RLWC 2025 France

[audois]

Is Sam Tompkins serious of a possible place in a French team in 2025 WC? In recent times the Dragons are pulling in higher quality players especially from England - and younger  ones too. The length of stay here growing and who knows if some would relish supporting the Tricolores. An add on - Joe Chan 19yr old (son of Alex) scored a try in the SF Play Offs against Hull KR - is another option I think.

[Big Picture]

18 hours ago, Damien said:

The final was in Paris although Great Britain v France got a whopping 37k in Stadium de Toulouse in the group stage.

37,471 to be precise.  The Final in Paris got almost as big a crowd, 30,368.

[John Rhino]

This is fantastic news and 40 host cities quite something. 

I hope they get it sorted quickly and announce the venues at least 18 months in advance so I can plan to be there. 

[Charlie]

5 hours ago, audois said:

Is Sam Tompkins serious of a possible place in a French team in 2025 WC? In recent times the Dragons are pulling in higher quality players especially from England - and younger  ones too. The length of stay here growing and who knows if some would relish supporting the Tricolores. An add on - Joe Chan 19yr old (son of Alex) scored a try in the SF Play Offs against Hull KR - is another option I think.

I can definitely see chan playing for France not sure on Tompkins though. France could have a real decent side for the 2025 World Cup with some of players coming through.

[The Rocket]

I think by the time 2025 comes around France will be able to put out a decent looking side, even a couple of ring-ins wouldn`t hurt, but aren`t the host nation always given the opening game.

If that`s the case who would be the best team to put them up against, keeping in mind you`d want an attractive game of League, ideally you`d want France to win and certainly you wouldn`t want them to cop a drubbing. Keeping in mind some of the Island nations are going to be pretty strong.

[Dallas Mead]

France getting the World Cup is great news, I hope it doesn’t interfere too much with the NRL pre-season for 2025 though.  Needs to be planned well.

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, The Rocket said:

I think by the time 2025 comes around France will be able to put out a decent looking side, even a couple of ring-ins wouldn`t hurt, but aren`t the host nation always given the opening game.

If that`s the case who would be the best team to put them up against, keeping in mind you`d want an attractive game of League, ideally you`d want France to win and certainly you wouldn`t want them to cop a drubbing. Keeping in mind some of the Island nations are going to be pretty strong.

Mate I reckon the history between them and Lebanon would be a great opener.

Canada comes to mind if they were to qualify, but I don’t expect that would draw as big a crowd.

Italy would be a handy game too.

They’re my three picks.

Interestingly, if France were to be top seeded, on current rankings, that would leave Eng and NZ a 25% chance each of being grouped with Aus. All that subject to change following the 2022 WC.

[The Rocket]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

Mate I reckon the history between them and Lebanon would be a great opener.

Canada comes to mind if they were to qualify, but I don’t expect that would draw as big a crowd.

Italy would be a handy game too.

They’re my three picks.

Interestingly, if France were to be top seeded, on current rankings, that would leave Eng and NZ a 25% chance each of being grouped with Aus. All that subject to change following the 2022 WC.

Although I agree it could be a good match up on field I`d be wary of having the first game involve a nation that doesn`t even have a national competition., maybe things will change by then. I wouldn`t want to invite ridicule.

Having Cheika, a high profile union figure as Lebanon`s Head coach could work both ways, on the positive side it could garner publicity especially in  a union nation like France, alternatively it could make us look a bit mickey-mouse. BTW I don`t trust that ##### Cheika, comes over and gets involved in League, next thing you know he`s lured Blake Ferguson to his Japanese team, good to see that went pear-shaped.

I think Lebanon, Canada and Italy would be good for Frances` group stage.

Who are the other candidates for the opening match. I`d be worried putting them up against Tonga or Samoa as they both could be very strong, maybe Fiji or Papua New Guinea might be better options, perhaps leaning more towards Fiji; good presence of League in that country, high profile rugby country, entertaining, never really too strong and wouldn`t one of the Island nations put on a good show before the kick-off.

Having said that PNG tick all the same boxes and is a country with a serious population size and League is their national sport. Could you imagine those PNG warriors and dancers like we saw at Townsville during the last WC doing their stuff in France.

[Mr Frisky]

36 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

Although I agree it could be a good match up on field I`d be wary of having the first game involve a nation that doesn`t even have a national competition., maybe things will change by then. I wouldn`t want to invite ridicule.

Having Cheika, a high profile union figure as Lebanon`s Head coach could work both ways, on the positive side it could garner publicity especially in  a union nation like France, alternatively it could make us look a bit mickey-mouse. BTW I don`t trust that ##### Cheika, comes over and gets involved in League, next thing you know he`s lured Blake Ferguson to his Japanese team, good to see that went pear-shaped.

