RLWC Quarter Finals line up and semis and final

[jannerboyuk]

On 29/10/2017 at 7:52 AM, marklaspalmas said:

QUARTER - FINALS

Australia v Tonga @Darwin

Samoa v Fiji @Christchurch

New Zealand v Lebanon @Wellington

England v PNG @Melbourne

 

SEMI-FINALS

Australia v Fiji @Brisbane

England v New Zealand @Auckland

 

FINAL

Ausralia v New Zealand @Brisbane

For all the flaws of the group stages, those quarters look tasty. Only lebanon stand out as being completly out of their depth

[Manxmanc]

Slightly off topic, but is anyone else getting a little tired of the 'blockbuster' opener, usually involving Eng v Aus. If as has usually been the case, Eng have lost to the best team in the world, then this immediately becomes a negative to England and a 'business as usual' result to Aus . I'd prefer teams to build in seeded groups so that meeting of the strongest teams becomes something to savour as the tournament progresses. As it is, the fixture appears manufactured by an organisation lacking the confidence do otherwise.

Looking at the likely quarter final line up for 2017, there are now enough stronger teams to merit seeding. 

 

 

 

.

[Dave T]

6 minutes ago, Manxmanc said:

Slightly off topic, but is anyone else getting a little tired of the 'blockbuster' opener, usually involving Eng v Aus. If as has usually been the case, Eng have lost to the best team in the world, then this immediately becomes a negative to England and a 'business as usual' result to Aus . I'd prefer teams to build in seeded groups so that meeting of the strongest teams becomes something to savour as the tournament progresses. As it is, the fixture appears manufactured by an organisation lacking the confidence do otherwise.

Looking at the likely quarter final line up for 2017, there are now enough stronger teams to merit seeding. 

 

 

 

.

Yep. For 2021 when we go to 4 x 4's i expect we do proper seedings based on rankings meaning England wouldnt meet Aus or NZ in the group stages.

We need to be confident enough to be aiming for a huge opener for England vs Fiji or France or Tonga etc.

[Southerner]

11 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Yep. For 2021 when we go to 4 x 4's i expect we do proper seedings based on rankings meaning England wouldnt meet Aus or NZ in the group stages.

We need to be confident enough to be aiming for a huge opener for England vs Fiji or France or Tonga etc.

I do think we need to incorporate a “top tier” (super) group in the next WC to reduce these blowout scores. Just don’t know the solution in terms of format?

[jannerboyuk]

Well the current format is not preventing blow outs, maybe let the weather do that in 2021. Some groups could look like:

Group 1

Australia

Tonga

Lebanon

cook islands

group 2

england

wales

png

Canada

group 3

new Zealand

Samoa

USA 

scotland

group 4 

Fiji

france

Ireland

Jamaica

Top two into quarters

 

[Dave T]

13 minutes ago, Southerner said:

I do think we need to incorporate a “top tier” (super) group in the next WC to reduce these blowout scores. Just don’t know the solution in terms of format?

I dont think we should worry too much about it. Group stages of tournaments like this will probably always have blowouts when 1st are playing 16th ranked for example.

Other sports just deal with it and crack on.

[Maximus Decimus]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

I dont think we should worry too much about it. Group stages of tournaments like this will probably always have blowouts when 1st are playing 16th ranked for example.

Other sports just deal with it and crack on.

 

2 hours ago, Dave T said:

Yep. For 2021 when we go to 4 x 4's i expect we do proper seedings based on rankings meaning England wouldnt meet Aus or NZ in the group stages.

We need to be confident enough to be aiming for a huge opener for England vs Fiji or France or Tonga etc.

Surely one of the preconditions to this would be progress in this tournament. I don't think we've made nearly enough progress to move towards this.

[Maximus Decimus]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

I dont think we should worry too much about it. Group stages of tournaments like this will probably always have blowouts when 1st are playing 16th ranked for example.

Other sports just deal with it and crack on.

I'm not so sure they do. Quantity is important. I didn't watch Fiji-Wales past 10 minutes, Italy-USA or NZ-Scotland at all this weekend whereas I watched all games in the opening round. I don't think I missed too much.

Imagine if we'd had 16 teams this year. Its like removing some of the decent games that we've had so far and replacing them with more blowouts.

The only close games that would have been likely to occur under a normal 16 team tournament would be France-Lebanon and PNG-Ireland. England, NZ and Australia would go the first 3 weeks without a competitive game.

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

 

Surely one of the preconditions to this would be progress in this tournament. I don't think we've made nearly enough progress to move towards this.

Not really. Because we play next to no games our rankings are a mess so you wont stop them. Had we had Scotland changed with say Fiji it would have been far better, but then Fiji got battered in the last semis. 

We just have to suck it up really. Out of the routs this tournament i have enjoyed watching a couple of them. 

Another sport had around half of its group games as one sided affairs last time and still managed to average over 50k.

