024 and 2025 I suspect but maybe bring Eng into it. Not sure where any of this leaves France, Lebanon etc

 

[Coastbloke]

I think 2024 is Samoa to England and a Pacific Championship the same as '23 but Tonga taking Samoa's place
2025 is either a Kangaroo tour to England and France or Lions/England tour to Australasia.
2026 is a WC
2027 is another Kangaroo's/England/Lions tour..