Northern Hemisphere Internationals Idea

It seems to me that Australia has decided no one is going to decide for them regarding the international programme. They will organise their internationals around the Pacific region based on their own preferences. This means the Northern Hemisphere will have to look at what it is doing.

England has been playing a four nations tournament with Australia, New Zealand and one other nation, which  is something I feel has run its course. Surely England needs to throw its lot in with the nations around it. So why not instead have a Northern Hemisphere international programme? This it how I see it could be run:

It is played at the end of the season. Have a Group A plus a Group B, both comprising of six nations each. They play each team in their group once as double header matches at one venue. A finals weekend would follow where the top two from Group A play a grand final. The last team from Group A plays the winner of Group B to see if a those positions change for the next year. The bottom team of Group B later plays the winner of a challengers group we could call Group C, which is not part of this tournament.

I've done a chart to show how the tournament could be arranged. It's quite a large tournament but the benefit and profile for the international game would be huge. The domestic pro season in the UK may need shortening slightly but well worth the effort.

Group A					Group B
England France Ireland					Canada Jamaica Lebanon
Italy Scotland Wales					Russia Serbia USA
Rounds
Fri	1st	2nd	Sat	1st	2nd	Sun	1st	2nd	Wk1
	Canada	England		Russia	Scotland		Jamaica	Ireland
	Serbia	France		USA	Wales		Lebanon	Italy
Fri	1st	2nd	Sat	1st	2nd	Sun	1st	2nd	Wk2
	Canada	England		Jamaica	Ireland		Lebanon	France
	USA	Scotland		Russia	Wales		Serbia	Italy
Fri	1st	2nd	Sat	1st	2nd	Sun	1st	2nd	Wk3
	Canada	England		Jamaica	France		Lebanon	Italy
	Russia	Wales		Serbia	Ireland		USA	Scotland
Fri	1st	2nd	Sat	1st	2nd	Sun	1st	2nd	Wk4
	Canada	England		Lebanon	Ireland		Serbia	France
	Jamaica	Italy		Russia	Scotland		USA	Wales
Fri	1st	2nd	Sat	1st	2nd	Sun	1st	2nd	Wk5
	Canada	England		Serbia	France		Jamaica	Italy
	Lebanon	Ireland		Russia	Scotland		USA	Wales
Finals
			Sat	Play Off 6th v 1st		Sat	Gp A 1st v 2nd		Wk6
				Wales			England
				Lebanon			France