RLIF: Pacific to host Oceanic Cup matches 2022 onwards (played in Aus next year) + much more!

[Burns]

https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/06/19...future-tests-in-new-10-year-rolling-calendar/

"Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea are set to host future Oceania Cup matches as part of a rolling 10-year international calendar, while the tournament is likely to move to Australia next season.

RLIF CEO Nigel Wood confirmed on the eve of Saturday’s opening round of Oceania Cup matches between New Zealand and Tonga at Mt Smart Stadium and Samoa and Papua New Guinea at Leichhardt Oval that the international body wanted to play games in the Pacific islands."
...
It is expected that end-of-season matches in next year’s tournament will shift to Australia and possibly Papua New Guinea, which hosted 2017 World Cup fixtures, although Wood pointed out the Kangaroos will be touring Britain and won’t play in the 2020 Oceania Cup.
...
Wood said the details were now being worked on and an announcement would be made later in the year.

Much more at the article, including:

• NRL Trial match to be announced for preseason as part of Australian government engagement in Pacific region;
• 10 year calendar agreed to at recent Singapore meeting
• Cook Islands likely to join Pool B for 2020 Oceanic Cup
• RLIF want to have 8 teams capable of winning the 2021 RLWC

While this is all good news, one thing jumps out. Why would the 2020 Oceanic Cup be played in Australia? Does that infer that NZ v [Fiji, Samoa, PNG] would be played in Australia? (Assuming that Tonga v NZ will be in NZ forever). Matches for 2020 being played in PNG would be great.

 

[roughyedspud]

Does Nigel & the RLIF only look after the pacific now?

 

[Burns]

Does Nigel & the RLIF only look after the pacific now?

Well, lets name the 8 teams they imagine that can win the RLWC:

Australia, New Zealand, England, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa ... PNG and um, France?

 

[adamkungl]

So next years Oceania Cup will be
(lets assume Samoa wins pool B this year for arguments sake)

A:
NZ
Tonga
Samoa

B:
Fiji
PNG
Cook Isl

It's a pity Australia won't be entering, considering we're capable of putting out a very high quality 2nd string side.
It really doesn't make sense to play the tournament in Aus if Aus won't be in it.

Will there be a C-level? They mentioned that they want to cater for all member nations.
Vanuatu, Niue, Philippines would all love a crack at an official RLIF tournament.

The "Oceania Cup" name excludes Asia which is allegedly half of the federation, which is concerning.
Maybe they will develop a separate Asian Cup due to the disparity between the regions.

I really hope this can develop enough each iteration to move towards:
> 4 nations each group instead of 3
> Australia and NZ participating with 2nd string teams even in tour years
> C level Pacific and Asian regional cups, which promote into the B level, similar to Europes qualifiers this year.
> We can break out of the necessity of playing every game in Aus or NZ (or PNG) and have nations actually host their test matches.

Also, sod off playing it every year. We need that 2nd year in the cycle for the Continental Cup! Otherwise we'll never see cross hemisphere games except in WC years or rare tours.

 

[siv]

Let the Bowl be between Vanuatu and the Solomon Is

Let the Phillipines - Thailand - Hong Kong - Japan play for the Asia Cup

 

[Perth Tiger]

I don't like the 3 team groups, would much rather 4 teams each group so every team is playing each week.

Also call it a Pacific cup and invite Canada and USA. We need bigger markets if this is going to have any chance of long term success.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

I don't like the 3 team groups, would much rather 4 teams each group so every team is playing each week.

Also call it a Pacific cup and invite Canada and USA. We need bigger markets if this is going to have any chance of long term success.

Better to start small. It makes it easier to focus on the relationships/rivalries between the nations.

Then hopefully that flows through to the WC.

 

[Pommy]

I don't like the 3 team groups, would much rather 4 teams each group so every team is playing each week.

Also call it a Pacific cup and invite Canada and USA. We need bigger markets if this is going to have any chance of long term success.

Realistically it doesn’t make much sense having US and Canada playing with the ‘pacific’ sides when all their domestic competition is looking to be Europe centric.

 

[siv]

Better to start small. It makes it easier to focus on the relationships/rivalries between the nations.

Then hopefully that flows through to the WC.

Pacific Cup has operated with 5 nations for many years

PNG, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cooks

Niue has improved and NZ has dropped

But Solomons and Vanuatu are 2 to 3 levels below

The issue is bringing Australia into the group

 

[adamkungl]

A future proof structure for the bi-annual regional tournaments:

Mostly based on the existing European and Oceania Cups but fleshed out fully.
This is something for the game to aim for in coming years.

PACIFIC + AFRICA + ASIA are grouped together (PAA).

EUROPE + NORTH AMERICA + SOUTH AMERICA are grouped together (ENS).

Give them some prestigious sounding names...

Bi-annual tournaments are played at A, B, and C levels, with P&R between each.

