www1.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... ournaments Never liked the bloke but i must agree

www1.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... ournaments Never liked the bloke but i must agree

Nope, daft idea, a reasonably successful tournament ( although a few issues ) and everybody starts to get giddy, we have now found a slot in the calender that doesnt clash with anything else, so lets sit down asses what worked, what didnt, what can be improved and most importantly try to improve next time both off and on the pitch

No. Can't we just set in something and stick with it for once? The calendar is set up for 2017, 2021 and so forth. How can we expect the tournament to grow if we keep chopping and changing it every time?

2016 would mean we clash with the Olympics and European Championship, 2019 with Cricket and Rugby Union, 2022 with FIFA WC and Winter Olympics.

I agree that we need to do something. If rumours are right, we won't get a major International Event here until 2016 (I thought 2015, but apparently not).

I do love the World Cup it's been great, but would 3 years saturate the market? and make it more of a Gimmick?, and a bigger strain to players?

Well Peacock and Ray French were adamant we must bring back GB tours for the game to prosper, but I couldn't disagree more. The fringe nations like Fiji, France, PNG, Wales and USA must be given a chance to play the top sides regularly. I'd even consider making the Four Nations into a Five Nations and having some sort of European Championships competition. Unfortunately, the dinosaurs will decide GB playing Australia every year is what's required.

Yes.
We should hold this as often as we can, and build the international calendar around qualifying games for all but the top 3 sides.
Next year we should start qualifiers with all the sides that didn't qualify this year - Canada, Jamacia, South Africa, Lebanon, Russia, Serbia, Malta, Greece, Vanuatu and anyone else who can demonstrate they meet the criteria to start eliminating some sides. 2015 we have qualifying tournaments for Europe, America and Pacific.
2016 we hold another world cup.
Rince and repeat.
Add in a few 4 nation tournaments in off WC years and that is our international calendar sorted.

I'm against bringing back GB tours. It's too nostalgic IMO, we've moved on. Bar the odd player, it is just england anyway.

For the overall good of the international game they should be confined to the trash can of history.

I'm not so sure. What makes a world cup prestigious amongst many other things is that they don't come round often.

I get a sense that it's a case of ''this world cup has been hugely successful, let's move things along and have them more often so we can develop the international game faster''.

I know you can look at it and say, well it's only 1 year earlier, i just feel having them more often is going to reduce their value.

I'm fed up of walking out of the stadium at the end of an international game and not knowing when I will next get the chance to see the same, I don't know when England's next international is and who it will be against, I don't know when the next international tournament will be held in the UK, I don't know when I will get the chance to go to Wembley or old Trafford or Cardiff and see the best of the best on the field.
if all we have in the UK for the next two to three years is inferior super league games in inferior stadia then how can we expect those who the international game has attracted to come back again, will they even remember the world cup experience next time England play against the big two over here?
We need more internationals and not just for a few weeks at the end of the season, the RLIF needs to be backed by both the NRL and the RFL for at least two international Windows so we can play at least two Test series a year, ideally next year we could play a three match series in the summer and then a further series with warm up matches in the autumn.

Not a problem, providing you are happy to pay 50% more for your SL tickets

The thing is, in soccer you have a major tournament every two years. I know the Fifa World Cup is the big prize, but European Championships (and other continent based competitions) are still a big deal for internationals.

On that basis, since we don't have a Euros so to speak - the World Cup is all we have, it would be nice to shave a year off, to have it more a little more regularly. I think in our sport the players deserve to be apart of something like this more often, as there is bugger all else.

Well maybe we should start building the Four Nations up a bit more then. No disrespect, but we shouldn't be playing England internationals in Leigh, Salford, Warrington etc anymore. We should be playing out of Elland Road, Etihad, Bramall Lane, Villa Park, Wembley, Old Trafford etc. and build up the promotion of the event like we did with the WC. It's also important we stay on the BBC, maybe SSN will ignore us, but it's worth it to get to more viewers and importantly, more sponsors.

I read on twitter that from the 4 Nations 2014 up until RLWC 2017, all internationals will be on Premier Sports, with just the England games on BBC. I really hope that isn't the case, because we need the whole of the WC on BBC and not just England games and we can't afford to hide the International game away on PS.

But we do have a Euro, unfortunatly they arent any good

For the love of god not elland road.

Spot on!

Ever four at a minimum... I would prefer five yeas between events.

Where we play the games is defined by the expected quality of the opposition and the competitiveness of the match, improve the quality of the NH nations and bigger venues will be required and used

Five would then put us in conflict with other major events, we now have our own ' slot ' in the calender, now it just requires hard work and investement

We've got our own slot and a set international rugby league schedule for the first time in what must be a long time. Ok it's only one event so far but that's a step forward compared to having none.

