2023 Pacific Championships

[Copa]

Good stuff. Lots of support from the Australian federal government too.

https://www.nrl.com/news/2023/08/16/nrl-announce-2023-pacific-championships/

Six men’s teams and seven women’s teams will take part in the 2023 tournament across two pools, which will begin on October 14. The men’s tournaments will culminate in finals in Hamilton, New Zealand, and Port Moresby on November 4-5.

The 2023 Championships will include two match days in Australia, two in New Zealand and four in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

2023 Pacific Championships Schedule

Week One – October 14-15

Australia v Samoa (men) at Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville

Australia v New Zealand (women) at Queensland Country Bank Stadium Townsville

PNG v Cook Islands (men) at Santos Stadium, Port Moresby

Samoa v Fiji (women) at Santos Stadium, Port Moresby

Week Two – October 21-22

New Zealand v Samoa (men) at Eden Park, Auckland

New Zealand v Tonga (women) at Eden Park, Auckland

Fiji v Cook Islands (men) at Santos Stadium, Port Moresby

PNG v Cook Islands (women) at Santos Stadium, Port Moresby

Week Three – October 28-29

Australia v New Zealand (men) at AAMI Park, Melbourne

Australia v New Zealand (women) at AAMI Park, Melbourne

PNG v Fiji (men) at Santos Stadium, Port Moresby

Week Four – November 4-5

The Final of the men’s Pacific Cup tournament on November 4 in Hamilton, New Zealand

The Final of the men’s Pacific Bowl tournament on November 5 at Santos Stadium, Port Moresby

[Leigh-On-Kiwi]

Awesome! About time we get to see some international league, will be attending the NZ matches.

[The Partisan]

Interesting that Brisbane and Sydney are not in the schedule.

Not such a bad thing.  Both cities get plenty of RL exposure during the season.

I know some have indicated that taking a game featuring a Pacific nation (in this case Australia v Samoa) away from western Sydney (to Townsville) is a crowd / atmosphere downer but I am comfortable with the decision.

 

[The Rocket]

Seeing so many games played out of P.N.G.(and hopefully on an on-going annual basis) may be part of the strategy to encourage the P.N.G. Gov`t to start upgrading infrastructure in readiness for an NRL team in the future.

[DlEHARD]

Impressive gov funding and hopefully that means we stick with it.

Strange to see Oz v Samoa in NQ, Should be in Sydney or Brissie.

[Eddie]

Tonga must be gutted that they’re coming over here to play in front of 7,000 in Huddersfield instead. 

[Eddie]

5 minutes ago, DlEHARD said:

Impressive gov funding and hopefully that means we stick with it.

Strange to see Oz v Samoa in NQ, Should be in Sydney or Brissie.

It’s a good thing for people in North Queensland to get some international games, let them see how it’s better than Origin.  

[Copa]

$7 million from the government.

https://www.reuters.com/sports/australia-set-up-pacific-championship-rugby-league-diplomacy-play-2023-08-16/

[gingerjon]

48 minutes ago, Copa said:

$7 million from the government.

https://www.reuters.com/sports/australia-set-up-pacific-championship-rugby-league-diplomacy-play-2023-08-16/

Oh dear. Some people on here will be livid to see rugby league 'propped up', 'bailed out' (etc) by 'taxpayers' money'.

[gingerjon]

Positives - at least it's happening. Those should be some cracking games. And the venues look well chosen and hopefully we'll see people respond and attend - there's a decent amount of notice after all.

Negatives - double and triple headers betray a lack of confidence and progress, the women's games have no structure and are too few, the men's games are at the bare minimum number of what we should expect international teams to play.

Overall: Leaning positive and should be an excellent international autumn.

[Spidey]

Good stuff

Just need the Euro equivalent now?  Which should have been in place before all this nonsense started. Getting a bit late in the day now 

[The Partisan]

15 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Good stuff

Just need the Euro equivalent now?  Which should have been in place before all this nonsense started. Getting a bit late in the day now 

Yes...your move Europe. 

[gingerjon]

25 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Which should have been in place before all this nonsense started. Getting a bit late in the day now 

The Euro one that was organised in 2022 for 2023 but had to be cancelled because the funding was withdrawn by International Rugby League.

