World Cup 2013 Draw Announced

[adamkungl]

First, the French games should be in France (unless they are against England or Wales of course). That's just obvious - for all the reasons others have pointed out.

Its a good format given the number of teams in the tournament. I worry a bit about the Quarter Final round - they weren't big draws in 2000.

The QFs will be the weakest games, but the way its set out means the likely scenario is something like Australia v Wales, England v PNG, etc - pretty much the same as 4N matchups. Not too bad.

 

[babyg]

Looks really good. I read somewhere that Richard Lewis said that they are waiting on bids from France to host some games. That sounds promising.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Sounds like they might be trying to squeeze some cash out of the councils in places like Toulouse before giving them a game. May or may not work but I hope they don't ditch them if they fail to come up with the cash.

 

[flamin]

http://www.midlandsrugbyleague.co.uk/article/2013-rugby-league-world-cup.html

Group A
ENGLAND
AUSTRALIA
FIJI
IRELAND

Group B
NEW ZEALAND
FRANCE
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
SAMOA

Group C
SCOTLAND
TONGA
EUROPEAN QUALIFIER (Lebanon, Serbia, Russia or Italy)

Group D
WALES
COOK ISLANDS
ATLANTIC QUALIFIER (USA, South Africa or Jamaica)

Group C and D teams play one cross group game as follows;
SCOTLAND V ATLANTIC QUALIFIER
TONGA V COOK ISLANDS
WALES V EUROPEAN QUALIFIER

The top 3 teams from both Group A and B progress along with the winners of Group C and D to the quarter-finals.

A number of good things to come from this draw that I can see:

1. Australia and England wont play NZ in pool games. It saves these match ups for the finals.

2. Wales are a good chance of making the finals ensuring decent crowds and coverage in an expanding area for rugby league.

3. There's almost no chance of any 70+ scores being put on by the big 3 as was the case in 2000.

4. There will be good competition in all pools for sides to make the finals.


All in all I think we've got a good balance between keeping the big games for the finals and ensuring competitiveness in the group stages.

 

[hutch]

i can see the point about the french games being in france. i would much prefer 15-20k crowds in france than the 8-10k crowds the games would probably get in the uk, but i can see merit in giving these games to places such as leeds or hull if it means 4-5000 french supporters come over for a few weeks. we may have councils or the government paying good money for these games because of the amount of tourism dollars it could generate. it depends which way they want to go about it, bigger crowds or more cash?

 

[obsulete]

Omnisport on Channel One just had a segment on the launch. They showed the kicks through the posts, the interview with Elery and

They even did some research pointing out that our WC has been around since 1950's and and union only been around since 1987 and talked about past winners etc.. not sure if this last bit was in the other releases.

 

[wain]

wasnt sure how to copy and paste a pic, will give it a crack, but if it doesnt work - here is the link for the logo for the world cup...hadnt seen it posted previously.

http://rli.ie/article/290/Ireland-Drawn-In-Tough-Group-for-2013-World-Cup

 

[winnyason]

png again in pool of death french full of pros, samoan full of heritage superleague and nrl players and the world champion kiwis they won't get through.

 

[adamkungl]

If PNG sort out their boardroom issues and put out a good side they could take Samoa...should be a very good match up imo

 

[deluded pom?]

i can see the point about the french games being in france. i would much prefer 15-20k crowds in france than the 8-10k crowds the games would probably get in the uk, but i can see merit in giving these games to places such as leeds or hull if it means 4-5000 french supporters come over for a few weeks. we may have councils or the government paying good money for these games because of the amount of tourism dollars it could generate. it depends which way they want to go about it, bigger crowds or more cash?

If any French come over for a couple of weeks hutch then they'll want to be based around London I'd have thought. More to do and see and easier acess from the main airports although they'd be missing a treat by not taking in Hull ;-)

 

[1stNov2000]

I would think PNG have very strong chances against the likes of Samoa and France. Samoa for a team of pros and looking strong on paper, tend to stumble and choke when it really matters. Look at what happened to them against the Cooks and Ireland.

 

[1 Eyed TEZZA]

Good to see they look like they are sticking with the WC logo created for the 2008 WC. Hopefully they can help create a strong brand for the event.

This is vital IMO.