WC 2013 Format

[babyg]

Hollywood Jesus' format is a winner

14 teams. Two mini "Super Pools" with 4 teams (2 from Aust, NZ, Eng and PNG into each SP) and two "Minnow Pools" with 3 teams.

SP1 - Aust, Eng+ 2 minnows (USA, Scotland)
SP2 - NZ, PNG+ 2 minnows (Lebanon, Fiji)
MP1 - Samoa, Tonga, Wales
MP2 - Russia, Ireland, France

Winner of each SP goes straight through to Semis, 2nd place in each SP play winner of a MP in Quarters. Winners of Quarters go through to meet winners of SP in Semis.

 

[babyg]

or you could go 16 teams, 4 groups each with 2 top eight sides heading them up. in order of seedings so the big four still get grouped close.

Group1 Aus (Top seed), Eng (2nd) + 2 minnows
Group2 NZ (3rd Sead), Fiji (4th) + 2 minnows
Group3 PNG (5th), Ireland (6th) + 2 minnows
Group4 Tonga (7th), Scotland (8th) + 2 minnows

France and Samoa are minnows cause they blow it. Add in the rest.

 

[roopy]

Talking about who is stronger, Cook Islands or Russia, doesn't take into account how we can and must affect that equation before the next WC.
We have dollars to spend on development, and those dollars would be best spent on making the game stronger in wealthy markets.

 

[brendothejet]

USA are improving so you might be right about them, but Russia? They're appallingly low standard yet you wouldn't know it the way they're talked up. Fiji put less points on the Cook Islands than they did on France

Yeah and the fijian side that beat the cook islands was made up of A grade footballers. It wasn't a patch on the side they put out in the WC finals.

The Cook Islands are nothing.

Bowes, i'm not going into the Russian fettish that seems to have taken over TFC, but having watched the Russian side play they are better than the cooks, easily.

At any rate, the Cook Islands didn't win a game in Qualifying, had over 130 points put on them by sides comprising mostly park footballers and managed to score just 24. Russia had wins, albeit over Serbia and Holland but managed to score more points, against better opposition in Ireland and Lebanon.

Russia v Cooks: An easier win for the Comrades I'm sorry.

 

[roughyedspud]

3 groups of 4

top 2 teams in the rlif rankings are put in pool A from which 2 teams will advance to the semi's..

the 2 teams that finish top of pool's B & C also advance to the semi's

i'd keep the ranking games but i don't know what the rush was to get the ranking games over and done with so fast? why the short turn around? it only resulted in blow outs..

 

[roughyedspud]

Yeah and the fijian side that beat the cook islands was made up of A grade footballers. It wasn't a patch on the side they put out in the WC finals.

The Cook Islands are nothing.

Bowes, i'm not going into the Russian fettish that seems to have taken over TFC, but having watched the Russian side play they are better than the cooks, easily.

At any rate, the Cook Islands didn't win a game in Qualifying, had over 130 points put on them by sides comprising mostly park footballers and managed to score just 24. Russia had wins, albeit over Serbia and Holland but managed to score more points, against better opposition in Ireland and Lebanon.

Russia v Cooks: An easier win for the Comrades I'm sorry.

c'mon lay off the cooks, they play can important role in developing other nation imo

 

[IanG]

Does anybody remember the format they had back in 1995: 10 teams
Group 1 had 4 teams Australia, England, South Africa and Fiji.
Groups 2 and 3 had 3 teams each

Group 2 New Zealand, Tonga and PNG

Group 3 France, Wales and Western Samoa

Top 2 from Group 1 with the winners of Groups 2 and 3 went into the Semi Finals

I still prefered the format used back in 2000 where it was 16 teams, 4 groups of 4 and the top 2 from each Group went into the Quarter Finals and it was Knock out from there. It was a simpler format. Yeah you might've had a few blow out scorelines and one sided matches but you get that in World Cups in any sport.

 

[Hollywood Jesus]

You don't have to get that in any WC.

We have 14 teams that are some chance of being decently developed over the next 5 years. Use them. Don't cut any out or we lose markets. Don't bring any extras in for the hell of it (or for a simpler format) or we lose credibility via too many one-sided games (and we don't have bucketloads of credibility atm).

