World 9s 2019

[Burns]

I hope theyre taking the profits from this, it's meant to be their event

A question for Mascord next time he fires up on the Twitter.com

 

[Force]

Only 8 games, instead of 18

For a 12 team comp 3x4 is the best way.
But.
Should have seeded NZ as top of pool C, and moved Fiji to Australia's pool.

A
Aus
Fiji
PNG
USA

B
England
France
Wales
Lebanon

C
NZ
Cook Isl
Tonga
Samoa

Top 3 of each pool go through to semis.
Then have the 3 2nd place teams play-off for the 4th spot.

So guess Aus, England, NZ go through automatically and have playoffs of
Tonga v France
France v Fiji
Fiji v Tonga
winner goes through

Semis randomly seeded
Aus v Tonga
NZ v Eng

Final

Mix the teams up a bit more. Its still one pool of Pacific Islanders and another with Europe.

I'd go:

Pool A
OZ
Fiji
Fra
C.Is

Pool B
Eng
Tng
PNG
USA

Pool C
NZ
Sam
lebanese
Wal

 

[morningstar]

Bit underwhelmed with the format but everything else sounds good, launch event, 50k target, tv ads etc.

I would have gone 4 groups of 3 and copied the 7’s lot by having 3 prizes up for grabs: trophy, shield, bowl.

1. Top of each group goes into the semis for the trophy.
2. Second place teams into the semis for the shield.
3. Bottom of each group play semis for the bowl.

Still end up with 21 games, everyone still gets a minimum of 3 games and the minnows have a chance of winning something.

 

[Springs09]

Don’t mind the format but the pools are rubbish. The Pacific teams are in with a shot at winning yet they all play each other?

Only one of Tonga, Fiji & Samoa will play the big 3. Australia, NZ and England pretty much get a free ride into the finals. We get to see USA get smashed 3 times.

3 groups of 4 is okay but they could have mixed the pools up a bit or had 4 groups of 3 + quarters to have some more varied match-ups.

 

[adamkungl]

I think the oddest thing is that it's a Friday Saturday rather than Saturday Sunday.

Whos genius idea was that?

Nevertheless.. it SHOULD sell out. And since it was obviously done as cheap as possible, it should make some money and see the concept built upon.

 

[Pommy]

Weird advertising. Are the second highest rated nation with heaps of born and bred NRL talent even playing? It’s not like there’s no English migrants here either.

 

[adamkungl]

Weird advertising. Are the second highest rated nation with heaps of born and bred NRL talent even playing? It’s not like there’s no English migrants here either.

peak NRL

 

[welshmagpie]

Weird advertising. Are the second highest rated nation with heaps of born and bred NRL talent even playing? It’s not like there’s no English migrants here either.

Wales were due to send James Olds down from Brisbane, but were ultimately told not to bother by the NRL as he wasn’t a recognised name.

Laughable.

Go and rip up James when the time comes.

 

[roughyedspud]

We need to stop letting Australia organise international RL events...it's like they deliberately stuff it up to stop it becoming popular

 

[yakstorm]

I'm surprised there is no 'ranking' matches... that is always such as Rugby League thing to do in our events, and we've even done it in past World Cups.

Still you can tell this has been made for TV, we'll have 8 games on Friday (6 Men's + 2 Women's) for 3 hours of action, most likely between 7pm - 10pm and then I'm sure the Saturday matches will be geared to run from like 4pm - 10pm.

It's a shame, considering the teams are here and the venue is already hired and setup, they didn't just squeeze in some more matches.

 

[kdalymc]

I think it's ridiculous there is only 12 teams! In the Super League Nines frigging 22 years ago there was a million teams and Australia did not even win

 

[adamkungl]

I'm surprised there is no 'ranking' matches... that is always such as Rugby League thing to do in our events, and we've even done it in past World Cups.

Still you can tell this has been made for TV, we'll have 8 games on Friday (6 Men's + 2 Women's) for 3 hours of action, most likely between 7pm - 10pm and then I'm sure the Saturday matches will be geared to run from like 4pm - 10pm.

It's a shame, considering the teams are here and the venue is already hired and setup, they didn't just squeeze in some more matches.

This has been set up for the minimum cost to still have a saleable product.
I'd say the main criteria for inviting teams was "who has the lowest total airfares"

 

[latingringo101]

Event and promotions for this event has been good. I would (as mentioned earlier) would have put a more respectable spread of Pacific and European teams in different pools.

The point of international tournaments is to allow players to play teams who they have never played regularly.

 

[jim_57]

Does anyone else think we could see some Roos & Kiwis players defect just for this tournament but still keeping Kiwis/Aus as their team 1st choice for 13 a side?

For example
RTS - Samoa
Papalii - Samoa
Marsters - Cooks
Frizzell - Wales

It will be interesting to see if that has any repercussions with their national team coaches when they come to play Internationals next.

 

[roughyedspud]

No...it will just complicate the laws

 

[adamkungl]

Does anyone else think we could see some Roos & Kiwis players defect just for this tournament but still keeping Kiwis/Aus as their team 1st choice for 13 a side?

For example
RTS - Samoa
Papalii - Samoa
Masters - Cooks
Frizzell - Wales

It will be interesting to see if that has any repercussions with their national team coaches when they come to play Internationals next.

No...it will just complicate the laws

I dont care. Nines teams arent real test teams. The laws dont apply

 

[Pommy]

I dont care. Nines teams arent real test teams. The laws dont apply

I mean is that a fact or just an opinion?

 

[adamkungl]

I mean is that a fact or just an opinion?

Perhaps Both? "I don't care" is definitely an opinion

The eligibility rules don't state explicitly.
The rules are for "Senior International Rugby League".
I would consider 9s to be a separate game played under separate rules. It's possible that this is not the case but I would find it odd.

If pushed to care, my preference would be to allow free-for-all nation swapping for Nines, as long as basic eligiblity is fulfilled.
Would add another dimension to what is meant to be a less serious form of the game.

 

[Coastbloke]

The RLIF needs to take ownership of the Nines though as a official form of rugby league. There are various little tournaments such as Rotterdamn and US, Auckland Nines etc. The NRL have taken ownership of the World Nines by introducing their own rule changes presumably without RLIF permission? The IRB own the 7s curcuit and would never allow rule changes by the ARU when the tournament is played in Oz. The RLIF needs to do the same..

 

[Coastbloke]

Draw announced..

https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/08/04/old-rivals-to-kick-off-world-nines-tournament/