Some of the ideas here are ridiculous, some of you are pretty much suggesting holding a World Cup every year.

Game got called off on the hour mark after it rained so much you couldn't genuinely couldn't see the person next to you (never seen rain like it in my life and I've lived in a city that flooded!). Talk of WC qualifiers is very premature. Nowhere near that stage yet.

I haven't.

Is this the same Ireland that has NEVER beaten New Zealand in the history of internationals between the two sides? Kinda puts paid to the argument that one team is capable of beating any other... or have Ireland never had a ‘good day’ against New Zealand?



p.s. I don’t normally put things in capitals but my never is factual and your never is simply predicting the future so I thought mine won out there

Ireland went crazy celebrating a pool stage win against Australia. It was that big a deal to them, and they're definitely in the better half of the Six Nations.

Hate to use them as an example but the soccer teams play so many internationals against so many teams tracking down the numbers each year is hard...



Different Nations England (RU) played 2010: 9

Different Nations England (RU) played 2011: 8 (inc WC)

Added Argentina, Georgia, Romania. Less Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa.



Different Nations Wales (RU) played 2010: 8

Different Nations Wales (RU) played 2011: 11 (inc WC)

Argentina, Namibia and Samoa extra, otherwise the same.



Hardly a big difference there... the world cup just adds some also-rans. Otherwise sports tend to be running qualifying tournaments, or having competitions/friendlies with teams rougly a similar ability/rivals anyway...



We have (slightly) fewer nations than Ru of course at this point, don't see the harm in adding some consistency each year, whatever format is used? After all, we've basically had the WC each year anyway with the 3/4N, whilst leaving the other nations to their own devices.

The difference is that football has 200+ national teams, and a consistent programme of qualifying and major tournaments. Imagine if you had a tournament between England, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil and Argentina every year, it would just be stupid. Regarding the rest of your post, I couldn't care less about RU.

Should go back to GB, as Wales, Scotland and Ireland are useless - then GB might be a bit more competitive v Oz and NZ.

Think about what you have just said.

Less international RL isnt going to grow international RL.



International RL is our greatest tool for spreading the game but for it to do that we have to actually play international RL.

Agreed, that doesn't mean that every team needs to play each other every year. I wouldn't be averse to a 5 Nations tournament two years between World Cups, but if we play the same competition with the same teams every year it would just be overkill. In fact, I'd be pretty happy if the international programme from last year, this year and next year is consistent for the three years where the World Cup is not being contested, obviously with an expanded World Cup Qualifying process over two seasons.