Well wouldn't that be overkill?



You called the 8 Nations idea ridiculous by trying to say that it would be an annual WC, though I never said it should be a yearly tournament...



Anyway, it is at least a way to ensure the second-tier nations are getting more exposure to the top nations so that they too can improve by the next WC. Having only a select 4 Nations every year then closing the door on the rest is like helping the rich get richer and making sure the poor get poorer...

No

We should be looking at something like:



Year 1: European Cup and Pacific Cup, England tour of Southern Hemisphere/Australia test series/whatever

Year 2: 5 Nations with winners of European and Pacific Cup, rest of teams begin WC qualifying

Year 3: WC Qualifying concludes. Possible test series between England/NZ/France/any other nations that are want to play, pretty much what will be happening next year

Year 4: World Cup



Repeating the same competitions on a four-yearly basis doesn't mean overkill, football has been doing that for 50 years.

Pretty similar to what I said then.



I don't like the sporadic year 3 though. There's no structure to it.

What about:



Year 1: Series between England, Australia and New Zealand in England (Australia also play half of the other nations, New Zealand the other half), European Cup and Pacific Cup also for other nations.

Year 2: 5 Nations, winners of Pacific Cup and European Cup, WC Qualifiers for other nations to give other nine slots for world cup.

Year 3: Series between England, Australia and New Zealand in Australia, (England play half nations, New Zealand half)

Year 4: World Cup



and then year 1 it goes to New Zealand and Australia and England play half the nations etc. Just an idea

Yeah, i do.



But I also think that having a GB touring/four nations side, will encourage more players to play for, and stick with the home nations which would narrow the gap. Of course England will dominate to start with, but its also an opportunity for experimenting for the England squad, so i doubt the coach would learn a great deal from playing his best 17 every week, again narrowing the gap.

You could make it the 500 Nations, Aussie or Kiwi would still win it.

Thanks for your contribution

The one thing that Mr Lewis and Mr Wood have got spot on is the revision of the International calendar , until we have more competitive 4 nations competitions , it should not change , it is fine as it is , it is a genuine competition with other genuine competitions feed it

No problem. Just stating the obvious.

If it were to happen, which I think could be feasible - but only as a 2 group tier system - then I'm not sure why Wales or France are both deserving of a place.



I fancy both PNG and Samoa should have position, with either Wales or France losing out. Both have demonstrated to be far more competitive against the big boys, where Wales and France have never asked any questions of anybody.

No they aren't. Wales are no where near capable of beating New Zealand.



Their World Cup fortunes were a fluke. They're still 8th on the IRB ladder and deservedly so.

For the 8 nations, you could have the 7th/5th/3rd place playoffs and GF on some big day, so if you buy a ticket you can go to all games.



For example:

12:00- Figi vs Ireland (7th place)

2:00- Wales vs PNG (5th Place)

4:00- France vs NZ (3rd Place)

6:00- England vs Australia (Grand Final)



If you had something like that you could get a big crowd at all games. It could be at a stadium like Elland Road, Galpharm or CoMS.