I'm not a fan. It just cheapens their World Cup.
I don't really understand this view.
I think the home/away and round robin comp format gives it 2 quite strong point of differences to the knockout short-form World Cup.
It sees big games played across 12 nations every year, most of whom will not host a World Cup for decades.
I'd love to see something similar in Rugby League.
This has been my preferred format for the proposed RLIF "inter-continent" cup for some time.
If you play a typical single-host location, 2 pools of 4 tournament with a final, THAT cheapens the World Cup because it's a World Cup-lite. A criticism offered up about the 4Nations fairly regularly, I might add.
Imagine:
in 2023, we take the 8 nations that have pre-qualified for the 2025 World Cup by making the previous Quarter finals.
Each nation plays 7 games throughout the year, the top 4 playing 4 home games and the rest playing 3 home games.
The top 2 play a Grand Final.
Obviously the current club environment doesn't allow it, but small changes to the NRL calendar and attitudes once every 4 years could. Most of this is a bit pie-in-the-sky but sometimes you need outside the box thinking to make positive change
FEB - Australia game 1 (if we can play 9s or All Stars, why not a single test?)
APRIL - Rep weekend 1. Australia game 2, others game 1 (There used to be an April test - bring it back once every 4 years)
JUNE - Rep weekend, all other nations game 2 (already exists, Aus occupied with SOO)
OCT-NOV - 5 remaining rounds
DEC - first weekend, Final
