Three Tier Men’s Rugby League Championships Return

[Gomersall]

https://europeanrugbyleague.com/articles/2510/three-tier-mens-european-rugby-league-ch

[Eddie]

Surprised to see Greece behind Malta, unless it’s domestic players only. 

[Hopie]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Surprised to see Greece behind Malta, unless it’s domestic players only. 

https://www.intrl.sport/world-rankings

Close but looks like Malta passed Greece in the most recent update.

Edited March 22 by Hopie

[Click]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Surprised to see Greece behind Malta, unless it’s domestic players only. 

Greece haven't got a legend of the game like Sammut that has regularly played for Malta  

[Eddie]

12 minutes ago, Hopie said:

https://www.intrl.sport/world-rankings

Close but looks like Malta passed Greece in the most recent update.

Well yeah but are Holland or Serbia really better than Wales?

[Click]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

Well yeah but are Holland or Serbia really better than Wales?

It's the problem with world rankings in a sport that barely plays internationals. 

[langpark]

Malta have always been great at taking advantage of the incredibly loose criteria around what constitutes a full international match.  4 of their last 5 games were played in Sydney.  This is how they are always able to leapfrog a lot of the more genuine teams.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_national_rugby_league_team#Results

[gingerjon]

46 minutes ago, Click said:

It's the problem with world rankings in a sport that barely plays internationals. 

Wales, in particular, barely play outside of World Cups and qualifiers.

[Click]

6 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Wales, in particular, barely play outside of World Cups and qualifiers.

I only recall them playing twice last year, losing to France and perhaps winning against Ukraine? It was that one/two weekend in France and Wales. 

They may have played more, but I don't recall.

[Eddie]

22 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Wales, in particular, barely play outside of World Cups and qualifiers.

They do at least have Welsh players though. A game in Sydney between two ‘European’ nations of Australian players isn’t really an international imho, though I know many will disagree. 

[gingerjon]

23 minutes ago, Eddie said:

They do at least have Welsh players though. A game in Sydney between two ‘European’ nations of Australian players isn’t really an international imho, though I know many will disagree. 

Most understand that two diaspora teams playing in Sydney is not an international.

Unfortunately, Wales, in particular have played so little senior internationals that they leave the door open for those fake teams with only half hearted attempts at real development.

[Pulga]

4 hours ago, langpark said:

Malta have always been great at taking advantage of the incredibly loose criteria around what constitutes a full international match.

Again, hilarious.

How is it different to any other sport?

[Pulga]

3 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Most understand that two diaspora teams playing in Sydney is not an international.

Unfortunately, Wales, in particular have played so little senior internationals that they leave the door open for those fake teams with only half hearted attempts at real development.

There are no "half hearted attempts at real development". This is a paranoid conspiracy theory almost always perpetuated by Englishmen.

The fact is, being involved in rugby league development in newer nations is a massive detriment to your mental and financial health. The international game is an utter shambles and the people trying to actually do something about it becomes the whipping boys when the criticism should really be turned on the IRL and ERL. 

It's nobody's fault that teams like Wales are not as highly ranked as other think they should be but Wales'.

 

[Click]

46 minutes ago, Pulga said:

There are no "half hearted attempts at real development". This is a paranoid conspiracy theory almost always perpetuated by Englishmen.

The fact is, being involved in rugby league development in newer nations is a massive detriment to your mental and financial health. The international game is an utter shambles and the people trying to actually do something about it becomes the whipping boys when the criticism should really be turned on the IRL and ERL. 

It's nobody's fault that teams like Wales are not as highly ranked as other think they should be but Wales'.

 

2 groups of Australians playing eachother in Sydney doesn't do much in the home countries of those nations in terms of development, unless you can explain what it does to help?

[langpark]

6 hours ago, Pulga said:

Again, hilarious.

How is it different to any other sport?

There he is! I was wondering when you were going to show up, advocating these Sydney matches. Right on cue. 

[JM2010]

But these aren’t being played in Sydney. This is a tiered European competition with the chance from teams to move up tiers if they perform. There’s even talk about adding new countries in future. This is exactly what should be being done post season. 