That one?

[Man of Kent]

2 hours ago, DlEHARD said:

Impressive gov funding and hopefully that means we stick with it.

Strange to see Oz v Samoa in NQ, Should be in Sydney or Brissie.

Sydney goes to the beach etc

[sam4731]

This is all fantastic news but the only downside is that this is all being organised by the NRL and not the IRL. Is there much point in having an international body anymore?

[Damien]

Great to see this happening but teams need to be playing far more international games than this. 2 and at the most 3 a year just isn't enough. That should be the mid season amount.

We were told that the scrapping of the mid season international would lead to a longer end of season window. That was the justification given. This announcement is for no more than we could/should have had before anyway, and less than we have had in some years. It is certainly less than the Tri and 4 nations days and in the seasons when the likes of NZ have toured.

[sam4731]

Wht are the women's competition(s) not having finals?

[HawkMan]

What's the format? 

Men's teams all play 2 games, so perhaps a league ladder top two in Final?

Women , NZ play 3  Australia 2, others just one, odd.

Hasn't the current women's sporting goings on in OZ been noticed? Give the girls a proper tournament, people will watch .

Everyone wondering what a 10 team WC will look like, well if the NRL have a say, judging by this, it'll be one group of 10, three games per team, fixtures carefully selected by them and then semis and final.

Edited August 16, 2023 by HawkMan

[welshmagpie]

Tonga ‘A’ vs New Zealand ‘A’ also been scheduled.

 

[StandOffHalf]

What a strange set-up!

I suppose at least there will be some games.

[The 4 of Us]

Another angle https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/pacific-championships-another-big-step-as-png-closes-in-on-18th-nrl-licence-20230816-p5dx1h.html

[Dirkgee]

35 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

What's the format? 

Men's teams all play 2 games, so perhaps a league ladder top two in Final?

Women , NZ play 3  Australia 2, others just one, odd.

Hasn't the current women's sporting goings on in OZ been noticed? Give the girls a proper tournament, people will watch .

Everyone wondering what a 10 team WC will look like, well if the NRL have a say, judging by this, it'll be one group of 10, three games per team, fixtures carefully selected by them and then semis and final.

The Women's World Cup right now is insanely popular. More TV ratings than every NRL, AFL grand final, State of Origin, 2003 Union Final.

The only things that beat it still is Hewitts Aus Open match with 5.7 million, and Cathy Freeman in Sydney 2000 Olympics with 8.8 million.

But given it's a Aus v Eng semi final tonight, that could take down Hewitt's record. 

[sam4731]

11 minutes ago, The 4 of Us said:

Another angle https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/pacific-championships-another-big-step-as-png-closes-in-on-18th-nrl-licence-20230816-p5dx1h.html

PNG maybe be granted a license in 2025 and be playing as early as 2027. That's the way to do it. Not like the way we do it here. Introduce new team in September and expect them to play their opening round CC game in March.

[Damien]

1 hour ago, The 4 of Us said:

Another angle https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/pacific-championships-another-big-step-as-png-closes-in-on-18th-nrl-licence-20230816-p5dx1h.html

I've always been sceptical about PNG but if this $25 million a year is true and is locked in for a minimum of 10 years then it should be a no brainer as it would pay for itself (and presumably the PNG government would provide guaranteed cash too):

The Australian Government has reportedly indicated that up to $25 million a year would be committed to underwriting a PNG franchise. The PNG Government, as well as a slew of cashed-up corporate behemoths in the region – such as ExxonMobil, Santos and Newcrest – are expected to cover any shortfall.

[GeordieSaint]

2 hours ago, sam4731 said:

This is all fantastic news but the only downside is that this is all being organised by the NRL and not the IRL. Is there much point in having an international body anymore?

I don’t think the role of the IRL is to organise individual tournaments (less the World Cup). It’s to facilitate the international calendar such as windows where the games can be played etc and acting as the focal point globally to discuss the game. The final element is being the investment and development lead across the world in conjunction with regional bodies. Ultimately it’s looking strategically rather than at local/tactical level.