I think Lebanon, Canada and Italy would be good for Frances` group stage.

Who are the other candidates for the opening match. I`d be worried putting them up against Tonga or Samoa as they both could be very strong, maybe Fiji or Papua New Guinea might be better options, perhaps leaning more towards Fiji; good presence of League in that country, high profile rugby country, entertaining, never really too strong and wouldn`t one of the Island nations put on a good show before the kick-off.

Having said that PNG tick all the same boxes and is a country with a serious population size and League is their national sport. Could you imagine those PNG warriors and dancers like we saw at Townsville during the last WC doing their stuff in France.

Isn't the population of PNG less than 10 million?

[The Rocket]

45 minutes ago, Mr Frisky said:

Isn't the population of PNG less than 10 million?

It`s about 8 million, I just thought it was a little more significant than the 250k of Samoa or 150k of Tonga, although Fiji is almost one million.

For me it`s all about perceptions, I want this WC in France to be taken seriously and not be open to ridicule in the press or amongst the general population. But I suppose as some others have said as long as most countries are competitive then no one will care where they come from. I`d still be apprehensive though about having a team like Lebanon involved in the opener.

[UTK]

19 hours ago, NW10LDN said:

Fiji and PNG already have homegrown teams in the Aussie cups? PNG Hunters and Fiji Silktails.

Yeah I meant more specifically junior iterations. The Hunters/Silktails are arguably the two most important teams in RL at the moment for player development but so far the Hunters have struggled to have players make the NRL (Olam being the only one). The Silktails are transitioning to being an U23s side now as they've decided this will give their players the best opportunity to be picked up by NRL clubs. An U21s Hunters side in the Qld system has also been mooted recently however Covid understandably has put that on the backburner, if it ends up happening this one could be a real game changer for PNG.

My initial point is that having domestic junior sides from PNG/Fiji/Tonga/Samoa/Cook Islands regularly competing at the U16-U20 level with their Aus/NZ counterparts would put their youngest talent in the shop window for NRL clubs. At the moment those coming through the Hunters/Silktails pathway are often >23 years old which is unfortunately often considered too late in the minds of most NRL clubs. Currently both Fiji and PNG do occasionally have schoolboys sides tour Aus and kids do get picked up off the back of their performances in those tours. It would however be nice to have some sort of consistent tournament to showcase all the Pacific nations like the Euros U19s does.

 

 

[welshmagpie]

7 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Although I agree it could be a good match up on field I`d be wary of having the first game involve a nation that doesn`t even have a national competition., maybe things will change by then. I wouldn`t want to invite ridicule.

Having Cheika, a high profile union figure as Lebanon`s Head coach could work both ways, on the positive side it could garner publicity especially in  a union nation like France, alternatively it could make us look a bit mickey-mouse. BTW I don`t trust that ##### Cheika, comes over and gets involved in League, next thing you know he`s lured Blake Ferguson to his Japanese team, good to see that went pear-shaped.

I think Lebanon, Canada and Italy would be good for Frances` group stage.

Who are the other candidates for the opening match. I`d be worried putting them up against Tonga or Samoa as they both could be very strong, maybe Fiji or Papua New Guinea might be better options, perhaps leaning more towards Fiji; good presence of League in that country, high profile rugby country, entertaining, never really too strong and wouldn`t one of the Island nations put on a good show before the kick-off.

Having said that PNG tick all the same boxes and is a country with a serious population size and League is their national sport. Could you imagine those PNG warriors and dancers like we saw at Townsville during the last WC doing their stuff in France.

I think you’re talking about Lebanon in paragraph one, if so they concluded their national comp back end of last year - 4 team round-Robin if I remember correctly.

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, welshmagpie said:

I think you’re talking about Lebanon in paragraph one, if so they concluded their national comp back end of last year - 4 team round-Robin if I remember correctly.

They have a domestic competition plus college and schools. Lebanon has a team composed of native players as well. One of those countries we should be focusing on.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, UTK said:

Yeah I meant more specifically junior iterations. The Hunters/Silktails are arguably the two most important teams in RL at the moment for player development but so far the Hunters have struggled to have players make the NRL (Olam being the only one). The Silktails are transitioning to being an U23s side now as they've decided this will give their players the best opportunity to be picked up by NRL clubs. An U21s Hunters side in the Qld system has also been mooted recently however Covid understandably has put that on the backburner, if it ends up happening this one could be a real game changer for PNG.