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, JM2010 said:

But these aren’t being played in Sydney.

Exactly. This tournament is what should be happening. We keep getting variations on it but it really does need to be longer term.

[Eddie]

23 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

But these aren’t being played in Sydney. This is a tiered European competition with the chance from teams to move up tiers if they perform. There’s even talk about adding new countries in future. This is exactly what should be being done post season. 

100%, it’s the rankings based on the games that do happen in Sydney that are a concern though. 

[gingerjon]

7 hours ago, Pulga said:

How is it different to any other sport?

I can't think of any other sport that has heritage and diaspora teams routinely playing games outside the countries they represent as part of their main international programme.

We do agree about the usefulness of the IRL - and, broadly, that it's nobody's fault but Wales (as an example) that they don't play more games at a higher level.

[Tommygilf]

Taken from my response to this topic on the WC thread.

European International RU seem to have a good, logical consistent structure below the 6 nations. Hopefully we can get to a similar level of consistency in our sport - I'd also be advocating for home and away matches, across 2 international windows if possible. Yeah crowds are most likely going to be measured in hundreds at first and breaking 1k consistently will be a major achievement, but this is the hard work necessary to lay the groundwork for the next 50 years.

Ideally we'd see similar in the Americas, either combined North and South or separate, and the MEA region too.

[gingerjon]

2 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Taken from my response to this topic on the WC thread.

European International RU seem to have a good, logical consistent structure below the 6 nations. Hopefully we can get to a similar level of consistency in our sport - I'd also be advocating for home and away matches, across 2 international windows if possible. Yeah crowds are most likely going to be measured in hundreds at first and breaking 1k consistently will be a major achievement, but this is the hard work necessary to lay the groundwork for the next 50 years.

Ideally we'd see similar in the Americas, either combined North and South or separate, and the MEA region too.

Like a lot of things, it's annoying because a few years ago it looked like we'd more or less got there for Europe but then it all just sort of stopped.

It's a positive to see a structure but it would be even better to, as you say, have two windows and, an actual framework for  next year and the year after.

This is a good, though, for all the extra debating.

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, gingerjon said:

Like a lot of things, it's annoying because a few years ago it looked like we'd more or less got there for Europe but then it all just sort of stopped.

It's a positive to see a structure but it would be even better to, as you say, have two windows and, an actual framework for  next year and the year after.

This is a good, though, for all the extra debating.

I agree its like we've reinvented the wheel again, we've already had this!

The 2023 Euros that were cancelled in the fallout of the French world cup débacle would have been the perfect building block imo and what we really should be striving for. An 8 team EURO A split into 2 groups of 4 with a final. Below that 6 team EURO B in 2 groups on the same principle and lower down the same.

England bring that media attention nobody else in the NH has, but that also helps France, Wales, Scotland, Serbia and Ireland bringing something too. For the latter 3 as planned, a televised game against England would be the most exposure they've probably be up there with the most exposure they've had for the sport there. It may be that their other 2 games are back to the usual 500 people in attendance type events, but 1 big match a year like that could fund the federations activities for the next year alone!

RU, for cost benefits seems, put nations lower down together based on travel distances too (so Turkey aren't travelling to Denmark for a 6th level match), and I'm sure we could do similar too.

I'm excited for the day when the hard work done over the past 25 years and then next 25 mean that England can go play Serbia or Greece as a genuine game. 

Its about consistency and not chopping and changing for no reason. Let nations build and give them something to build towards.

[NRLandSL]

England, France and Wales playing each other every year is the next step. Though the results will be pretty obvious, fixtures between the best sides in Europe are necessarily if we want the international game to grow.

[Pulga]

10 hours ago, Click said:

2 groups of Australians playing eachother in Sydney doesn't do much in the home countries of those nations in terms of development, unless you can explain what it does to help?

I think you'll find home games can be basically impossible. And calling them Australian is low mate. They obviously don't identify that way.

[Pulga]

4 hours ago, langpark said:

There he is! I was wondering when you were going to show up, advocating these Sydney matches. Right on cue. 

You're advocating for no rugby league taking place. That's the only other option in basically every case.