All of these teams that are in and qualifying for the world cup have some of their best players playing and several games this international season. For example PNG V France and Wales, France V NZ and Scotland, and then ofcourse there are the WC qualifying games. However it will be interesting to see whether it will stay this way once the WC is done and dusted. I really hope for the for the sake of the internatiuonal game all RL playing countries are involved in regular competitve games. For example will the likes of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji still have their WC players playing for them after the WCor will they all ditch them again?

Also i really hope the A team idea that has been thrown around comes true, the AUS, NZL, ENG and FRA A teams all touring minnow countries like, germany, russia, lebanon, south africa, argentina, malta etc. and even PNG A, Wales A and more. It would be great to see.

Whilst we're talking of international games does anyone know if the Tonga V Fiji, PNG V PMXIII, were televised anywhere? if so would anyone have copies. Also for the upcoming Wales V PNG, PNG V France, France V Scotland, or any otherinternational games that i am forgetting.l

i mean u cant jus put png in there theyed get smashed even france wouldent match it i would lik to c it but for the try nationz 2 be close you jus cant put them in y u think itz great britan not england so it could be are stronger side...itz sorta lik rugby union wit argentina wanted 2 be are 4th member of the tri nations wit aus nz an south africa but they showed by runin 3rd in the world cup..if france do good in the world cup next year lik make the semiz and then u could think bout putin them in.

The france deal is done and dusted, its a four nations, but they will be having in the future the winner of the Pacific nations cup also joining the group... again Europe had been left out with Wales, the strongest of the lower countries being left out.

I saw the weekend game between Waled and PNG, where wales put 50 points on PNG. Surely they have to have some way of getting in as well.

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I agree, Wales should have an opurtunity to enter an extended 6nations comp. However my prefered method would still be seperate NH and SH comps.

1st Division

NH: ENG V FRA V WAL V IRE V SCO V ???
SH: AUS V NZL V PNG V TGA V FJI V ???

The ??? places would be filled by the winner of a 2nd division comp as followed. And the last placed nations would be relegated to 2nd division and be forced to fight their way back com 2 years.

2nd

NH: Russia V Lebanon V USA V Georgia V Japan V ???
SH: Samoa V Cook Is. V South Africa V Argentina V ???

3rd

NH: Germany V Serbia V Czech Rep. V Greece V Italy V Canada
SH: Well this is where the teams run low but maybe try and get the game involved in Asia, Africa and South America to increase competition

The 3rd Divison Comp would be played early year, the 2nd mid year and the 1st end of year. These comps would be held every 2 years, before and after the WC. In the gap year the The Top 3 of each tournamnt would progress into a world wide 6 nations whilst the rest of the RL world orgabnised tours amongst themselfs. Also have the AUS, ENG, FRA and NZL A sides touring every year in between six nations and world cups.

 

OK Jim I see what you're saying and in essence we are agreeing... along parrallel lines. Your NH and SH comps would for mine essentailly be split into 3, a Pacific nations, European nations and Atlantic antions comp. The format of the comps is something to be sorted out, youe 2-3 level tier may be the way to go actually... especially for Europe. But anyway the top 2-3 teams from those comps would go on the next year to be in the 6 nations. The year after have the nations cups agaion but they effectively double as the qualifiers. So ya I think we are sory of on the same wavelength.

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Although it would be great to see many teams all competing for this cup, I think we shouldn't expand it too much because only the top teams should compete.

I think the inclusion of France is a great idea. Rugby league has vastly expanded in the last few years. The Catalans of course are the main success story but the Elite Championship has improved in quality too with teams like Toulouse, Pia and Carcasonne all doing well. The French deserve to be the in the competition.

As for Papua New Guinea, I'm a little less unsure. I do think there should be another team alongside France but maybe Tonga would be the better option. On one side rugby league is the nation sport of PNG, but then Tonga are the fourth best team in the world according to the RLIF rankings (Eng-3.30, Ton-3.03, Fra-2.90, Fiji-2.87, PNG-2.85), although these figures are as of January 07.

As for Scotland, Lebanon, Italy, Serbia, Russia etc, I really don't think they're good enough yet for the competition.

But guys, most of you are in favour of France taking part, but what about a fifth nation? Do you think PNG or Tonga or Fiji or maybe someone else deserve it?

Yaaaa... but that's essentially what we are all saying. There are two questions. 1. how do we select those top 4-6 teams and what way do we do that.

Again I think we all are essentially on the same island just different sides of it. I am sure there is a middle ground that can be found. 

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Druzik:

Yaaaa... but that's essentially what we are all saying. There are two questions. 1. how do we select those top 4-6 teams and what way do we do that.

Again I think we all are essentially on the same island just different sides of it. I am sure there is a middle ground that can be found. 

 

France should be in the 4n any other nation is a million miles off IMO 

Should and is for the next one... but I am ticked off about the other ones planned... really should have maybe a top 2 pac vs top 2 Euro... essentially it will always be Oz, NZ, Eng, France.

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Druzik:

.. essentially it will always be Oz, NZ, Eng, France.

 

good!
 

Druzik:

Should and is for the next one... but I am ticked off about the other ones planned... really should have maybe a top 2 pac vs top 2 Euro... essentially it will always be Oz, NZ, Eng, France.

 I agree france should be a permantent part of the 4 nations, not in and out. However i think the 4 nations will expand in the future to suit countries such as PNG and Wales who are on the improve. I like the idea of 2 pac v 2 euro, it should probably stay this way even with expansion say 3 pac v 3 euro, howver if it gets to the stage where it is 4 pacific v 4 euro then is when i believe it should be split into 2.

