It's 20 minutes in now - good game 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...
[urlhttps://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/98794616/police-warn-people-to-avoid-auckland-suburb-as-violence-erupts-after-tonga-win[/url
[urlhttp://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/343612/missiles-thrown-at-police-53-arrests-in-otahuhu[/url
[urlhttp://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/11/celebrations-and-arrests-follow-tonga-s-historic-league-win.html[/url

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

I was talking to someone who knows the PNG scene well yesterday, and apparently not having to travel and being based at the Hunters training facilities with the Hunters coach has been brilliant for all the young PNG players - even many who aren't in the cup squad, but are jt training with them.
Having guys like Mead, Lam, Martin, Page, Olam etc sharing their knowledge and skills every day, with no distractions like travel and new training venues has been like the best training experience possible.
The PNG Hunters should go to a new level next year.

Understand the view of mixing it up but with it being in England they'll want Eng vs Aus because it gets the biggest crowd. Games vs NZ do well but not quite the same.

Sorry, but outside of SL and the NRL, France has the best set up and yet they yet again flatter to deceive.....France finished 2013 with a win, this time they finished with no wins and a loss to a 2nd tier NRL side in Lebanon.
I'm not sure what the answer is because if Catalan stop fielding overseas players they will certainly be relegated........

The answer is to get a Toulouse team in Super League, with mostly French players, and six Antipodean imports, including Mark Kheirallah, Jonathan Ford, and Samuel Rapira, and 3 others of NRL standard including a prop and a back rower.

If that is insufficient then invite Avignon or Paris to prepare a team for Super League.

SO...JUST SO i GET THIS RIGHT.
1 SL side in France can't field French players because they aren't yet of the quality needed to keep them up and your solution is to get a second French side and split that small pool between 2, but limit them in terms of overseas players?

Yeah Right!

Catalan were a gnats hair away from relegation in 2017.....Toulouse in SL isn't going to change that!

One thing that could help them is to get a top coach in for the next WC. Recent appointments of Agar and Goulding were lacklustre, Catalans managed to get the likes of Trent Robinson and Mick Potter who did good for them. A similar appointment should be made for the national team.

Toulouse is already a good team with its mostly French players. It just needs 6-7 NRL quality players to lift themselves to SL standard. That then gives the younger French players weekly experience of professional rugby league opponents (rather than the mostly part time semi-pro teams they face in the Championship) which will raise their level of performance. You need 35-40 professional players of quality to be competitive internationally.

If in Super League then Toulouse could compete for the signatures of good French SL players like Gadwin Springer and Eloi Pelissier.

The best French players today were Super League players.

Good? They finished 5th in the 2nd tier



...same for fax, Fev, London, Leigh etc......



Really? Yorkshire and Lancashire have had 100 years and more and still look like novices beside the Aussies...

....or 3rd generation players from Sydney


still ot enough for 1 side, let alone 2

...and yet they made cumbersome england look good!

The French have some really basic problems - a ridiculous error rate and they generally lack size and physicality all over the park. Surely they could get some bigger bodies from lower grade RU if nowhere else?

www.thenational.com.pg/aston-ope ... g-players/ Article from The National (PNG) saying Sheffield Eagles and Ireland coach Aston made an offer to consider any PNG players who want to try playing in England.

www.thenational.com.pg/aston-ope ... g-players/ Article from The National (PNG) saying Sheffield Eagles and Ireland coach Aston made an offer to consider any PNG players who want to try playing in England.

A terrific gesture by Aston, which will do the world of good for Sheffield if he can snare some new players. We need some other club coaches to show the same attitude, especially some from Super League. Those who were on hand in PNG -- Brian McDermott and John Kear -- had a front row seat to check out the Kumuls talent.
.

Paris, seriously



Perhaps we should be more concerned with "diluting" SL further still with "overseas" clubs, reducing our own chances of ever winning either the 4N or World Cup.
The expansion clubs should be welcomed but, in addition to the current SL clubs and not replacing current top flight.
Not only will this help keep current fans on board but, should either the FRench or eventually North America ever decide to go it alone, we may still have a competition over here

ireland may very well feel hard done by but maybe if the players who turned out for the world cup turned out for the european cup and won it then they would have been seeded like scotland were who won the euro cup and qualified for the four nations.

dont think mcillourm, amor or mcarthy scarsbrook put their hand up for ireland back then.

Controversial, but next year I'd go:

Group A (all 3 go through, the higher you finish, the easier your QF)
Australia
England
New Zealand

Group B (2 go through)
(2 of Fiji/PNG/Samoa/Tonga)
(2 of France/Ireland/Italy/Lebanon/Scotland/USA/Wales)

Group C (2 go through)
(2 of Fiji/PNG/Samoa/Tonga)
(2 of France/Ireland/Italy/Lebanon/Scotland/USA/Wales)

Group D (1 goes through)
(3 of France/Ireland/Italy/Lebanon/Scotland/USA/Wales)

QF1 - A1 v D1
QF2 - B1 v C1
QF3 - A2 v B2
QF4 - A3 v C2

SF1 - QF1 v QF2
SF2 - QF3 v QF4

F - SF1 v SF2

This would produce more games between Australia/England/NZ, which is what brings in money/interest. The games ought to be more competitive because I've segregated the top tier nations in their own group and split the second tier. In theory this ought to reduce the number of mismatches, and ensure everyone has at least one group game against a team of similar ability.

Obviously people would moan about no one getting knocked out of Group A, and a team with a losing record going through, but at least it's a top tier team who had the hardest fixtures going through at the expense of a third tier team who had the easiest fixtures. I'd say it's a fair trade-off given the advantages, it's not like Aus/Eng/NZ are going to be knocked out in the group stages anyway.

if there is to be 16 teams at the next world cup, australia, new zealand, england and tonga should (looks like its going to be the 4 semi finalists this year) be the top seeded teams, each in a separate group

then like the football world cup the following nations should be seeded

for example

2nd seeds-PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Ireland
3rd seeds-Lebanon, France, Italy, Scotland
4th seeds USA, Wales, Canada, Russia (last 2 just examples)

so you could have for example

group 1
australia, fiji, france, Canada

top 2 Progress, simple and fair imo, no favours for the bigger nations, doesnt happen in other sports, shouldnt happen in ours.

probably get some blow out scores but at least it rewards teams that win