WC should be every 4 years but there needs to be a proper international calendar that includes the smaller nations.

In a 4 year cycle there needs to be a 4 nations type tournament, a tour and a WC, that leaves a free year where we could repeat a tour or 4 nations tour or do something different.

Theres no real reason why England/NZ/OZ couldn’t tour the pacific island nations. Im sure the Samoan/Tongan/PNG or Fijian governments/tourist boards would be massively on board for a showcase of their nations and I can’t see many England players passing up that opportunity to spend 6 weeks on those islands. I think England playing Fiji, in Fiji would be huge for RL there.

Similarly people have asked if England/GB tour Australia what would NZ do (and vice/versa) the answer would be to play some of the emerging nations.

The only year where the emerging nations wouldn’t be playing the top nations would be the 4 nations type competition year, in which I would run the WC qualifying competitions. We have a 14 nations WC, 3 would qualify in England, Aus and NZ, then we would have 11 places to fill. 4 Southern Hemisphere teams to qualify, 4 European nations to qualify, 1 North American nation to qualify. Then a competition for the other 2 places between the 5th and 6th nations in the southern hemisphere and Europe, plus the 2nd nation in north America and everyone else (i.e SA, Lebanon anyone else who wants to try that isn’t in Europe, NA or SH)

Lions tour
Two 5 nations
World Cup

That should be the top level four year cycle

is the next world cup confirmed for 2017?

and is there any international games for England in 2014?

I agree every four years is how it should be and we should aim to make this the norm from here on in.

Chuck in an alternate ashes tour (with a test against the Kiwis) and the rest of the time should be spent working in the rest of the smaller nations into Competition with the big 3.

surely it cant be that difficult to find a four year cycle along those lines and stick to it?

I think we should consider every 3 years alternating between north and southern hemisphere. For the next 10 years after 2017

4 nations north Hem
4 nations South Hem
World Cup north hem
Gb tour south hem
4 nations north
World cup south
4 nations north hem
4 nations south hem
World cup expansion country?


The qualifying tournements can slot in nicely and it would push International RL up the agenda.

I think a slightly shorter turnaround would help the smaller nations with team building and funding.

And most major sports have much shorter gaps between tournements - annually or bi annually.

Union has a longer world cup cycle but a solid regional international programme and friendlies.