We get blowouts, we shouldnt be afraid of that.

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I'm not so sure they do. Quantity is important. I didn't watch Fiji-Wales past 10 minutes, Italy-USA or NZ-Scotland at all this weekend whereas I watched all games in the opening round. I don't think I missed too much.

Imagine if we'd had 16 teams this year. Its like removing some of the decent games that we've had so far and replacing them with more blowouts.

The only close games that would have been likely to occur under a normal 16 team tournament would be France-Lebanon and PNG-Ireland. England, NZ and Australia would go the first 3 weeks without a competitive game.

Eng, Aus and NZ would have 5th 6th and 7th in their group.

[Exiled Wiganer]

Meanwhile, back to the 1/4s and onwards this year, the last 7 games of the tournament will be absolutist epic. 

[Scubby]

2 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I'm not so sure they do. Quantity is important. I didn't watch Fiji-Wales past 10 minutes, Italy-USA or NZ-Scotland at all this weekend whereas I watched all games in the opening round. I don't think I missed too much.

Imagine if we'd had 16 teams this year. Its like removing some of the decent games that we've had so far and replacing them with more blowouts.

The only close games that would have been likely to occur under a normal 16 team tournament would be France-Lebanon and PNG-Ireland. England, NZ and Australia would go the first 3 weeks without a competitive game.

We are hardly the audience broadcasters are targeting are we? We would watch it if it was on dial up connection with constant buffering. We also count the crowd, moan at the refs and even bag our own team.

The broadcast deal is selling 31 games to the BBC to show live through streaming and live on 1 and 2. We really are over precious about things. How many of those Tonga fans in Hamilton actually know anything about the opposition they are playing other than the name of the country?

[Scubby]

Just now, Exiled Wiganer said:

Meanwhile, back to the 1/4s and onwards this year, the last 7 games of the tournament will be absolutist epic. 

This is where the World Cup could actually shine. Fiji v Tonga, Australia in Darwin and England v PNG could be epic tussles. Then Aus v Tonga may even sell out Suncorp and England v NZ will pack Mount Smart (should have been Eden Park but that's another story!).

[Maximus Decimus]

36 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

Meanwhile, back to the 1/4s and onwards this year, the last 7 games of the tournament will be absolutist epic. 

Fiji-Tonga could be worth holding the World Cup alone.

[marklaspalmas]

9 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

I find the automatic lumping of England and Australia as being quite uninspiring and lacking in imagination. Easy option every time.

Yes, agreed.

I'd like to see the bold move to 4x4 for 2021 and stick with that format through thick & thin until we can expand from there.

[GeordieSaint]

1 hour ago, marklaspalmas said:

Yes, agreed.

I'd like to see the bold move to 4x4 for 2021 and stick with that format through thick & thin until we can expand from there.

I agree - I’d go for a seeded approach with 2 x sides of the draw. Best Four Nations are the top seeds in separate pools and go from there onwards. 

[marklaspalmas]

Wow!!

All change this morning with Tonga's result.

Mixes up the quarter and semi finals totally.

Increases England's chances IMO.

 

[Dave T]

Shows how things are not as predictable as we think doesnt it?

[Dave T]

So providing all goes to plan, the next few weeks for England looks like:

France tomorrow

PNG next week

Tonga in the semis.

Aus/NZ in the final.

Every Autumn should have a test lineup like that!

[marklaspalmas]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

So providing all goes to plan, the next few weeks for England looks like:

France tomorrow

PNG next week

Tonga in the semis.

Aus/NZ in the final.

Every Autumn should have a test lineup like that!

Great, innit?

[Dave T]

If the organisers cant sell out those qf's now after the rugby the players have put on, we may as well give up!

[GeordieSaint]

6 minutes ago, Dave T said:

If the organisers cant sell out those qf's now after the rugby the players have put on, we may as well give up!

Darwin should sell out. Not a cat in hells chance Melbourne will or probably Wellington either. Not sure about Christchurch as it’s the Kiwis down there...

[DoubleD]

Really hope the Kiwis can stuff the Aussies and we can have England vs NZ in the final.

Does anyone know which QF will be the Friday match next week? I'm hoping it will be the OZ vs Samoa one because i'm still in Vancouver till the evening (not so bothered about missing that one)

[Dave T]

5 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Darwin should sell out. Not a cat in hells chance Melbourne will or probably Wellington either. Not sure about Christchurch as it’s the Kiwis down there...

I was going to delete the word out - but couldnt be bothered editing

They should all be bustling with healthy crowds instead of some of the ones we have seen.

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

Really hope the Kiwis can stuff the Aussies and we can have England vs NZ in the final.

Does anyone know which QF will be the Friday match next week? I'm hoping it will be the OZ vs Samoa one because i'm still in Vancouver till the evening (not so bothered about missing that one)

I think it is. England is the Sunday at 5am according to rugbyleagueontv