Emerging Nations : 2018 Preview

There was to be such a tournament in 2017 to coincide with the World Cup but instead it is being played in 2018 at Sydney, Australia. Perhaps it would have been overshadowed by the full WC event. Anyway teams that didn't qualify for the WC are included, although there are some notably absentees. Eleven sides will be present.

There are three groups, two have three teams (A & B) and one five (C). The A & B groups have two sides going into the Cup Playoffs (1st to 4th), The third team from A & B groups join the top two from Group C to enter the Trophy Playoffs (5th to 8th). The three lower sides from Group C enter the Bowl Playoffs (9th to 11th).

All the pool teams play each other twice so the Group C teams don't play all the other teams in that pool. Everyone has two more games in the play off matches so all sides get four matches each.

	Group A		Group B		Group C
	1	Malta	1	Greece	1	Hong Kong
	2	Niue	2	Hungary	2	Japan
	3	Philippines	3	Vanuatu	3	Poland
					4	Solomon Is
					5	Turkey

The tournament has already commenced and matches can be seen by clicking here.
For my summary of the competition, just click here.