The WC Festival

I was thinking about how in ice hockey many top NHL players don't go to their WC. They still have it anyway and it's popular. It also means without the best always there, the winner is more variable. So I thought about a RL WC festival held a year before a WC, a comp where all the players with NRL or SL contracts are excluded. A WC for the semi pros and amateurs. 

Australia would be made up of Qld and NSW comp players, home nations sides from the Championship and the French from Elite 1. It would be a great leveler and would give nations without access to full pro players a chance do better. One sided games would be far fewer yet the standard would still be entertaining. I'd watch it and enjoy many of the games more than at a full WC. 

For countries like Greece - that sent a side over to this WC to get mercilessly walloped three times - a chance to compete and gain greater benefit from the experience. It would motivate people in emerging RL nations to take up the sport and hopefully get picked to represent their nation. Any profit would be shared among the nations involved. 

Pie in the sky I know but I like putting out ideas to challenge the status quo. RL needs to do more to encourage the sport in 'emerging' nations and to encourage international RL generally. We need to try different things otherwise we'll keep getting what we already have, a few good nations and a bunch of stragglers totally outclassed.

Pic: ERL.Ireland v Serbia.

World Cup Historical Rankings : 1954-2021

I've put a summary together of all World Cups in a way to evaluate participation and success. One the left, all the games played at World Cups have had points allocated to them. They are three for a win, two for a draw and one for a loss. The right side shows percentages of the left side. 

Key: W=Win, D=Draw, L=Loss, G=Games played.

RL WC Trivia (Women's)

 Here's my top ten for the women's game:

1) Of the six tournaments, NZ and Australia have each won three trophies. NZ the first three, the Jillaroos the last three.

2) The Kiwi Ferns won the first eighteen games they played at World Cups. Australia has now won its last eleven.

3) Six nations have been to only one World Cup. Three have been to all six.

4) New Zealand is the only country to appear in all six finals.

5) In the last four tournaments, the winning sides have been scoring between 88 and 90% of the points. 

6) Most games were played at the rather convoluted 2003 event (25). 

7) There have been two teams that didn't represent an individual country. A New Zealand Maori side in 2003 and a combined Pacific in 2008.

8) Tonga has not won any of its ten WC games. 

9) France has won only one of its twelve matches. Its only win was against Tonga. 

10) The biggest grand final winning margin was NZ defeating NZ Maori 58-0 in 2003.