Also, unfortunately we have to rig the draw so that we get as many even and interesting games as we can. Minnows like Russia will be good novelty value, but we all know the sides that people want to see and they need to play each other. Over the next few years we can build other sides to join the current 3 (Aus, NZ, Eng) that hold interest, but we need Super-ish Pools (let's face it, one big reason is for TV contracts).

We need to face the cold, hard reality of what the next WC needs and not what you and I want in a fantasy land of idealistic rugby league.

 

[brendothejet]

c'mon lay off the cooks, they play can important role in developing other nation imo

I know the Cooks are doing the best and I'm not meaning to have a go at them, but for Bowes to say they are better than Russia, its just rubbish really.

I've said it before, in the INternational section we have a tendancy of taking a good thing and exploding. People talked up the 3 nations into a 4 nations. Then Samoa and Tonga had a good game so it became a 5,6 and then all these other amazing cross continental tournament ideas.

We seem to all hit the accelerator in here too easily.

Having said that, for the WC13 I'd like to see 22 teams, 3 groups of 6, one group of 2, 2 groups of 1.

Group 1:

Fiji
Ireland
Samoa
Russia
Serbia
Lebanon

Group 2:

Wales
Scotland
Tonga
Papua New Guinea
Holland
Italy

Group 3:

Malta
Greece
Cook Islands
Solomon Islands
USA
Japan

Group 4:

France
New Zealand

Group 5:

Australia

Group 6:

England

All teams in group 1,2 and 3 play each other once with the top 3 from each forming a super 9 stage.

The teams in group 5 and 6 proceed to the quarter final following their games against the teams in group 4.

Teams in group four play each other once and each team from group 5 and 6 once with the top team to play last place in the super nine pool for a spot in the sub quarter-qualifier. Second place in group 4 plays the highest ranked team in the super nine pool for a spot in the quarter final where they will meet the winner of the sub-quarter-qualifying final.

Teams ranked 2-8 in the Super nine will play each other with the top four progressing to the quarter finals, whilst the teams ranked 5th and 6th will play the sub quarter qualifying final.

From the the sub-quarter-qualifier will carry into the quarters, leading to the semis and final, where upon after this the victors will be crowned champions of the world!

so, it should look something like this:

Super NIne Pool:

1.Fiji
2 Papua New Guinea
3 Ireland
4 Scotland
5 Wales
6 Samoa
7 Tonga
8 USA
9 Russia

Group 4:
1.New Zealand vs Russia (to progress to sub-quarter-qualifier)
2. France vs Fiji (to play in quarter final vs winner of Sub-quarter qualifier)

Group 5:

Australia - to quarter final vs 4th ranked super nine qualifier after super nine playoff (wales)

Group 6:

England - to quarter final v 3rd ranked super nine qualifier after super nine playoff (scotland)

Super nine playoff

5th v 6th (samoa tonga) play off to play NZ in sub quarter Qualifier

NZ v Samoa in Sub-Quarter Qualifier

So, the quarter finals should look like this:

Australia v Wales
England v Scotland
PNG v IReland in Quarter
Nz v France


After that it is anyones guess who wins the thing...


That my friends would be the ultimate RLWC13.

 

[kiwileaguefan]

Mate the Cook Islands are rubbish. I've seen them play and in the WC qualifiers they had 50 put on them by everyone. Now if Samoa at full strength can only get past the USA by around 14, you'd think that the USA would towel them. Russia could pick them apart too.

They have barely any players and are a long long long way behind in the Pacfic.`

Samoa and Tonga had nearly all NRL players in their squads during the RLWC Qualifiers in 06.

I saw Cook Islands (with a domestic players) beat Tonga and Fiji in the Pacific Cup in 2004.

Cook Islands would thrash USA and probaly beat Russia IMO, if they call on all their NZ and Australian based stars.

 

[brendothejet]

Samoa and Tonga had nearly all NRL players in their squads during the RLWC Qualifiers in 06.

I saw Cook Islands (with a domestic players) beat Tonga and Fiji in the Pacific Cup in 2004.

Cook Islands would thrash USA and probaly beat Russia IMO, if they call on all their NZ and Australian based stars.

