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Feeding the Four Nations

New Zealand's Kevin Proctor (left) celebrates with try-scorer Shaun Johnson. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Guru
22nd November, 2014
25

There has certainly been a lot of good vibes surrounding international rugby league recently.

The clear and obvious success of last year’s World Cup and the competitive nature of this year’s Four Nations has shown the rugby league world that there is in fact a future for Test football.

Many fans have voiced their views on how to best enable this future. Here are mine.

The greatest difference between this year’s Big Three tournament and previous ones has been its competitiveness. All the teams involved had a legitimate shot at contesting the final.

Even minnows Samoa, whom many predicted would be blown away, were legitimately competitive and never looked out of place among their more fancied and pedigreed rugby league brothers.

Regular matches do wonders for a team’s internal consistency. Samoa clearly benefited immensely from their World Cup campaign and the necessity of having had to qualify for the Four Nations by defeating Fiji earlier in the year.

It is important to encourage this consistency by giving the fourth nation every opportunity to remain with the ‘big boys’.

With this in mind, unless knocked out by a challenger, the fourth team in a Four Nations tournament ought to remain there for the next tournament.

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Where would the challenger come from? That’s easy. The winners of the European and Pacific Cups would play off with the victor earning the right to challenge the fourth nation for their spot.

As it currently stands, Samoa is the incumbent fourth nation and Scotland is the current European Cup title holder. In the absence of a Pacific Cup, Scotland would then have earned the right to challenge Samoa for their spot in the next Four Nations tournament.

This idea not only provides the opportunity for regular Test football for second tier nations, it also provides rugby league’s media with excellent story angles, helping to create a storyline for the rugby league public’s imagination.

The Four Nations is an excellent motivation for second tier rugby league. The European and Pacific Cups are its natural feeder tournaments.

Imagine France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales battling out each year in one part of the world while Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga battle it out in the other. All nations striving for the chance to cash in on tournament participation.

Surely that’s a winner for rugby league?

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