Who will the top 10 be?

[bender]

There is a lot of talk about RL World cup and scoffing at the credentials of various teams, by some people. But i got to thinking, who will the top 10 teams be. We dont know the qualifying system so we will have to assume that the 10 best teams make it. We do know the eligibility rules, like them or hate them, one nation for life is out, Grandparents and residence rule is in etc. So, if we assume no automatic qualifyers, who does everyone think will make it. Realistically there would have to be about 14 or 15 teams who fancy their chances of qualifying.

I see the following 10 teams qualifying:
Australia, New Zealand, England - No explanation Needed.
Samoa, Tonga - Both can put strong teams on the paddock and with many kiwis playing overseas and presumably being left out of Kiwi contention in most cases - they should actually be stronger than last time. Vagana, Lautiti, Talau etc could all be available.
Wales and Ireland - Both have a decent record and I am sure they will find a new batch of ancestor players scattered through out England and Australia. I think they will both make it.

That leaves three teams left. I am fairly certain that Lebanon will make it as they have a good international record and solid team.

With 2 spots to go, Italy have a surprisingly good team probably lead by Luke Davico and I think that they will surprise and win their way through. I am fairly certain they would be a better side than PNG.

This for me leaves the final spot which would be fought between PNG, France, Russia, USA, Fiji, West Indies, South Africa, Scotland, Greece, Malta and possibly Cook Islands who have some decent recent results. Of a that bunch, I would expect France on the back of their recent showings to win the spot.

 

[thommo4pm]

PNG & France would both hammer Italy, regardless of whether they had Davico or not.
Top 10 in my opinion:
Australia
NZ
England
France
PNG
Wales
Lebanon
Ireland
Tonga
Fiji

These sides are in no particular order just the teams that I think would be in the top 10.

 

[carlnz]

My top 10:

Aus
NZ
Eng
France
Wales
PNG
Tonga
Fiji
Ireland
Lebanon

 

[Ari Gold]

Italy could have about 8+ NRL/ESL players in their team by then.... Franze, Mini, Laffranchi, Grimaldi, Jamie Frizzo (he'll be in FG by then), Nero, Armour, Russo...thats something PNG or the Home Nations can't boast about....

BUT Italy don't deserve to be in the WC, at the moment they are travelling backwards at 100 miles per hour, and if things don't change we'll be lucky to even have an Italian RL side in 2008. The proposed plans to play Holland and Scotland in Europe have both been cancelled, meaning an opportunity to actually play the game in Italy has been missed...which would've given TGG at least some exposure in Italy as it did last time when the padova Cup took place.

Aus
NZ
Eng
France
Wales
PNG
Tonga
Fiji/Usa (depends how well the Usa progresses in the next few years)
Ireland
Lebanon/Cook Islands/Italy(if they have a comp running, which is highly unlikely)

 

[Copa]

It may just test the commitment to RL of the group from no.11 to no.25 (or whatever t goes to) if the WC is reduced to 10.

 

[Sun_Down]

My top ten:

1. Austraila
2. England
3. New Zealand
4. France
5. Lebanon
6. Ireland
7. PNG
8. Winner A
9. Winner B
10. Winner C

**Qualifiers: Probably USA, Russia, Italy, Fiji, Wales, Scotland, Tonga, Samoa...

I think the top 4 is set, led by Aust.

Then the remaining 6, could be one hell of a fight.

 

[screeny]

Pretty sure France will be seeded alongside Aus, NZ and Eng. More interested to see what format the qualifiers take than anything else. The ENC qualifiers were organised quite quickly and went ahead without a hitch so, in the NH at least, perhaps they're getting their act together.

Qualifiers in the Pac Islands would seem fantastically expensive for those teams, unless they have some qualifying tournament over a week, held in NZ or OZ.

 

[ByRd]

I think that our Lebanon side is a pretty good side with alot of good young kids such as Robbie Farah & also experience like Hazem El Masri. Lets just hope that Lebanon is in & that the world cup has a minimum of 12 teams instaed of 10.

 

[douglasallen91]

cook islands won the pacific island tournament

 

[southsman]

To enter the qualifiing tournament there has to be a set criteria.

