european cup

[Rlsouthyorks]

With 7 European countries in the World cup , is a European cup comp on the horizon ? Could it not fill the gap in club games if the IGM report goes through. Would it help promote the game and expand our profile of the game.

[JT RL]

No. That would not be competitive. Just England v France .. once a year, one year home - away next, same date, same stadium/ city, for 10 years, proper pay for players in the squad = a meaningful proposition 

[Jughead]

England Knights, and not with sham inclusions like Bateman, would hammer Ireland, Scotland and Wales without any Australasian based players and they’d beat France, too. A Super League based, full England side would rack up cricket scores. 

[JM2010]

I'd like to see a NH style competition with Lebanon, Jamaica and Nigeria included at least once in a WC cycle. Wouldn't have England in though. Hopefully they could play in a 4/6 Nations at the same time. Would still want to make room for America's and MEA championship as well as the current Euro groups competition. 

Would like mid season tests also. Eng vs France, Wales vs Ireland, Scotland vs Jamaica etc 

Edited October 8, 2022 by JM2010

[Eddie]

England v Norway wouldn’t sell out Thatto Heath’s ground, pointless. 

[Rlsouthyorks]

47 minutes ago, JT RL said:

No. That would not be competitive. Just England v France .. once a year, one year home - away next, same date, same stadium/ city, for 10 years, proper pay for players in the squad = a meaningful proposition 

are half the games in the world cup going to be competitive ? i dont think so but unless you give nations a chance how can the game progress . Look at football they give every team a chance on equal footing. Even the womens game you get big scores but i would say no it has over taken rugby league. 

[Eddie]

6 minutes ago, Rlsouthyorks said:

are half the games in the world cup going to be competitive ? i dont think so but unless you give nations a chance how can the game progress . Look at football they give every team a chance on equal footing. Even the womens game you get big scores but i would say no it has over taken rugby league. 

You get many more shocks and giant killings in football than rugby league though, it’s the different nature of the two sports. 

[Rlsouthyorks]

59 minutes ago, JT RL said:

No. That would not be competitive. Just England v France .. once a year, one year home - away next, same date, same stadium/ city, for 10 years, proper pay for players in the squad = a meaningful proposition 

are half the games in the world cup going to be competitive ? i dont think so but unless you give nations a chance how can the game progress . Look at football they give every team a chance on equal footing. Even the womens game you get big scores but i would say no it has over taken rugby league. 

[Rlsouthyorks]

could start with 6 teams in mini tournament structure like the play offs for the grand final . 

1 England

2 France 

3 Ireland

4 Wales

5 Scotland

6 Italy

 

[Jughead]

32 minutes ago, Rlsouthyorks said:

are half the games in the world cup going to be competitive ? i dont think so but unless you give nations a chance how can the game progress . Look at football they give every team a chance on equal footing. Even the womens game you get big scores but i would say no it has over taken rugby league. 

They have a chance. It’s called the World Cup. 

The proposed European Championship competition that had similarities to football’s Nations League was a good idea, I don’t know if it will go ahead but that gives teams games against others of a similar standard, whilst offering the possibility of promotion and playing “better” nations. 

[Phil W]

1 hour ago, Rlsouthyorks said:

could start with 6 teams in mini tournament structure like the play offs for the grand final . 

1 England

2 France 

3 Ireland

4 Wales

5 Scotland

6 Italy

 

Have long been a fan of this kind of thing. Even doing a Nations League kind of thing would be good if it was three teams per pool with promotion and relegation. It could be a mid-season thing.

[Big Picture]

2 hours ago, Rlsouthyorks said:

are half the games in the world cup going to be competitive ? i dont think so but unless you give nations a chance how can the game progress . Look at football they give every team a chance on equal footing. Even the womens game you get big scores but i would say no it has over taken rugby league. 

For the international game to progress, more countries need players who play in intense matches week in and week out all season.  That's the only way they'll get good enough to challenge England let alone New Zealand and Australia.

 

1 hour ago, Phil W said:

Have long been a fan of this kind of thing. Even doing a Nations League kind of thing would be good if it was three teams per pool with promotion and relegation. It could be a mid-season thing.

The trouble with that is it would need more than 3 teams at each level.

[The Lad]

Having a European cup without England would work. Wales, France, Scotland, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Poland and others could be a part of it. I guess a rebranding of the existing European Cup with maybe 8 or 10 teams instead of the 4 could be an idea. It would drive standers up in the lower ranked teams and get caps and experience playing away from home for the established teams.

[Young Blood]

Germany and Italy can be competitive if they use thier Australia players. 

[Griff]

10 hours ago, Rlsouthyorks said:

could start with 6 teams in mini tournament structure like the play offs for the grand final . 

1 England

2 France 

3 Ireland

4 Wales

5 Scotland

6 Italy

 

Who would be your tip to win this competition?

