New Zealand coach wants more games

[Mathius Hellwege]

'We're always crying out for rep footy': League needs more Tests to make inroads into rugby's global advantage (theroar.com.au)

[Mathius Hellwege]

unfortunaltey he speaks of a 4N in 2024 so either no games for England or at most a participant of the lesser competition tours instead of the expected Samoa

[Barley Mow]

3 minutes ago, Mathius Hellwege said:

unfortunaltey he speaks of a 4N in 2024 so either no games for England or at most a participant of the lesser competition tours instead of the expected Samoa

That is a concern, but it wasn't actually part of the quote from Maguire. It is the writer of the article saying "Tonga will likely return to the men’s Pacific Cup next year, offering a fourth team and a chance for all sides to play a third match before the finals".

Hopefully they are just speculating without having any real information about it, and Samoa will tour next year.

[sam4731]

5 minutes ago, Mathius Hellwege said:

unfortunaltey he speaks of a 4N in 2024 so either no games for England or at most a participant of the lesser competition tours instead of the expected Samoa

If Samoa don't tour in 2024, the NH mat as well pack up and go home in terms of international rugby league. We have no competition outside those 4 pacific nations so if we don't play against them, it really is a waste of time.

[Damien]

We all want more international games. 2 or 3 a year just isn't enough.

[Spidey]

England should bite the bullet and hop on a plane down under - 2 x 4 Nations tournaments then

[GeordieSaint]

The solution is simple (in theory). Two windows. One mid season. The other at the end. Mid season would be for everyone less Australia who should play Origin as a 3-week series. It allows everyone else to play Tests. The post-season window includes Australia. That’s a minimum of 6 games a year. It would be a huge leap forward. 

[Barley Mow]

2 minutes ago, Spidey said:

England should bite the bullet and hop on a plane down under - 2 x 4 Nations tournaments then

If Samoa didn't tour here, I think that would be the best option for everyone.

[Barley Mow]

1 minute ago, GeordieSaint said:

The solution is simple (in theory). Two windows. One mid season. The other at the end. Mid season would be for everyone less Australia who should play Origin as a 3-week series. It allows everyone else to play Tests. The post-season window includes Australia. That’s a minimum of 6 games a year. It would be a huge leap forward. 

The Australians simply won't do that though - by having all three State of Origin matches mid-week and no break in the NRL season they make sure that the dual qualified Pacific Island heritage players are available for Origin.

If they allow a break for Internationals, they risk those players playing for Tonga, Samoa, etc and that weakens Origin - they will not do it.

[Griff]

5 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

The solution is simple (in theory). Two windows. One mid season. The other at the end. Mid season would be for everyone less Australia who should play Origin as a 3-week series. It allows everyone else to play Tests. The post-season window includes Australia. That’s a minimum of 6 games a year. It would be a huge leap forward. 

Superleague playing two less games?

[Damien]

The tired after a long season narrative makes my blood boil too. The justification for getting rid of the mid season representative weekends was that the international game would be the focus end of season and that it would be longer. We do that and now players are fatigued and tired.

[Damien]

14 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

The solution is simple (in theory). Two windows. One mid season. The other at the end. Mid season would be for everyone less Australia who should play Origin as a 3-week series. It allows everyone else to play Tests. The post-season window includes Australia. That’s a minimum of 6 games a year. It would be a huge leap forward. 

This is what I've long said on here. It is the only solution that works for all and was what the previous NRL administration was working towards. It would be transformational for the international game and would see it thrive. A mid season Pacific Championship would be massive by now if implemented after the 2017 World Cup.

One end of season window will never work and will never provide enough games with clubs moaning about their pre-season preparations. International RL being non existent for 11 months of the year is pretty terrible and it loses all momentum. Its like starting again every year.

[Mathius Hellwege]

1 hour ago, Barley Mow said:

That is a concern, but it wasn't actually part of the quote from Maguire. It is the writer of the article saying "Tonga will likely return to the men’s Pacific Cup next year, offering a fourth team and a chance for all sides to play a third match before the finals".

Hopefully they are just speculating without having any real information about it, and Samoa will tour next year.

fair point, but I really hope they make a 4N, give us a fifth team and make a series Cook I vs Papua

[Mathius Hellwege]

59 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:

If Samoa didn't tour here, I think that would be the best option for everyone.