 Also while these competitions are on there should be an atlantic comp, imagine having all 3 comps running at the same time. Now i know i have said this before but i think these should run on a 1st, 2nd and 3rd tier basis.

Euro: ENG V FRA V WAL V IRE V SCO V ???

Atlantic: USA V LEB V South Africa V Japan V ARG V ???

and the ??? goes to the winner of the 2nds... you get the picture.

 Now i am not saying this is ideal for right now but in 10, 15years who know? if we could have these 3 comps running year round we would have a very healthy international game.

Well my idea has been to have these comps running simultaneously. I have been thinking about this a bit the last couple of weeks and things can be streemlined into what the soccer essentially does.

Year 0: World Cup

Year 1: 4 Nations, Qualifiers for Regional championships.

Year 2: European Nations Cup, Pacific Nations Cup, Atlantic Cup.

Year 3: 6 Nations, Federation Shield, European Shield, Pacific Shield, Mediteranean Cup, other. These double as World Cup qualifiers.

Year 4: World Cup

etc ...

Again this takes tours away as I think the concept is outdated (as much as I love tours) and if anything can be incorporated into the 4/6 nations tournies. I think this system can be implemented almost imediately as it can be structured for teams to have a fair number of games without too much expenses on trvaelling. I am in the process of doing up a "mock up" of a 4 yera cycle I'll be putting up on the web.

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Wait, wait reading the past posts, the Aussie side that lost to GB was better than the one that thrashed NZ?

 Ok...

Lets see the facts here...

Ben Hornby is a PATHETIC halfback even by NRL standards, Cronk Prince Thurston and a load of other halfbacks would sh!t all over him.

Picking out the specific players in each team, Australia has currently a far superior squad, How on earth can Brent Tate match either Jarryd Hayne or Israel Folau?

The Aussies weren't just missing their two best they were missing a fair few more than that. Karmicheal Hunt, Justin Hodges, Darren Lockyer and Jonathon Thurston, the latter of the 4 makes a HUGE impact.

I don't see ANY England players matching it to the aussies.

Even the NSW/QLD Origin teams would put GB to the sword.

There's no comparison, look at NZ, they have a monstrous forward pack and a big backline, what are they missing? Quality halves, thats why they aren't consistently keeping up to Australia, the inclusion of Stacy Jones in the 2006 Tri Nations is enough to show how a halfback can make the game entirely different.

When GB can work around the forward strength of Mason, Hindmarsh, Bird, Price, Smith and Civo and counter the brillant backline of Folau, Inglis, Gasnier, Hodges, Stewart and such then GB might have some hope.

I don't see 195cm/100kg freaks coming from England, in this day and age where in the NRL these players are prominent, and are seriously LACKING in SL, GB won't come close.

 Otherwise if they did have them, why are NRL players constantly snagged away? Not to mention that the ones SL do snag, aren't even the best of the best in the NRL.

Jamie Lyon was SL's man of steel, he comes back to the NRL and plenty of players sh@t all over him.

Deception_2112:

Wait, wait reading the past posts, the Aussie side that lost to GB was better than the one that thrashed NZ?

 Ok...

Lets see the facts here...

Ben Hornby is a PATHETIC halfback even by NRL standards, Cronk Prince Thurston and a load of other halfbacks would sh!t all over him.

Picking out the specific players in each team, Australia has currently a far superior squad, How on earth can Brent Tate match either Jarryd Hayne or Israel Folau?

The Aussies weren't just missing their two best they were missing a fair few more than that. Karmicheal Hunt, Justin Hodges, Darren Lockyer and Jonathon Thurston, the latter of the 4 makes a HUGE impact.

I don't see ANY England players matching it to the aussies.

Even the NSW/QLD Origin teams would put GB to the sword.

There's no comparison, look at NZ, they have a monstrous forward pack and a big backline, what are they missing? Quality halves, thats why they aren't consistently keeping up to Australia, the inclusion of Stacy Jones in the 2006 Tri Nations is enough to show how a halfback can make the game entirely different.

When GB can work around the forward strength of Mason, Hindmarsh, Bird, Price, Smith and Civo and counter the brillant backline of Folau, Inglis, Gasnier, Hodges, Stewart and such then GB might have some hope.

I don't see 195cm/100kg freaks coming from England, in this day and age where in the NRL these players are prominent, and are seriously LACKING in SL, GB won't come close.

 Otherwise if they did have them, why are NRL players constantly snagged away? Not to mention that the ones SL do snag, aren't even the best of the best in the NRL.

Jamie Lyon was SL's man of steel, he comes back to the NRL and plenty of players sh@t all over him.

 

what a joker, listen son FACT you got beat whether you were playing Ben hornby or not

also how can you say  Jarrad Hayne (who was in the sqaud for the comp but never selected) and Isreal Folau (who hadnt even played any first grade in 06) would have made a difference at the time of the game? 

and as you Aussies keep banging on about how much better than us you are it shouldnt matter whether K Hunt is fullback, in fact later in your post you claim brett stewart is the top full back in aus

so make your mind up clown

as for forwards we have consitently proved we have forwards who can match your or NZ we struggle with outside backs as you correctly point out later in your rant
 

Thought I might bring this out of retirment. Has anyone heard any more on this? Has it been officialy confirmed yet? i really do hope it goes ahead, i have never seen france play and hopefully all game will be telecast, also i think france will be able to handle themselfs in this comp.