Again i point to the fact that a full strength NRL/ESl Samoa didn't really do too much damage to the USA side that played them in the repecharge.

Im not trying to pick on them, but lets face it they are probably last in the Pacific in terms of juniors, development and the ability to call on NRLers...

 

[bowes]

Im not trying to pick on them, but lets face it they are probably last in the Pacific in terms of juniors, development and the ability to call on NRLers...

Of course they're last in Pacific but last in Pacific is still better than Russia, who are rubbish and not only haven't expanded they've gone backwards due to poor management

Though it's quite simple none of Russia, USA or the Cook Islands are good enough for a 12 team world cup but they're all good enough for a 16 team world cup, and anyone who would include Malta over Cook Islands in a 16 team world cup, despite it also being small, not playing in European international tournaments and not having a regular domestic comp, is crazy

 

[marv]

Samoa and Tonga had nearly all NRL players in their squads during the RLWC Qualifiers in 06.

Did they hell as like, there was a hell of a lot of 2nd graders in those two sides when they came to leeds in '06. Mateo hadnt even played 1st grade IIRC.

 

[bowes]

Russia had wins, albeit over Serbia and Holland but managed to score more points, against better opposition in Ireland and Lebanon.

Ireland had none of their Aussies then they were far weaker

 

[Evil Homer]

Ireland had none of their Aussies then they were far weaker

You mean their two Aussies, Richards and Tandy?

Back on topic, this was a suggested format in Rugby League World:

4 pools of 4, seeded so that Pool One and Pool Two had the top 8 teams and Pools Three and Four had the bottom eight teams in. 3 teams from Pools One and Two go through to quarter finals along with the winners of Pool Three and Pool Four.

Example:

Pool One - three to qualify:
Australia (ranked 1)
England (ranked 3)
PNG (ranked 5)
Samoa (ranked 7)

Pool Two - three to qualify:
New Zealand (ranked 3)
Fiji (ranked 4)
Ireland (ranked 6)
France (ranked 8)

Pool Three - one to qualify:
Scotland
Tonga
Cook Islands
South Africa

Pool Four - one to qualify:
Lebanon
Wales
Russia
USA

 

[Hollywood Jesus]

Where do those rankings come from? They look very different from what is going to come out of this WC.

IF we were going to have 16 teams, I wouldn't be too unhappy with this format. I would, however, run the pools differently.

Like I've already said, if Trump is serious then I think it would be a masterstroke to play one lot of pool games in the USA, underwritten by him. If this was done, it would be smart to rig those two remaining pools so that they offered the most attractiveness (or least unattractiveness) for each region.

Just re-jigging those last two pools based on rankings, you'd swap Scotland and France, and Tonga and Samoa. Then I'd make a "Euro" pool and a "USA" pool.

"Euro": France, Wales, Lebanon, Cook Islands
"USA": USA, Russia, South Africa, Samoa

With France, Wales and Lebanon in the Euro pool you'd get a greater chance of people going to see those teams play because they're 'local'. With Russia and Samoa in the USA pool you'd provide greater interest for the Yanks (Russia is obvious and there is a latent Islander population in the USA ready to be exploited).

 

[Evil Homer]

To be honest, I made them up.

I think if we're going to play any games in the USA, we might as well stage the whole thing there. Playing games across two different continents would mean credibility would be massively reduced and it would also reduce the marketability of the event.

 

[brendothejet]

Of course they're last in Pacific but last in Pacific is still better than Russia, who are rubbish and not only haven't expanded they've gone backwards due to poor management

Though it's quite simple none of Russia, USA or the Cook Islands are good enough for a 12 team world cup but they're all good enough for a 16 team world cup, and anyone who would include Malta over Cook Islands in a 16 team world cup, despite it also being small, not playing in European international tournaments and not having a regular domestic comp, is crazy

I agree about your point re Malta.

As i said, people on here just pull pie in the sky ideas and throw them up as bible.

BOwes I severely hope one day soon we both get to find out just who is better between Russia and the Cook Islands when they play each other... *Sigh*

 

[Pass the Ball]

What has happened to South African Rugby League??

 

[roughyedspud]

it alive and well thank you very much...

http://www.sarugbyleague.co.za/