My initial point is that having domestic junior sides from PNG/Fiji/Tonga/Samoa/Cook Islands regularly competing at the U16-U20 level with their Aus/NZ counterparts would put their youngest talent in the shop window for NRL clubs. At the moment those coming through the Hunters/Silktails pathway are often >23 years old which is unfortunately often considered too late in the minds of most NRL clubs. Currently both Fiji and PNG do occasionally have schoolboys sides tour Aus and kids do get picked up off the back of their performances in those tours. It would however be nice to have some sort of consistent tournament to showcase all the Pacific nations like the Euros U19s does.

 

 

What do you think of the Pacifique Treize bid? They want to be in the Queensland cup.

[Exiled Wiganer]

Sadly, it looks like the usual suspects are massing on here again...

[Pulga]

[gingerjon]

2 hours ago, Pulga said:

It's going to be hard to top this for 2022's worst post.

Strong opening candidate.

[langpark]

6 hours ago, NW10LDN said:

They have a domestic competition plus college and schools. Lebanon has a team composed of native players as well. One of those countries we should be focusing on.

I believe since covid began, the only comp that ran was the 4-team men's competition.  Play each team once, then a GF.  Also, Lebanon does NOT have a national team composed of domestic players, I do not know where you got that from.  I think a few made the trip in 2017 but none saw a single minute of match time, not even in warm up matches.

PS:  I believe the nation with "no domestic competition" he is referring to is Italy, in which case, he is correct.

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, langpark said:

I believe since covid began, the only comp that ran was the 4-team men's competition.  Play each team once, then a GF.  Also, Lebanon does NOT have a national team composed of domestic players, I do not know where you got that from.  I think a few made the trip in 2017 but none saw a single minute of match time, not even in warm up matches.

PS:  I believe the nation with "no domestic competition" he is referring to is Italy, in which case, he is correct.

And? What is your issue here? I'm sure the college and school comps will be back once Covid is behind us. So much negativity on this forum.

[Exiled Wiganer]

15 minutes ago, NW10LDN said:

And? What is your issue here? I'm sure the college and school comps will be back once Covid is behind us. So much negativity on this forum.

Lebanon are a shining light for our game, fighting against all the odds to keep the flame of The Greatest Game going.

As for the negativity, it comes pretty much from the same group of “people”. The “no domestic league” c—- is the first shot in the “PNG is a tiny third world country/nobody wants to watch Tonga” fantasy island attacks. This thread is an international rugby league good news story, the best news story our game has had in a long time, with the real prospect of France building on this to retake their place as a top tier treiziste nation. Keep that in mind. 

I give it 3 pages before it gets completely bogged down by the “know your place peasants” brigade. 

[Eddie]

Well I’ll be over there for a number of games, should be a superb tournament.
 

For what it’s worth I wouldn’t have the opener in Paris unless anyone is starting a serious Paris team to compete in Elite 1 or the English system, what would be the point, keep the comp where the fans and teams are, there are plenty of great stadiums in the South of France. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

Lebanon are a shining light for our game, fighting against all the odds to keep the flame of The Greatest Game going.

As for the negativity, it comes pretty much from the same group of “people”. The “no domestic league” c—- is the first shot in the “PNG is a tiny third world country/nobody wants to watch Tonga” fantasy island attacks. This thread is an international rugby league good news story, the best news story our game has had in a long time, with the real prospect of France building on this to retake their place as a top tier treiziste nation. Keep that in mind. 

I give it 3 pages before it gets completely bogged down by the “know your place peasants” brigade. 

Wouldn't be a rugby league competition in Jamaica if it weren't for the heritage players going back and setting it up. I can understand Italy but we'd have to cut the number of teams to 8 or less if all the heritage sides got booted out. Greece, Lebanon, Jamaica all have domestic set ups.

[Eddie]

7 minutes ago, NW10LDN said:

Wouldn't be a rugby league competition in Jamaica if it weren't for the heritage players going back and setting it up. I can understand Italy but we'd have to cut the number of teams to 8 or less if all the heritage sides got booted out. Greece, Lebanon, Jamaica all have domestic set ups.

Personally I’d have a cap on heritage players, probably around 7 of the squad. Greece and Jamaica could still put teams out, Italy couldn’t.

[Big Picture]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Personally I’d have a cap on heritage players, probably around 7 of the squad. Greece and Jamaica could still put teams out, Italy couldn’t.

Or better yet mandate that 80% of the roster must be citizens and that any non-citizens must at least be eligible for citizenship.

[Eddie]

17 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

Or better yet mandate that 80% of the roster must be citizens and that any non-citizens must at least be eligible for citizenship.

They could have a heritage team full of people with Italian (for example) grandparents then.