[UTK]

11 hours ago, Jughead said:

England Knights, and not with sham inclusions like Bateman, would hammer Ireland, Scotland and Wales without any Australasian based players and they’d beat France, too. A Super League based, full England side would rack up cricket scores. 

The same England Knights that only beat France B 18-6 last week would beat the fully professional France side?

Not sure how accurate that is given the France B side in question was almost entirely a semi-pro Elite One select side, not to mention a side missing a few of the best from Elite One in Vincent Albert, Clement Boyer and Baptiste Fabre.

[Jughead]

19 minutes ago, UTK said:

The same England Knights that only beat France B 18-6 last week would beat the fully professional France side?

Not sure how accurate that is given the France B side in question was almost entirely a semi-pro Elite One select side, not to mention a side missing a few of the best from Elite One in Vincent Albert, Clement Boyer and Baptiste Fabre.

Yes, I believe they would. 

[MatthewWoody]

4 hours ago, Young Blood said:

Germany and Italy can be competitive if they use thier Australia players. 

But can they afford to have them on tour every year? 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Maybe I'm missing something in this thread, forgive me if I am, perhaps I'm just misinterpreting the original post, but we have a European Cup. We were gonna do a Nations League style competition in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. I don't think England were gonna participate in it granted but it was all planned and ready to go. The follow up to it was gonna be this year but then with the World Cup being postponed it was again cancelled. I presume such a thing will try to be brought back once the World Cup out of the way though. 

Like I say, maybe I've just missed something, I haven't read all the posts on the thread but it just seemed as if the original poster didn't realise such a competition already existed. 

[welshmagpie]

Not got time to read whole thread, sorry if it’s been mentioned but…

THIS IS HAPPENING NEXT YEAR!

England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Spain, Serbia - 2 groups of 4 with a final.

This was confirmed by the IRL in the summer 

[SydneyRoosters]

I think they should work towards bringing back the 3 nations European tournament.

England

France

Wales

I think this tournament should be brought back but a lot of work will need to go into it. Wales especially, we need to get them back to being competitive nation again.

These 3 nations are the only European nations that actually play the sport so we need to keep growing them.

If we are at a stage around 2025-27 and France hopefully have a fully professional domestic comp and Wales keep on developing I would love for this tournament to come back.

Edited October 9, 2022 by SydneyRoosters

[welshmagpie]

4 minutes ago, welshmagpie said:

Not got time to read whole thread, sorry if it’s been mentioned but…

THIS IS HAPPENING NEXT YEAR!

England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Spain, Serbia - 2 groups of 4 with a final.

This was confirmed by the IRL in the summer 

https://www.intrl.sport/news/road-to-france-rlwc2025-qualifying-process-announced/
 

• European Championship A (England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Serbia, Spain and Wales - in two groups of four) will, if required, act as a direct qualification event to France 2025 and/or a route to the 2024 European qualifying tournament, if one is required.

 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Maybe I'm missing something in this thread, forgive me if I am, perhaps I'm just misinterpreting the original post, but we have a European Cup. We were gonna do a Nations League style competition in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. I don't think England were gonna participate in it granted but it was all planned and ready to go. The follow up to it was gonna be this year but then with the World Cup being postponed it was again cancelled. I presume such a thing will try to be brought back once the World Cup out of the way though. 

Like I say, maybe I've just missed something, I haven't read all the posts on the thread but it just seemed as if the original poster didn't realise such a competition already existed. 

 

6 minutes ago, welshmagpie said:

Not got time to read whole thread, sorry if it’s been mentioned but…

THIS IS HAPPENING NEXT YEAR!

England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Spain, Serbia - 2 groups of 4 with a final.

This was confirmed by the IRL in the summer 

Thank you welshmagpie! I've quoted my own post for context but yes, I thought I was in a parallel universe when no one was acknowledging that this already existed, thought maybe I was misunderstanding the point of the thread. Thank you very much for confirming I am only marginally mental and not gone all the way! 

[jim_57]

Once a World Cup cycle there should be a full Euro Cup & Pacific Cup. I’d probably extend that to “Northern” & “Southern” Cups to potentially include teams from Africa, ME, Americas & Asia as qualifiers. Example:

Northern A - England, France, Ireland, Lebanon.
Northern B - Wales, Scotland, Italy, Jamaica.

Southern A - Australia, NZ, Tonga, PNG.
Southern B - Samoa, Fiji, Cook Islands, South Africa.

Tournaments double as qualifiers for 4/5/6 nations following year.

[jim_57]

41 minutes ago, welshmagpie said:

Not got time to read whole thread, sorry if it’s been mentioned but…

THIS IS HAPPENING NEXT YEAR!

England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Spain, Serbia - 2 groups of 4 with a final.

This was confirmed by the IRL in the summer 

I still think they surely have to split it in to 2 tiers of 4, not pools of 4. England B would put 100 on Spain & Serbia, quite frankly it would be a waste of a scarce international weekend.