Tosh

Haven’t they already got that with the beetle nut and kava?

Who needs a hosepipe after the last 2 months of practically non-stop rain we’ve had!!!

I personally feel that the sport is no way near strong enough to hold a 16 team format tournament and should instead be a 10 team tournament with one group of 4 teams and two groups of 3 teams. The winners and runners up of the 4 team pool progress to the semi-finals along with the winners of both the 3 team pools. Id also bring back the emerging nations cup and run it concurrently alongside the 10 team World Cup.

This is the problem in that I wouldn’t class nations like Jamaica and Greece as tier2 nations but more developing ones. Nations like France and wales are more similar to PNG and Fiji in that both countries are part of the UK league pyramid/structure with pathways setup for their local produced players to progress into a professional environment.

So how do you increase the player pool of tier2 nations like PNG and Fiji then?

You mean like hunters and silktails models

Are the FFR13 looking for and talking to private investors? A TV deal? And sponsorship etc?

The current stadium capacity of 11.5k isn’t big enough now but I’m sure that could easily be extended to around the 18-20k mark in the short-term.

This. Simply comparing the 2 sports of football and rugby(league&union) you can have a 6’6 and 17st physical freak running with the ball at full speed at a 5’6 11st fit athlete and 99 times out of 100 the 6’6&17st Goliath will run over the 5’6&11st player but in football that overwhelming physical advantage is neutered because of the no handling the ball law and the smaller built players can beat the bigger players with trickery or speed or agility or all of the 3 combined(think of maradona, Messi, best and giggs etc).

Because of the population of PNG 9 million+ and rising fast year on year and the fact that RL is not only the National sport but seen as a religion in that country then there’s no reason why with the right investment, structures and pathways that PNG can’t become the biggest net exporters of RL talent to the NRL eclipsing both Fiji and NZ in the next 10-15 years.

Quite easily I’d say. Take the best referees from the digicel cup in PNG the elite1 competition in France and the National competition in NZ and put them through an intensive training program.

I totally understand that sentiment but how much actual growth potential is there in villages and towns that already play RL in France?

These are just certain games you’ve cherry-picked in order to suit your narrative. I actually like both games of RL and football but could easily have done the same with the recent RLWC highlighting certain group games that were one-sided, dull, underwhelming and put me to sleep etc leaving out the exciting PNG v Tonga game or both semi-final games etc. Football or soccer as you call it is exciting because of its simplicity and there’s got to be a reason why it’s the global game loved by probably billions of people the world over.

Union 7’s players and the NPC domestic RU competition in New Zealand should be heavily scouted by NRL clubs for potential rough diamonds.

The cowboys only signed 2 Fijian Union 7’s players last year and already 1 of them has gone back to playing Union. Will Warbrick is very highly rated and performed well in his 1st season playing league for the Sunshine Coast falcons in the Queensland cup.