2nd and 3rd division World Cup

[paco1]

Reading some post about the scoring of NZ vs Portugal and the draw of the groups, i thought that it may be interesting to change the format of the RWC.

In the U-19 World Cup there is a B parallel tournament, and a C too, with promotion/relegation systems.

This will avoid cricket scores and wiil also allows many more nations to take part of the competition. The teams that will compete for the Web Ellis Trophy will be 16, going back to old format which I think would be better.

The only problem would be this: Will the IRB allow some of the traditional rugby nations that are not so good today, to play for relegation of the RWC?? I will not give examples as many people can get offended.

 

[Substitute]

Well if England had beaten France in the contest to host the world cup there would have been 2 divisions. One 16 , the other 20.

I do think the current format leaves a lot to e desired, particurly the aforementioned cricket score. With the exceptions of the France pool you can pretty safely predict who will go through.

The problem is though until the likes of Samoa, Fiji, Canada get the funding these inequalities will always exist and World Cups will, until the later stages, be rather predictable events. Still goo fun, though.

 

[HuwL]

I think it’s a good idea to have a plate kind of competition to run parallel with the current WC. 3rd and 4th place teams in the groups qualify for their own knockout stage.