C tournaments are continent or regional based, with 2-6 nations per group.
A and B are high level cross-continental, strictly limited to 4 Nations format, to ensure competitive intensity and financial feasibility.
Every nation must enter to hold their ranking, which means in tour years Australia, NZ and England must still enter a second-string team if necessary.

PAA:

C level
Asian Cup (C): Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, Thailand
African Cup (C): Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon
Pacific Cup (C): Niue, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands
+ 3 Winners play off for promotion into B.

PAA Cup B:
Samoa, PNG, Lebanon, Cook Islands
+ winner is promoted to A.
- loser is demoted to their C regional.

PAA Championship A:
Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji
- loser is demoted to B.

ENS:

C level
Sudamericana Cup (C): Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia
American Cup (C): Canada, Mexico
European Cup South (C): Spain, Greece, Malta, Hungary, Turkey, Albania
European Cup East (C): Czechia, Latvia, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Bosnia
European Cup North (C): Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Russia
+ 5 Winners play off in some knock-out format for promotion into B.

ENS Cup B:
Ireland, Scotland, Italy, USA
+ winner is promoted to A.
- loser is demoted to their C regional.

ENS Championship A:
England, France, Wales, Jamaica
- loser is demoted to B.

 

[Perth Tiger]

Realistically it doesn’t make much sense having US and Canada playing with the ‘pacific’ sides when all their domestic competition is looking to be Europe centric.

Yeah fair point. But for a 3 week comp I reckon they could manage.

Reality is, you know the Aus public will get tired of the tournament as soon as Aus start putting up big scores on the islands so unless the tournament can find other markets to bring in enough money to sustain it, the NRL will give up on it and we will be back to square one as is common in RL.

 

[Pommy]

Yeah fair point. But for a 3 week comp I reckon they could manage.

Reality is, you know the Aus public will get tired of the tournament as soon as Aus start putting up big scores on the islands so unless the tournament can find other markets to bring in enough money to sustain it, the NRL will give up on it and we will be back to square one as is common in RL.

If Canada and US are going to bring big bucks perhaps it’s better if they play in the NH comp as there’s only England who can bring any money at all as it stands. The pacific aren’t short of good teams.

 

[Perth Tiger]

If Canada and US are going to bring big bucks perhaps it’s better if they play in the NH comp as there’s only England who can bring any money at all as it stands. The pacific aren’t short of good teams.

Just to clarify, I don't think they will bring in the big bucks right away, but they could develop into being a net provided to comps like this with a bit of time, through either additional TV rights or attendance and hosting. It would probably need about 10 years of constant support but that is a relatively short time that could be sustained with the help of Aus funding. England may find it a bit harder to provide the funding assistance needed. You only need to look at the start of Origin when everyone wrote it off to see things like this need time to develop.

In an ideal world you could split them or they could do both. Doesn't really bother me either way but they should both be included into some regular annual competition so if the Euro's could get the the level of the proposed Pacific Cup then all good.

I still think that these pacific cups need to find some way to generate revenue outside of Aus or they wont last. NZ has shown that it is hard to generate profits from internationals there and the TV rights are already bundled into the NRL rights so unless they are separated out I cant see any other avenues for growth.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, PNG, Cook Islands

There will be some tasty rivalries built up here over the next decade with the new structure and those teams getting to play each other regularly. Imagine the world cup clashes after them eyeballing each other in the Oceania Cup in the preceeding years. This is going to be so good for the game!

New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands - considering the majority of the players for these teams grew up in NZ this is Origin like in terms of rivalry, passion, colour, fans etc. Love it!

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

A future proof structure for the bi-annual regional tournaments:

Mostly based on the existing European and Oceania Cups but fleshed out fully.
This is something for the game to aim for in coming years.

PACIFIC + AFRICA + ASIA are grouped together (PAA).

EUROPE + NORTH AMERICA + SOUTH AMERICA are grouped together (ENS).

Give them some prestigious sounding names...

I like it, but one change....

Pacific + Asia + SOUTH AMERICA

Europe + North America + AFRICA

Just a guess, but there would probably be way more African heritage players in Europe than Australia

 

[adamkungl]

I like it, but one change....

Pacific + Asia + SOUTH AMERICA

Europe + North America + AFRICA

Just a guess, but there would probably be way more African heritage players in Europe than Australia

I originally thought that but splitting the Americas seemed odd.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I still think that these pacific cups need to find some way to generate revenue outside of Aus

*Anus

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Off-season bump....

Rather than adding the USA, What about bringing in a Hawaiian team to the Oceanic cup.

I know they are not strickly a country in their own right, but it could be great to get some RL interest in another close Pacific neighbor and it might be a backdoor to interest in the US.

I guess there arent many dedicated RL players in Hawaii, but with the promise of internationals every year, we might snag a few Union and AF players