I didn't watch much of it but New Zealand, South Africa, Wales, England, France, Australia and Ireland are all capable of beating any of the others on a good day. The same can't be said for the line up mentioned above. Sides like Wales, France, PNG and Samoa will NEVER beat a side like Australia in a competitive match. The gulf is too wide and will never narrow enough

If the WC qualifiers and 4N qualifiers have shown us anything, it's that meaningful lower-tier internationals bring a lot more interest. I think the RFL/ARL/RLIF/RLEF/(whoever it is that can make a difference) should take this on board and come up with a meaningful progressive structure on the field.

Something like:

2013:
RLWC

2014:
Tri-Nations (featuring the top 3 from the WC, meaning a 3rd place play-off has meaning).
Five Nations Qualifers (NH and SH groups of 4, these being the top 4 placed teams from each hemisphere in the WC).

2015:
Five Nations (featuring 3N teams and two qualifiers).
European and Pacific Cup qualifiers (featuring whoever is left outside the 5N).

2016:
European Cup (featuring top four European teams, including England)
Pacific Cup (featuring top four Pacific teams, including Australia, New Zealand)
World Cup qualifiers.

2017:
RLWC (featuring 8 teams in EC/PC and 8 qualifiers).



Structure. Progression. Variety. And as more nations play the game, the structure doesn't need to change at the top.

I mentioned this idea a while ago, which at first sounds even nuttier than a 6 Nations, 8 Nations. Hear me out...


There is no group stage, it begins as a knockout competition, and it could go something like thisWeek 1
Aus vs Samoa
NZ vs Wales
England vs PNG
France vs Ireland

Week 2
Aus vs France
England vs NZ
----------
Wales vs Samoa
Ireland vs PNG...the week 1 losers are playing off for 5th spot

Week 3
GF
3rd place playoff
5th place playoff
7th place playoff


PRO's:
- It only lasts 3 weeks...
- yet EVERY team is playing a match each week
- It can be used to give the world rankings some credibility... (hence a 5th place and 7th place playoff)...
- Only one week of 'mismatches'

CON's:
Who'd want to watch a 7th place playoff???

England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France in a 5 nations tournament play during the season NH every year.
Aus, NZ, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, PNG in a 6 nations tournament play during the season SH every year.

Aus, NZ, GB, France and a PI side play a 5 nations once every other year.

Once every 8 years GB + France tour SH with as a proper lions tour, one playing a three match series against Aus, the other NZ, with 'midweek' games against the island sides.

Once every 8 years Aus and NZ tour the NH as a proper tour, one playing a three match series against France, the other GB, with 'midweek' games against the emerging nations in the NH.

Once every 4 years we have a world cup.

When a country is ready they can be added to the hemisphere competitions, then the 4 nations, then, naturally they would grow to a touring side.

There are 4 seeded teams, 3 of which are sure to progress through to the semi-final, so you can sell week II quite easily, knowing almost certainly which teams will be there... Then the GF, like any match is up in the air... Don't think like 4 Nations stadiums like Wembley will be used, here's an example of how it could go:

Week 1:
Aus vs Samoa @ the Stoop
NZ vs Wales @ Wrexham
England vs PNG @ Salford
France vs Ireland @ Avignon

Week 2:
Aus vs France @ Toulouse
NZ vs England @ Hull
------
Wales vs Samoa @ Wrexham
Ireland vs PNG @ Halifax

Week 3:
Grand Final @ Huddersfield
3rd place playoff @ St Helens
5th place @ Headingley
7th place @ Leigh

Cheap tickets for the 3rd, 5th, 7th placed matches... The tournament would still turn a profit...

We'd be seeing 12 matches in 3 weeks, instead of 7 in 4 weeks, as is the case in the Four Nations...

Really?

I would say the Southen Hemisphere are capable of beating each other but realistically the NH sides beat the SH sides once every blue moon. For all the talk of how well Wales did they still lost to South Africa and lost to Australia like they always do.

Isnt there some crazy stat where the NH sides have when combined beat NZ like 5 times in 100 years?

Midweek games or stand alone weekend ones? Would you suspend the regular league games or let them play with out their internationals?

For the 5/6 Nations? stand alone weekends.

Id look within the next 5 years to extend SL to 16 teams (Toulouse + one more) split the league in to 2 divisions of 8, play everyone in your division twice home and away (14 games) and every team in the other once (8 games, 4 home, 4 away) + mm which would give a 23 game regular season, top 4 in each division play off 1st in division a v 4th division b etc giving us a 26 game season which is 5 games less than now leaving us with 5 spare weekends to play an international tournament.

Whilst we are all chucking ideas out there...

[iMid-Season[/i

Origin & ANZAC (Australia, NZ)
Exiles Match/WotR/Whatever (England)

Pacific Cup (PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga [maybe Cook Islands?])
European Cup (France, Wales, Scotland, Ireland)
Atlantic Cup (USA, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa)
"European" (Shield? Bowl?) (Italy, Lebanon, Serbia, Russia)

All across 3 weeks internationally? (ie Winners of groups are winners, no finals)


[iEnd-of-Season[/i

6 Nations (Australia, NZ, England, Pacific Cup Winner, European Cup Winner, Runner up of relevant hemisphere of hosts)
Development Cup (Other runner up, 3rd PC, 4th PC, 5th PC/Cook Islands, 3rd EC, 4th EC, Winner European Shield, Winner Atlantic Cup) (Two groups of 4, leading to a final)
Remaining nations/invitational developing nations enter teams to a 9s cup?

Mid season qualifications should give enough time to sort out venues etc..



I always agree with this format for SL, although most don't.

You don't watch anything outside of English RL do you...

16th Oct: Scotland 26-6 Ireland
29th Oct: France 46 -10 Scotland...

This tournament, just going through each match and making conservative estimates, would total about 140,000 in 3 weeks. The Four Nations that is on now looks set to have an total gate of about 120,000 over 4 weeks...