Atmosphere at the Tonga v NZ game was unbelievable.

The game should be a real eye opener for doubters in England, Australia and even NZ. For all those who slate the international game and one could argue they have every right too, that game in Hamilton was everything good about international footy and what it could be if the game did more.

That was no lucky or fluke of as win and its results like that which should be used a springboard going forward. There is no reason why Rugby League cannot be the most popular sport in the pacific Islands. Invest money in those islands and see the talent come through.

If the game collectively tries to improve the international game you could see more games like NZ v Tonga. There are needs to be more incentives for players to play for a second tier nation instead of tier 1.

1. More games on the international Calender.
2. Appearance fees and give the players a decent pay and expenses. The game needs to find that money if need be.
3. Origin shouldn't be restricted to only those who choose to play for Australia.

I don't know how the Australian media and RL community reported and discussed the NZ v Tonga game but it really should of been a wake up call to those in the game reminding them just how good international footy could be if the game did more.

For this to keep happening the pay structure for world cups must change.
As someone said after the last WC, the funds have to go into a central pool and players have to be paid according to their individual worth, rather than who they play for.
Players who have played 50 NRL or ESL games should be paid as full professionals.
Players with less than 50 NRL or ESL games should get a decent match fee.
Park players should get expenses and some spending money.
Fifita, Hayne, Uate, Mead, Farah, Moses etc are responsible for as many or more people turning their TVs on as someone like Ben Hunt on the bench for Australia, so they should be paid equally.
At the moment Australian players are getting 30k a game and Fijian players are getting 30, where both should be getting maybe 5k if they are professional players.

Do these pig ignorant Aussie commentators do any research? They sound like total morons talking about McIlorum as though he's a young kid they've never heard of and they've just said superleague clubs will probably be eyeing up Kyle Amor, as though he's a young kid playing in a park competition in an Irish village somewhere.

If they don't get to watch superleague, they could always spend 5 mins before the game doing a google search about the players.

Why hasn't england france started yet? It's 10:10 . 10 minutes after ko

yeh will have galvanised the group too

France are shocking.

Samoa losing all but one of their games yet progressing to the QF is a disgrace when Ireland are out having won 2 out of their 3 games.

It's a raw deal for Ireland but it was seeded relative to opposition strength and samoa have had a tougher run than ireland.

In the last euros Portugal won the entire tournament yet barely won a game in normal time.

There isn't really a 'perfect' format though.

If you make it 'top 2 go through' for all groups you risk a weak team sneaking through at the expense of an average team who were unlucky to have Australia/NZ/England in their group.

If you split the big 3 teams up (nobody predicted Tonga to be so strong til the squad announcement which is too late to change the format) you end up with less interesting group games and the 4th group would have no big team and would be called an easy group.

The only other way is to do a 'best 2nd/3rd place teams go through' type of format, but that gets confusing and again you get complaints that some groups are easier than others.

Ireland haven’t played a tier 1 nation and lost to PNG so are out, I have no issue with that. Yes Samoa are very lucky to qualify, but they won’t make it past Austrailia.

We need to be careful what we wish for. Having 4 groups of 4 and 2 qualifying from each, with the best teams split between all groups, would leave us with uncompetitive predictable group stage, that wouldn’t be good to watch.

For the 2021 World Cup group stage I’d like to see it mixed up a little bit, with England and New Zealand going in the same group, it’s always England Australia.

I’d go for;
A - 3 qualify for quarter finals
England
New Zealand
PNG
Ireland

B - 3 qualify for quarter finals
Australia
Tonga
Samoa
Italy

C - 1 qualify for quarter finals
Wales
Fiji
Scotland
Cook Islands

D - 1 qualify for quarter finals
France
USA
Canada
Lebanon

I'd go 4 Semi finalists this year as top seeds in each group, losing QFists as second seeds in each group and the other 8 split 2 between each group with the top 2 in each group progressing......no contrived groups, just every chance the worlds top 8 teams will make the knock out stages.

..back to THIS world Cup. Depressing headlines dominating the "sports" news in New Zealand...
rlhttps://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/98794616/police-warn-people-to-avoid-auckland-suburb-as-violence-erupts-after-tonga-winrl
rlhttps://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/343612/missiles-thrown-at-police-53-arrests-in-otahuhurl
rlhttps://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/11/celebrations-and-arrests-follow-tonga-s-historic-league-win.htmlrl

In terms of France's performance, it's not been the world cup they'd have been hoping for, but there's been definite improvement since the last tournament, they're still way off in terms of ability, but their attitude has been excellent.
In Kheirallah, Fages, Albert they have the makings of a great spine, Albert to me looks the best young half in the Northern Hemisphere.
Hopefully with Catalans now elite academy, and Toulouse's improvement we'll start to see more centres, and athletic forwards coming through. Mind you, if Catalans continue playing over a dozen overseas players each week they'll never get the chance.

There is definitely some fantastic talent in France, Catalans can't play all of them so I'm surprised more clubs in England haven't taken some of them on. Hull have started with Miloudi and if he can sort his attitude out then it may see us look to France a bit more