Wellsy4HullFC

There is scope for us to not be involved. However, if they're running competitions between themselves with us not involved, we literally have no one to play that would generate interest. I'd love to see a World Championship (round robin league format involving the best few teams) as an alternative to a World Cup (group stage knockout format involving a greater variety of teams) so that that have distinct flavours. We host the Cup, they just the Championship.

In fairness, their main concern is making what they are in control of most profitable. If they controlled the entire international game, it would be in their best interests to push and and make it as profitable as possible.

Surely there's scope to add England to such an idea? 2 mid season tests here. Then we fly over for the remaining 5? Surely they can squeeze one international a week over there and spread out the fixtures/players over the season so it doesn't harm clubs as much?

So what we're saying is we need to win by 68 points to at least put it down to just Tonga beating Samoa. If it's anything less than that, Tonga need to make up the difference for us. Not impossible. But unless we win by at least 56 I reckon it's all but over. Could really have done with one or two more against the French! England need to batter PNG in the opening exchanges and tire them, then take advantage like Samoa did. Doable.

It's hard to be enthusiastic about it when there's such a disparity in class between nations that make the majority of games predictable walkovers. I enjoy it though. I enjoyed England hammering France because it had a purpose to it. I wouldn't enjoy England hammering France (like they nearly always do in the past) if it's another one off game. Test series' are not interesting to most. Variety and purpose matter. We need proper competitions and logical structures to them, including qualifying.

Yeah, that's the score it was when I switched on too at 25 mins in

That's a good attendance. Looked good on the screen.

Especially since we're not having quarter finals at all this year.

Are people just jumping to conclusions here about the home situation?

I like those. What's the issue?

Always liked the Carcassonne kits. Unique brand.

I do wonder whether they should have just gone Champions League with it and done one big league. Round 1 Australia (1) vs New Zealand (2) Samoa (3) vs England (5) Tonga (4) vs PNG (6) Fiji (7) vs Cook Islands (8) Lebanon (9) vs France (10) Round 2 England (5) vs France (10) Australia (1) vs PNG (6) New Zealand (2) vs Fiji (7) Samoa (3) vs Cook Islands (8) Tonga (4) vs Lebanon (9) Round 3 Tonga (4) vs England (5) Samoa (3) vs Fiji (7) Australia (1) vs Cook Islands (8) New Zealand (2) vs Lebanon (9) PNG (6) vs France (10) Just gone on what I feel the current rankings would reflect (because I'm not sure what they currently are), but that would give a fair balanced fixture list, and Tonga v England acts as a head to head defacto quarter final if results go to form, unless there's a shock along the way.

And the women's teams.

You forget the difference between Samoa and England too. Both have the exact same opponents, but Samoa play the hardest one last, keeping their destiny in their hands; we played them first, with no preparation after a long travel, meaning we now have to hope on other results. We've definitely had it worst.

The format is objectively unfair to England when it comes to progressing against other big 5 teams. Australia and NZ don't even have to beat a big 5 side. They can just beat the other 2 in their group. They have the easiest group. Tonga get 2 shots at their own destiny. They just need to win one. They have it 3rd easiest. England and Samoa are in a similar boat, but the difference is that Samoa have destiny in their own hands until the end, whereas England now have to hope for other results after just one week. England v Tonga should have at least been week 2. But this glosses over the fact that a format that makes the other team hope for other results after 1 week with 2 weeks still to go is deeply flawed.