1. Local competition set up in that country.
2. International games played in that country in the past 2 years.
3. At least 4 local comp players.

No point Italy, Malta , Greece being fulll of Aussies and Brits with no local comps in those countries. By all means run a emerging nations comp and let them fight it out and then hopefully spread the word and start comps in these countries. I know once Italy had a comp but I have no news of a current comp. Lets not make this a farce , let's do it properly with criteria and well structured guidelines . I would prefer to see a growing nation such as Russia or Georgia with homebread players. Press would rip Rugby League and the World Cup to pieces if we had an Greek or Italian team full of Aussies.

 

[Copa]

Thing is.... Australia dominates RL globally and we are a very multicultural country .... and with massive migration programs last century... many countries would be able to find (if they look hard enough) Oz players that could play for them. I've seen the stats listing how many aussies are born in other countries and the numbers for each country. It also showed how many are 1st generation, how many are second generation and so on. The numbers are HUGE.

While not all these people play RL.... quite a few of the younger ones probably do...The temptation would be there to use them as the competition heats up and it would be unfortunate if many local players from the country concerned missed out.

 

[Copa]

Further to my above post... 2,136,676 Aussies were born in Europe (2001). 83,324 were born in the Netherlands., 55,365 say they were born in "Yugoslavia", 71349 were born in Lebanon, 108,220 were born in Germany etc etc.... now if you include their children and grandchildren... the numbers go up quite a bit. There's bound to be quite a few young folk playing RL who would qualify to play for Europen countries...

800,256 alone claimed Italian ancestry...

 

[brendothejet]

i think at the end of the day the RLWC in 08 will show one thing:

Dominant performances by England, Australia and New Zealand. Just like RU.

Solid performances by France, Wales, Ireland (albeit on the back of GP rules and ex pats)

BUT

the key difference:

Good quality football from the low ranked nations. The quality of rugby displayed by the "minnows" of RU was disgusting. Not worth watching. At least we know that the third tier rugby league nations will know all the rules.* see channel seven displaying the reasons for penalties*

The League World Cup will feature some classic matches played in front of interested crowds at suburban grounds before the big four duke it out in the semis.

I for one cant wait.

 

[Sun_Down]

What sucks is that, the RWC almost filled every stadium, for the most pointless matches. We need to do that aswell, somehow....hmm

 

[dimitri]

What sucks is that, the RWC almost filled every stadium, for the most pointless matches. We need to do that aswell, somehow....hmm

rlif simply needs to come up with more clever marketing

they are on the right path with their "tri nations and grand final " ticket package as well as the packages for junior teams

they need to do something similar for the world cup

 

[brendothejet]

The union world cup filled the stadiums because they duped people into buying tickets.

The whole approach was both admirable and deplorable as they conned the public into thinking that every game was a must watch, then employed the same process as olympic tickets.

The way to fill stadiums is this:

1. Don't overpirce. People want to go, they just don't want to be ripped off.
2. Right venue, right game. Don't play Russia vs USA at the WACA
3. Big discounts for junior clubs taking large numbers.
4. Discounts for club season ticket holders.
5. Publicity for lower ranked teams. Anyone else remember reading that wrap up of all competing union teams? Talking Namibia up like they were a shot at it...lol

 

[roopy]

IMO the Tomahawks have to be found a spot in the next WC.
It is all very well having a side representing a little country like Fiji in the comp, but what do we get out of it?
No TV sales - little chance of expanding the game beyond a few dozen teams - not very much at all.
If the US team is in, we have a chance at turning the 60,000 to 80,000 Union players in America to the game, and we have a chance to sell TV rights to the richest market in the world.
If the RLIF spent several million on providing top training to the top 30 players in America for a year and made sure they would put up a reasonable show at the WC it would be money very well spent.

 

[carlnz]

So what you are saying is get rid of Fiji for USA even though Fiji has been playing since 1992, has a handful of Super League and NRL players, plus a big base of Juniors playing to?

I dont think so!

