Nations Championship?
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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.
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@barbarian said in World League Rugby:
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.
Yeah it will be interesting for sure, I guess it comes down to progress and growing the game. If they are good enough they will stay in division 1. The other thing I have seen raised is the current six nations I believe is free to air in the UK? So moving it all to pay tv may upset a few people.
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@chimoaus It will be interesting how it all works out, if the proposal is adopted (that's still a big "if").
Interestingly, all Rugby Europe International Ch'ship matches are currently streamed live for free on Rugby Europe's website (also div 3 games, women's games and sevens tournaments). You can also watch replays for free. I wonder whether that will change, or will they keep it free (and do the same for the "Rest of the World" division 2 games)?
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Another thing to consider is how and when do nations organise extra games. For example say you come 3rd, 4th or 5th you will only be guaranteed 11 tests per year. But you will only likely know this at the end of November. So do you take a gamble and organise a second bledisloe or a game vs USA etc. This may come back to bite the eventual winner as they have two extra games in November.
I know Aus and NZ bank on those extra Bledisloe and Feature matches for extra revenue.
Ultimately it is going to make player management/squad depth etc much more important.
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@chimoaus This only applies to NZ, but maybe they'll organise longer Maori ABs tours, or even Junior ABs matches. The latter could be good for test players who haven't had too much game time, and some wider training squad members, who aren't eligible to play for the MABs.
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@Stargazer said in World League Rugby:
@chimoaus This only applies to NZ, but maybe they'll organise longer Maori ABs tours, or even Junior ABs matches. The latter could be good for test players who haven't had too much game time, and some wider training squad members, who aren't eligible to play for the MABs.
Maybe they will, you still have the issue of locking in other countries as they themselves wont know exactly how many games they may play. Perhaps most nations will just organise to play 13 tests, meaning 2 outside the World League and just play 15 tests if they make the final.
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