World Cup Draw - Pots Announced

[welshmagpie]

According to...

 

https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/11/03/why-tonga-win-will-make-world-cup-better-than-ever/

• Pot 1: Australia, England, New Zealand, Tonga;
• Pot 2: Fiji, Lebanon, Papua New Guinea, Samoa;
• Pot 3: France, Jamaica, Scotland, Wales, and;
• Pot 4: Italy, Ireland, Greece or Serbia, Cook Islands or USA.

draw on November 27th.

Whats your ideal draw for your nation? For Wales I’d like...

Tonga, Lebanon and Greece - I think that’d be our best chance of progression. 

[GeordieSaint]

England, Samoa, Scotland and the Cook Islands would be a great group IMO.

Other groups:

Australia, Fiji, Jamaica, Italy

New Zealand, Lebanon, Wales, Greece

Tonga, PNG, France, Ireland

England vs Samoa would kick the whole tournament off in Newcastle.

 

[Rhinoferg]

Pot 1 = semi finals..... England v NZ and Tonga v Australia.. NZ v Australia final

[Damien]

There's nothing like a sport where things like this are announced by the NRL with no mention on the IRL website.

[Chris22]

Sensible pools there and good that Tonga are in pool 1.

Gives the tournament more credibility than a superpool format.

Potential for some good group games too.

[paulwalker71]

Those pots look about right to me

Although I think Cook Islands will be much better than their Pot 4 suggests. I understand why they are there, because they've barely played, but when they get all their heritage players in there, then they are better than most of those Pot 3 teams.

[DavidM]

And this is a straight pool system with top 2 going through which is better 

[Damien]

The IRL should now be looking to get each of these teams a bare minimum of 3 games next year to build for the World Cup and a couple mid season in 2021.

[MatthewWoody]

As an Italian fan, I'd like Tonga. 

[ELBOWSEYE]

Tonga,Samoa, Jamaica, cook island's/USA

Australia, Lebanon, France, Serbia/Greece 

England, PNG, wales, Ireland 

Nz, Fiji, Scotland, Italy 

[Rob Nash]

England, Samoa, France Ireland I'd be happy. Very sellable fixtures. Can't wait for the draw. Plan on attending all three games at the Keepmoat

Hope we get a Jamaica fixture. Ross Peltier could become a real hero for our West Indian community.

[OriginalMrC]

Are these pots based on seeding. How are Jamaica in pot 3 and Ireland in pot 4. Seems the wrong way round to me

[DavidM]

This is gonna be a cracking WC . More open that ever and gonna be really interesting 

[Scubby]

13 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

Are these pots based on seeding. How are Jamaica in pot 3 and Ireland in pot 4. Seems the wrong way round to me

RL draws always have a contrived element to them  It might also be due to the fact Ireland are now more committed to using mostly home-based players.

[paulwalker71]

It's loosely based on the RLIF ratings, with a few amendments that kinda make no sense. If it followed the current rankings it would be (current rank in brackets)

Pool 1: Australia (1), New Zealand (2), England (3), Tonga (4)

Pool 2: Fiji (5), Samoa (6), Scotland (7), France (8)

Pool 3: Lebanon (9), PNG (10), Ireland (11), Wales (12)

Pool 4: Italy (13), Jamaica (15), + 2 still to qualify but not ranked in Top 16

Dunno why they wouldn't just use the rankings. That's what they are there for, one assumes?

Source: http://www.rlif.com/article/8436/latest-world-rankings

 

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

I hope Australia and New Zealand are drawn so they meet in the semi final, presuming they both win their groups this time 

[Man of Kent]

Ideal England draw for me would be Fiji first up in Newcastle then Jamaica in Sheffield and Ireland in Notlob 

[Smudger06]

5 hours ago, paulwalker71 said:

It's loosely based on the RLIF ratings, with a few amendments that kinda make no sense. If it followed the current rankings it would be (current rank in brackets)

Pool 1: Australia (1), New Zealand (2), England (3), Tonga (4)

Pool 2: Fiji (5), Samoa (6), Scotland (7), France (8)

Pool 3: Lebanon (9), PNG (10), Ireland (11), Wales (12)

Pool 4: Italy (13), Jamaica (15), + 2 still to qualify but not ranked in Top 16

Dunno why they wouldn't just use the rankings. That's what they are there for, one assumes?

Source: http://www.rlif.com/article/8436/latest-world-rankings

 

Of those still to qualify, the United States & Greece are ranked in the top 16, the Cook Islands & Serbia are not. 

I think those rankings are well over a year out of date. 

[Southerner]

Top 2 from each group through to the next round or only top team?

[Man of Kent]

10 minutes ago, Southerner said:

Top 2 from each group through to the next round or only top team?

Top two. 

Hadn’t noticed this before but the official WC2021 site suggests the first game in Newcastle will be England v Samoa, Fiji, PNG or Lebanon (ie Pot 2)

https://www.rlwc2021.com/article/107/pools-and-pots-the-2021-world-cup-draw-explained

[Henson Park Old Firm]

Let me guess there won't be a draw, but instead the Kangaroos will pick and choose who they pool with.

[Big Picture]

10 hours ago, Chris22 said:

Sensible pools there and good that Tonga are in pool 1.

Gives the tournament more credibility than a superpool format.

Potential for some good group games too.

Those aren't the pools, those are the pots from which the pools will be drawn, one team from each pot in each pool.  Matches like Australia vs. Jamaica or New Zealand vs. Greece would be huge blowouts.

[nadera78]

4 hours ago, Henson Park Old Firm said:

Let me guess there won't be a draw, but instead the Kangaroos will pick and choose who they pool with.

Either way, the NRL will probably announce it before the competition organisers do.

[eal]

I get a bit concerned with the expanded number of teams when I see Greece and Serbia in the mix. Can you imagine Australia v Serbia?

[Tommygilf]

I don't really have a preference for England. I would think that an opener against Scotland in Newcastle would be good though.

You'd imagine as hosts England would be pool A and I'd hope that the draw was kind to us and put us on the same expected (by ranking) side as Tonga rather than Oz and NZ.