International Depth

[sam4731]

If we were to have a 16 team world cup but instead of 16 countries, we had the 16 best teams in terms of the depth of country's squads (e.g. how many Australia squads would you have?), what would the make up be?

Before anyone implies that I'm suggesting yet more formats for tournaments, it is nothing more than a thought experiment.

[Pulga]

Probably 5x Australia, 3x NZ, 3x England, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, PNG and Cook islands.

[Sports Prophet]

34 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

If we were to have a 16 team world cup but instead of 16 countries, we had the 16 best teams in terms of the depth of country's squads (e.g. how many Australia squads would you have?), what would the make up be?

Before anyone implies that I'm suggesting yet more formats for tournaments, it is nothing more than a thought experiment.

England

PNG

Samoa

Tonga

Fiji

Lebanon

NZ 1 & 2

Aus 1 - 5

then probably one more each from England, NZ, Aus

 

[Dunbar]

1 hour ago, sam4731 said:

If we were to have a 16 team world cup but instead of 16 countries, we had the 16 best teams in terms of the depth of country's squads (e.g. how many Australia squads would you have?), what would the make up be?

Before anyone implies that I'm suggesting yet more formats for tournaments, it is nothing more than a thought experiment.

Impossible to answer that question really as it depends now on whethe some (many in fact) of the best Australian eligible players are playing for their heritage nations.

[sam4731]

1 hour ago, Pulga said:

Probably 5x Australia, 3x NZ, 3x England, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, PNG and Cook islands.

It's interesting really isn't it, because you're basically saying that PNG and the Cook Islands are better than Australia's 6th string team.

[bobbruce]

Australia 1+2

NZ 1

England 1

Samoa 1

Tonga 1

Australia 3

PNG

England 2

NZ 2

Australia 4

Fiji

Australia 5

Lebanon

France 

Samoa 2

[Farmduck]

Here's one way to look at it: 17 NRL clubs with squads of about 30 = roughly 500 players.

Now if 50% chose other countries to play for that would leave about 250 players or 12 matchday teams available to AUS.

NRL rounds see about 300 players in first grade. (17 teams x 18 players = 306)

So if 150 of those first graders were available for AUS, the 6th-best AUS team would still be composed of regular, experienced NRL first-graders. How many of the lower-ranked countries could match that?

[OriginalMrC]

England already has 4 teams and Australia about 5 so in effect this experiment already exists 

[N2022]

3 hours ago, sam4731 said:

It's interesting really isn't it, because you're basically saying that PNG and the Cook Islands are better than Australia's 6th string team.

Good point. PNG likely are better. Cook Islands I don't think would be. If you think about margins to compare with actual internationals eg RLWC, how many would Aus 1st put on Aus 2nd? Guess if we are giving 1st a full bench of replacements quite a few, but the gap might be smaller 2nd to 3rd. And 3rd to 4th.

[Bamboozle]

Are we counting Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Cook Islands and Lebanon as Australia&NZ  A, B and C sides?

[eal]

Heritage players make it hard to formulate a response. Is Mitchell Moses playing for Lebanon or Australia 3? At a guess I would think Australia has 8 teams out of the top 16.