Nations Championship?
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@chimoaus said in World League Rugby:
@gt12 said in World League Rugby:
Well that clears things up, why the fuck didnt they just release this when it first popped up, this makes way more sense to me. I don't have a major issue with this format tbh. Be interesting to see what happens in BIL years.
According to Pichot's social media posts, there was strong opposition in the WR Council during the earlier negotiation stages against the promotion/relegation part of the proposal. The fact that WR is posting this proposal now, is IMO just to calm down all opposition to the leaked proposal (without the promotion/relegation). The question is now, which of the proposals (with or without promotion/relegation) will they vote on (or vote on first)?
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@gt12 said in World League Rugby:
Will all the SH teams have to go to Europe for the tests again teams outside their conference? That wasn’t clear to me.
As I understand it (not from the video, but from the information that was published earlier), SH teams will play 3 European teams in the July international window at home (or at least in the SH) and 3 other European teams in the November international window in Europe. The semi-finals and final would be played at a big neutral venue, in Europe (I think).
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@Stargazer you'd think. regardless of who plays in the final, Stade Francias or Twickers loom as the most obvious?
Good capacity, central for where the largest fans bases are, ideal time zone for those same fan bases...just how much appetite for fans to pay to watch a game between NZ/Ire/eng/SA/Wales in Stade Francias or at Twickers between same teams sans England.
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@taniwharugby The stadium of FC Barcelona, Camp Nou, was mentioned in one of the media reports.
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@Stargazer I guess that would have some appeal initially...but again, how willing would these large fan bases be to travel to watch say NZ/SA in a final? There wont be huge numbers travelling from SA or NZ just to watch.
Ideally, WR wants (needs) England/Ireland/France to be there at the pointy end, this would generate much more income and interest than a all SH derby.
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@taniwharugby That may well happen as the ABs, SA etc will be at the end of a very long season with a metric shit-ton of travel. However the money bonus for playing those matches, I guess there will be one, will focus the SH sides, and we can afford to send B teams to the 2 RC extras, I guess.
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The other elephant in the room I was thinking about was the inability of some PI nations to host games.
- They don't generate any TV revenue internally
- Some of the fields (most of the fields?) are not up to international standard
- Administrators make 'interesting' decisions with the money they have
You can see why they went straight to USA and Japan. Deep pockets. It's finding a balance between the $ and the rugby integrity of the competition. Super failed this challenge last time around with the 'pools', and it's smashed the credibility of the comp.
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@JayCee said in World League Rugby:
am i understanding the relegation bit correctly, in the vid they had Italy and Georgia switching .... meaning Georgia is now in the 6 nations?
That was hypothetical just to demonstrate how promotion & relegation would work.
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@antipodean yeah I get that it's hypothetical. I'm just surprised that they agreed to relegation in that comp
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I was thinking about that too - how does it affect the 6N?
Once Italy is relegated, I suppose it just means Italy play five additional games to the Div 2 competition, and all the Div 1 teams play one additional game.
Very doable considering the proposed format is only 11 matches per team per year.
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@barbarian said in World League Rugby:
I was thinking about that too - how does it affect the 6N?
Once Italy is relegated, I suppose it just means Italy play five additional games to the Div 2 competition, and all the Div 1 teams play one additional game.
Very doable considering the proposed format is only 11 matches per team per year.
I'm not sure I understand you correctly, but in case of relegation of Italy (or any other country) to the Rugby Europe International Championship (REIC = division 2), another country will get promoted (most likely Georgia). The number of countries in each division will stay the same as it is now; so there won't be additional games, just a different team in each division.
Considering Italy beat Georgia in November 2018 (28 - 17), it's actually the question whether Italy would get relegated. There's a good chance they'd beat Georgia in the promotion/relegation match.
In case of a loss, Italy would most likely win to the European Conference Division 2 a year later, and again play that promotion/relegation match against whoever finishes last of the Six Nations teams that year.
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@Stargazer What I mean is Italy will be relegated, but will remain in the Six Nations. The other five nations play eachother as usual (with World League points attached), and then play Italy as well (no League points attached).
So you end up with two comps at once, with slightly different teams in each one.
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@barbarian But is that the proposal? I don't understand it as "two comps at once", but as one half of the new comp (the intra-conference games) replacing existing competitions and the other half (inter-conference games) being added (replacing tours).
So the European leg of the new global competition comes instead of the existing ones (new Six Nations with promotion/relegation instead of current Six Nations without promotion/relegation; in the REIC nothing changes).
The "Rest of the World" leg comes instead of the Rugby Championship and adds two countries and promotion/relegation; the entire division 2 in this leg is new.
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@barbarian said in World League Rugby:
@Stargazer What I mean is Italy will be relegated, but will remain in the Six Nations. The other five nations play eachother as usual (with World League points attached), and then play Italy as well (no League points attached).
So you end up with two comps at once, with slightly different teams in each one.
I assume that Italy would not be part of the Six Nations that year and the promoted team would be. That is how I see it. Same with Rugby Championship, we would not play Argentina if they were relegated from top division.
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I assume the promotion/relegation matches would be played at a neutral venue as well or do you think the Division 1 nation would get the home advantage? You also have to wonder what happens to the cut of broadcasting money. So if Fiji are starting in division 1 they would get the same as every other division 1 nation. I assume that would be an amazing boost to their income and ability to pay players etc etc.
It will also be interesting to see what income they get in division 2. If it is a decent amount it maybe the help a lot of those nations need to retain players and improve facilities, coaching etc. If the entire competition is available at a reasonable price online there would be a plethora of rugby to watch.
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From reading a bit more it seems you guys are right.
It's all well and good if Italy go as everyone assume, but what if it's Scotland or Wales? It's unlikely but not impossible...
I see this as a big barrier to getting it up, as the traditional nations probably won't be thrilled about the prospect of 6N relegation, no matter how unlikely.