No, you need to play at home in your only window as often as possible

And even if you accept playing away, then it should at least be in the same time zone do get good tv viewership

[Mathius Hellwege]

1 hour ago, sam4731 said:

If Samoa don't tour in 2024, the NH mat as well pack up and go home in terms of international rugby league. We have no competition outside those 4 pacific nations so if we don't play against them, it really is a waste of time.

We have to fight on

Get Lebanon, Jamaica and make a international tournament, but one additional PI helps of course

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, Spidey said:

England should bite the bullet and hop on a plane down under - 2 x 4 Nations tournaments then

Yep stop complaining that they won’t come here and get down there, then they might reciprocate the year after. 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Eddie

[Eddie]

12 minutes ago, Mathius Hellwege said:

We have to fight on

Get Lebanon, Jamaica and make a international tournament, but one additional PI helps of course

Lebanon RL is an Australian touring side also. 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Eddie

[sam4731]

20 minutes ago, Mathius Hellwege said:

We have to fight on

Get Lebanon, Jamaica and make a international tournament, but one additional PI helps of course

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but you won't convince even 5000 to watch England vs Jamaica, let alone what the attendance Jamaica vs Lebanon would be.

[Mathius Hellwege]

22 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Lebanon RL is an Australian touring side also. 

I know, but we should target not agian Huddersfield and three M62 corridor towns, but the casual viewer 

They will think that Lebanon is the EMEA powerhouse

[Mathius Hellwege]

13 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but you won't convince even 5000 to watch England vs Jamaica, let alone what the attendance Jamaica vs Lebanon would be.

I would expect a little bit more due to migration, but the main goal is of course thee BBC1 viewer

 

what a success the viewership against Tonga has been, we have to replicate that

[17 stone giant]

26 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Yep stop complaining that they won’t come here and get down there, then they might reciprocate the year after. 

Well they won't because the following year (2025) is an Ashes series in Australia, and the year after that is supposedly a southern hemisphere World Cup.

So whilst normally I would be in favour of trying to make things work, I don't think England should be away three years in a row.

If we did that, what matches would we be left with here?

[Eddie]

8 minutes ago, 17 stone giant said:

Well they won't because the following year (2025) is an Ashes series in Australia, and the year after that is supposedly a southern hemisphere World Cup.

So whilst normally I would be in favour of trying to make things work, I don't think England should be away three years in a row.

If we did that, what matches would we be left with here?

Well ok I’d forgotten about the ashes tour and World Cup , my point is though that we can’t expect them to come to us, we need to get in their face and make them want to play us as we need them a lot more than they need us. 

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

1 hour ago, Spidey said:

England should bite the bullet and hop on a plane down under - 2 x 4 Nations tournaments then

Firstly, can we afford to do that? Secondly, would the Aussies even want us there when they can play NZ, Samoa and Tonga? Samoa v Tonga is a match-up that has to happen, and I don't see them kicking NZ out of a 4 Nations.

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

15 minutes ago, 17 stone giant said:

Well they won't because the following year (2025) is an Ashes series in Australia, and the year after that is supposedly a southern hemisphere World Cup.

So whilst normally I would be in favour of trying to make things work, I don't think England should be away three years in a row.

If we did that, what matches would we be left with here?

England v Exiles on a Wednesday night at Warrington.

[17 stone giant]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

Well ok I’d forgotten about the ashes tour and World Cup , my point is though that we can’t expect them to come to us, we need to get in their face and make them want to play us as we need them a lot more than they need us. 

I think we need each other (isn't that beautiful?). It shouldn't be seen as a charitable gesture for southern hemisphere teams to come to the UK. We're the second biggest rugby league playing country in the world. The northern and southern hemispheres should be working together to grow the sport.

We shouldn't be an after thought, feeding off scraps once they've decided what they're doing in the SH. It should be a proper plan to involve everyone.

Of course, it doesn't help that we've done virtually nothing to promote France and Wales, especially, but also Scotland and Ireland over the past 25 years or so. Had we done that, maybe we'd have a better more teams to play and perhaps arrange a mini-tournament with.