Rugby Championship a blueprint for international league

Well now rugby league is not hamstrung in France,they may well get their act together. At least now they can get into schools and promote the code,something they were unable to do so in the past. There is plenty of talent in France ,and latent talent.It needs developing and the code needs more sponsors on board to offer players decent incentives to play the game.

Scotland got into this year's 4N by winning the European Championship in 2014. This sad result was a farce. Scotland doesn't even have the minimum domestic competition to qualify for full membership of the RLEF and RLIF and shouldn't have been included. There hasn't been a domestic comp of any description in Scotland for at least 3 years. RL has existed within 300 miles of Scotland for 120 years and they still don't have any permanent RL club. By reaching this tournament they have shut out countries with real, living domestic comps, like Lebanon, Serbia and France. In fairness, the French didn't put mush effort into the qualifying tournament so they probably deserve what they got.

Rugby has always been strong in Argentina has a big player base to choose from plus a lot of their players via ther trade in the French 14 rugby comp Who can forget the great Argentinian five eighth Hugo Porta in the 70s a master play maker and goal kicker. French rugby has a big advatage over their league counterparts in that also it has a big player base as well as the huge money on offer to players the French final last year drew 100,000 fans to the game!

Be good if France can get good again, and RL turn into a "Big 4". Having Catalans in SL has been good for them. Remi Casty had s tint at the roosters. France won a series vs aussies in 1978 not that long ago, there getting better.

Yes tell that to Lote Tiquri having no pride in the Fiji jersey or the Sims brothers or Jarryd Hayne, or Frank Pritchard with Samoa.

France is the smokey to watch. They will surprise one of the big three very soon. Of course they have the Catalans Dragons in Super League, and now Toulouse Olympique have just been promoted from League1, but just as importantly there are now French players being signed by many other Super League teams. It's not the Warriors alone that makes NZ strong, it's the fact that so many Kiwis are playing for other teams as well. The same is starting to happen for France in Super League. I already put money on them to fluke winning the World Cup next year, at 150 to 1. I know it's unlikely, but those odds are crazy! I think the England v France game next weekend will show how far France has come (last year England absolutely belted France, but France had most of their star players out due to Catalans Dragons being selfish. Now with a new national coach, a crop of new SL players, Catalans having a strong season, Toulouse killing it, the wind is in France's sails.

This is exactly what they should be doing. France has a long history in RL and was very competitive until the early 70's. If RL wants any relevancy internationally, this should be their focus, not trying to sabotage any hope France has in the WC by featuring loose eligibility rules so that other countries can field teams full of NRL that can't or haven't made the grade. I do fear that it may be too late - as in England the waves of immigration have massively favoured football, to the detriment of RL, and it doesn't look like abating soon.

I think the answer to that is yes Jacko. A stronger international schedule equals higher ratings and higher revenue. Look at the leg up the NRL has given NZ rugby league. They even subsidise the Warriors salary cap. The NRL are happy to reduce its domination of international RL, provided it generates more revenue for itself.

Mike I pose this to you. If I came to you (You being a multi million dollar company)looking for funding for CFL/Canadian Football league, what would you say if you sponsor a NFL lead tournament? I bet your response would be well we already sponsor American Football. However both games look are similar but have differences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_Canadian_football People look at NFL not CFL I'm not having a go just putting another perspective , generally the average jo schmo couldn't give a monkeys about rugby in general, its the glamour sports soccer EPL and all the other soccer global tournaments, NFL, basketball, golf , tennis even Petanque!! Yes Union has crapped on League but also RL on an international level has a leadership issue. People look at IRL leading the way , Aussie's look at the NRL to create the international competition. English RL has actually developed RL in countries like Soviet Union etc and not much help from IRL. So RL has to figure out who leads , who pays and the direction. I can't see NRL making any huge financial commitments. or SL.

The nrl can't even make a national comp let alone an international one go figure

It'll be a false dawn as the fans will get turned off by what will appear to be a lack of pride and passion for the jersey.

The new RLIF eligibility rules will make teams more competitive, as players will now be allowed to flip-flop at will basically.

In my view, international rugby league stands little chance of improving beyond the big 3 due to the eligibility farces and SOO being on too high a pedestal.

the biggest thing I took from the Last Rugby world cup was the performance of the teir 2 nations. The scorelines were far less than had previously been the case and the 3-4-5 teams in each group performed very credibly. The Japan v SA game the biggest of these results. Argentina not necessarily the best example to back your article as they have been relitively successful at times over many years but I certainly understand your points. Having said that, does Aus want a strong league world?

This is from the European perspective - nuts and bolts of it in Europe. There is no money. Growth is amazingly strong and growing, standard is getting there, but long way to go. Even with the stronger nations below top 5, they still lack the funds. Being involved the European system for over 7 years now, as a coach and Match official for the RLEF, they have no money and any good progress gets left high and dry. Most nations who have structured competitions, playing year in year out with good team & player growth have no money and are not really supported financially by the federation, what they do hand out would hardly pay for admin costs or one local teams admin cost. The RLEF basically pay for some training programs, and chuck in a few balls. This is nice but useless as most of the countries have expats with good experience and credentials managing the show doing it for free. Grants from the EU are tough to come by. Rugby Union is recognised, & they lobby the local governments and get all the funds, so when you apply, they say we already fund Rugby what’s this RL or Rugby 13 which they use here and need to get rid off that name, you just made that up. And the Rugby Union are more than happy to lay the boot in and say ‘’yer’’ who are these impostors. Same on the sponsorship front, there are many executives on boards who back/fund Union, when approaching companies is the same scenario, RL /Rugby 13 impostors. It’s tough going.

To a small degree, yes. Argentina's success, and in fact most of the emerging nations success, is really more about getting their players into better leagues. But yes, generally, you are correct, an increased level of regular play will lift standards and profile. If the NRL really wants to grow the international scope, they need to offer as many places as possible in the NRL and EPL to French and PNG players etc. Argentina's success was built on having a huge talent pool playing top flight in Europe.

I don't see how a 4 nations style competition is going to grow the game internationally. The game needs to be developed at the grass roots level in the participating countries. We will know the game is growing when we see counties choosing their national team from their own domestic competition (like PNG for example). At the moment, to stage a Rugby League world cup, the NRL and ESL simply sub-divide into 12 teams, and then the rugby league media proceed to say that international rugby league is alive and well which, of course, is a myth.

6 nations end of season series is the way to go But I would include 4 nation qualification series eg a Pacific Cup during SOO Plus a 4 Nation Euro Cup during SOO With England and NZ competing in these Top 2 qualify and a 3rd v 3rd playoff to make it six But trick as you say is regular internationals

They kind of do this to qualify as nation no. 4.