Our next step should be to organise other events (tours, 4/5/6 nations etc) to be included in a regular international schedule.

Yes that is the next step, providing a concerted but sensible effort is made to develop the various ' minor ' nations that have taken part in this WC, if we now see the Italian,USA and various South Sea Island nations revert back to putting out teams of amatuers, then what was the point of having artificially strengthened teams over here

One of the reason's this WC has been so successful is because there hasn't been one over here for so long. The international game becomes stale when it's the same events over and over.

People are getting carried away with this tournament's success and think all of a sudden mid season European 6 Nation tournaments and more frequent WCs will just take off, when in reality it won't. We have 3 nations that are head and shoulders above any other team and it is very unlikely that any of the others are going to catch up any time soon.

The elite teams need a settled international calendar featuring Tours, 4N and World Cups, whilst also increasing the number of emerging nations fixtures. Personally I would look at working on a five year cycle with a the 5th being a one year break from international tournaments, replaced with an extended World Club competition, though I appreciate that would be unpopular with a lot of people.

WC every 4 years

Tri Nations in between...with a mini home nations qualifying event.

Wales, Scotland Ireland and France battle it out for the right to play England....winner of that enters the tri-nations v AUS and NZ.

Or have a combined Celtic nations team and a combined Pacific Islands team enter against Eng, Aus and NZ....5 team mini tournament.

Seen a lot of posters say something along these lines. How do you explain the sell out crowds for the Six Nations every year?

The same reason there was 67,000+ at Twickenham yesterday watching Barbarians v Fiji. RL doesn't have the international profile union does, but the answer to this isn't to simply increase the number or regularity of fixtures, because we don't have a decent number of international teams who can compete at the highest level.

England v Wales, England v France etc have much more appeal in RU than in RL. I say that through gritted teeth, because I hate RU, but games where the outcome is already known before kick off aren't appealing in the slightest.

I agree but I think you've got to start competitions like a European 6 Nations and stick with them, make it clear it WILL be every year. The problems, in my opinion, with other competitions that have been tried (Yorks v Lancs, Tri/4 Nations etc) is that no-one knows when they're going to be played again, so you get less of a commitment from fans, players, clubs and media.
We've also got to get more "emerging nations" playing in the top tier competitions. A 4 Nations doesn't do much at all for the 4th Nation because they're staring down the barrell of 3 heavy defeats. Especially when the 4th Nation changes each time.

I'd go with a continuous 8-year International cycle:

Year 1: 6 Nations in UK & France
Year 2: GB Lions tour of Australia
Year 3: NZ tour of UK
Year 4: World Cup down under
Year 5: 6 Nations down under
Year 6: Australia tour of UK
Year 7: GB Lions tour of NZ
Year 8: World Cup in UK

Plus an annual mid-season European 6 Nations.

6 Nations in UK & France
- England, Australia, New Zealand, France, Wales & Pacific Islands Qualifying Competition winner.
- 5 games then Final
- 1st games to be England v Australia & Wales v Pacific Islands nation double header at Cardiff. Plus France v New Zealand in France.
- Final, at a large stadium maybe Old Trafford but could be overkill? Maybe Man City? Maybe Olympic Stadium?

GB Lions Tour of Australia
- 40 man squad
- 6 games
- 3 Tests v Australia, 1 game v PNG, 1 game v Fiji, 1 game v NRL winners

NZ Tour of UK
- 6 games
- 3 Tests v GB, 1 game v France, 1 game v Wales, 1 game v SL winners

6 Nations down under
- Same format but with England, Australia, NZ, Fiji, PNG & European Qualifying Competition winner.

Australia Tour of UK
- same format as NZ Tour

GB Lions Tour of New Zealand
- 6 games
- 3 Tests v NZ, 1 game v PNG, 1 game v Fiji, 1 game v NZ Warriors

Mid- season European 6 Nations
- England, France, Wales, Scotland, Ireland & Italy
- 5 games, top of the table wins
- mid week games so will only take 3 weeks
- Double headers where applicable
- to be arranged with NRL so as to make NRL players available, possible rescheduling of State of Origin into 3 week period

I think the GB tours and 6 Nations are very "do-able". The European 6 Nations is the biggest step/leap of faith. But I think we have to do it. RL has had more media coverage in the last 6 weeks than in the last 6 years combined. We aren't in the position of football where the domestic league(s) generate enough/such media interest so we have to prioritise the international game. The only way to improve the "other" nations is to play them regularly (see Italy RU), to play them regularly means a concrete set of fixtures that they can build around and toward.