 

[bender]

IMO the Tomahawks have to be found a spot in the next WC.
It is all very well having a side representing a little country like Fiji in the comp, but what do we get out of it?
No TV sales - little chance of expanding the game beyond a few dozen teams - not very much at all.
If the US team is in, we have a chance at turning the 60,000 to 80,000 Union players in America to the game, and we have a chance to sell TV rights to the richest market in the world.
If the RLIF spent several million on providing top training to the top 30 players in America for a year and made sure they would put up a reasonable show at the WC it would be money very well spent.

USA at full strength are not nearly as bad as people realise. There is no reason why a full strength USA side couldnt beat Fiji. Vassikaloupis (wrong spelling), Matt Petterson, Clint Newton, Julian O'Neil and a few others are NRL/ESL level players and would all walk into the Fiji side if available. I think that the USA would be capable of beating Russia, Georgia, Fiji and Cook Islands although definitely not guaranteed. But in a 10 or 12 team world Cup, they will not have a decent chance to qualify unless the world cup is strictly domestic based or there is a direct path (or near direct) for an american qualifier and West Indies use mostly domestic and and not grand parent based players.

 

[hutch]

There is a lot of talk about RL World cup and scoffing at the credentials of various teams, by some people. But i got to thinking, who will the top 10 teams be. We dont know the qualifying system so we will have to assume that the 10 best teams make it. We do know the eligibility rules, like them or hate them, one nation for life is out, Grandparents and residence rule is in etc. So, if we assume no automatic qualifyers, who does everyone think will make it. Realistically there would have to be about 14 or 15 teams who fancy their chances of qualifying.

I see the following 10 teams qualifying:
Australia, New Zealand, England - No explanation Needed.
Samoa, Tonga - Both can put strong teams on the paddock and with many kiwis playing overseas and presumably being left out of Kiwi contention in most cases - they should actually be stronger than last time. Vagana, Lautiti, Talau etc could all be available.
Wales and Ireland - Both have a decent record and I am sure they will find a new batch of ancestor players scattered through out England and Australia. I think they will both make it.

That leaves three teams left. I am fairly certain that Lebanon will make it as they have a good international record and solid team.

With 2 spots to go, Italy have a surprisingly good team probably lead by Luke Davico and I think that they will surprise and win their way through. I am fairly certain they would be a better side than PNG.

This for me leaves the final spot which would be fought between PNG, France, Russia, USA, Fiji, West Indies, South Africa, Scotland, Greece, Malta and possibly Cook Islands who have some decent recent results. Of a that bunch, I would expect France on the back of their recent showings to win the spot.

first of all, in regards to the samoan and tongan teams, the fact that you have said there are many kiwis playing overseas who will be left out of contention for new zealand so they can just go an play for an island team one of their grandparents came from, is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. vagana, lauititi and talau are new zealanders. they have already played for new zealand, they are new zealander, they should be nowhere near the samoan team.

secondly, italy should be nowhere near the world cup either. the game is not played in italy, and they should not take the place of a league playing country. the fact is, davico and any of the other players they will call on are australian, not italian. the reason they would even consider playing for italy is because they are not good enough to make the kangaroos.
they could play in an emerging nations comp, and try to raise the profile of the game in italy, even play a few exhibition games over there, but not compete in the world cup. we dont want to have as much credibility of the afl world cup.

thirdly, the fact that you have france (4th best team in the world), png, fiji and russia fighting it out for one spot is ridiculous. these are rugby league playing countries, not made up teams. as for greece, malta and italy, they are aussies playing for teams of their heritage, they are not international rugby league teams at this stage. good luck to them and i hope they kickstart the sport in their respective countries, but they should not be in the world cup.

we do not want to go down the path of the last world cup. we dont want the ridiculous situation of players representing more than one country, EVER. we dont want incidences such as ricketson playing for ireland, mason playing for tonga or carroll playing for new zealand, when they are all australian, and have gone onto represent australia.
if somebody does want to represent a country through the grandparent rule, we need to make sure that this is the only country they ever represent, and that they genuinely care for the future of rugby league in that country, and i think we need to limit the number of players in each team using the grandparent rule, to a max of 6 per 17. all i want is a credible world cup, because we are a credible international sport.