Yep Elland road is a right dump

I see your point, as in theory it would be great to have more teams and games, however do people want to see The big 3 murder the other 2 sides by 50 plus points over 6 games? The gulf in class is simply too much to have 5 teams.

And yes, the 4 teams is pointless too unless we stick with France who have real potential in time to realistically improve.The tri series format of a few years ago where NZ ,OZ and England played each other twice with the winner to the final provides us with 7 games of the highest quality and is what we should revert back to imo.

Although Samoa were fairly competitive last year, I agree about the Northern Hemisphere sides.

I'm a big believer that the tier2 sides will only get better if they have the chance to play Eng/Aus/NZ, and have more regular fixtures throughout the year, rather than 3/4 games in the Autumn. Similar to how Argentina, Italy, Scotland etc have improved over in union.

The problem with Scotland is that they have no professional/semi-pro teams, few amateur clubs and generally low participation numbers. Ireland are slightly better in this regard, then Wales with their two semi-pro sides, and obviously France with Catalans, Toulouse and their league. Scotland earned their place, but I agree that the French are the closest at the moment to make that step up.

Yep totally agree with that if we’re going with 4 then we must have some consistency. Hate to say it but look at yawnion…The 6 nations stuck it out with Italy and Super Rugby did the same with Argentina and it works

The problem with adding more teams as well is that it starts to just become the world cup was 30 years ago. Some others have said that we need to stick it out and we do. The current system is okay.

I think the thing that should be changed in the importance of the European cup so that teams take it more seriously and actually want to win it. The last one had an average attendance of 2,800 and that was only cos of two 5,000 attendances in France. Market this tournament properly and get some stadiums filled. Have a host country so that it feels more like a tournament and also get some sort of qualification in place so that Serbia and Russia and other emerging nations can get into it. Create a similar thing in the pacific as well and then make it every 4 years (tournaments alternating so there is one every 2 years) and this will ensure that the winner qualifies for the four nations. Nations will develop along side each other then because of that prize at the end of it.

Two 2nd tier nations makes good sense, fully agree. Can't see a downside, really.

Yep have thought that for a while that it needs to either be a Tri Nations or a 5 Nations.
Have 2 from whichever hemisphere it's in. So if it were a 5 Nations here in 2016 I'd have Wales and Scotland in, as they were the last 2 nations to win the European Championship.
Is there a Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the European Championship? There used to be the Pacific Cup but I don't know if it's still going. Either way have a cup/championship of Samoa, Tonga, Fiji & PNG to decide the entrants.

It's either that or we have to pick say France and Fiji and develop them.

We tried that in the WC with Ireland - played at at Munster's Thomond Park (holds 25630) and only 5021 turned up. It looked terrible.

I'm all for aiming big for England - I think we should play at the Etihad, Sid James' Park and Olympic Park every time we have a test series/Four Nations/World Cup here - but not for Scotland/Wales/Ireland. I think we have to be more realistic with them at the moment.

That's why I put the Scotland games to be at the DW/KC vs England (25k-ish), and stadia in Glasgow/Edinburgh (areas where lots of people actually live) for their games vs NZ/Aus. You can't go off a game at Galashiels vs Ireland with no marketing and write it off. It has to build from somewhere, take the SL Grand Final as an example.

The game in Munster was a still a record crowd for an RL game in Ireland, wasn't it? Does it look anymore terrible than the games they've been playing in a 7k capacity ground in Bray in front of 1,400? No chance.

Think bigger/better.

Easter Road and Ibrox are just way too big for Scotland to be playing single games in. Ibrox has a 51k capacity, England struggle to fill stadia of that size, let alone Scotland.

If you want a Glasgow venue, then you're realistically looking at Firhill (10,800) or Scotstoun (9,700). Getting either of those full and rocking is an achievable target and would create a much better spectator atmosphere.

Tynecastle is probably a better venue than Easter Road for an Edinburgh game (17k capacity as against 21k, more closed in at the corners to keep the noise in)

I'm all for aiming big, but there has to be an element of realism. If you want to use the bigger Scottish stadiums then it really would have to be as a double-header IMO.

After the success of Scotland's crowds in the WC, why not keep one of their games in Cumbria and try for Brunton Park, Carlisle for the England game ....close enough to the border, capacity of 18,000 i think ?.

We should leave things alone in terms of structure of it all (number of teams). One of our problems as a sport is the constant chopping and changing of everything. The Four Nations is a pretty solid thing now, we should leave it as it is.

What we need is some mid-season international games.

Its only their own fault for not qualifying but it is a travesty that France are not in this comp. Had they been given one or two home games they would have came up with very healthy crowds and at least been competitive if at close to full strength. What is the point of Cats in SL if we're not committing to creating a strong French international side? They should have been given the spot, for certain.

We should swap Wales for Scotland, they have just won the Euro cup, have two semi professional clubs and are actually developing players. It's crazy to include Scotland next year.