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RWC to be expanded to 24 teams

I see theres some interesting teams in the 2027 WC already.

Hong Kong in their first WC.
Zimbabwe back after decades away....
Spain finally in...
And there could yet be some more new faces depending on the South America / Pacific Island qualification results.

Whilst none will affect the latter stages, its nice to see new faces in the World Cup.
 
Saintjay said:
Be interesting to see the usual complaints again about one sided matches. Pointless games to the quaters/semi finals etc. As seen levelled at the womens RWC.
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It's really tedious.

Let's just cut the RWC down to 6 teams. NZ, SA, England, Aus, Ireland and one qualifier
 
Ddanno said:
It's really tedious.

Let's just cut the RWC down to 6 teams. NZ, SA, England, Aus, Ireland and one qualifier
Click to expand...
Just go one further SA and NZ have made the last three semi's. Argentina and England last two.

Have SA and NZ automatic semi's. England and Argentina play off for one spot. Everyone else plays off for the fourth spot.
 
actually RWC has to be expanded to 48 giving the top 8 Unions a bye till the last group of 12. T3 and T2 must play at least the same amount of games per year to improve and catch up.
i hope before my 100 birthday, i get to see something more WORLD Rugby, than what they try to do now-a-days.
 
The one sided score complaint is pretty unique to rugby too. It happened in soccer when they expanded to 32 and will again in the next one with 48. More teams guarantees more countries broadcast it, only a good thing.

We're due a comically bad, slow burn death world cup, this is the better option between the depressing and sudden crashout as I get to enjoy the rest of the tournament and get excited about a rebuild.
 
Leonormous Boozer said:
The one sided score complaint is pretty unique to rugby too. It happened in soccer when they expanded to 32 and will again in the next one with 48. More teams guarantees more countries broadcast it, only a good thing.

We're due a comically bad, slow burn death world cup, this is the better option between the depressing and sudden crashout as I get to enjoy the rest of the tournament and get excited about a rebuild.
Click to expand...

Lets be honest, World Rugby feels more like a close shop as F1 and nothing like the organization-chart of FIBA, VNL or IIHF.
 
djwizard84 said:
Lets be honest, World Rugby feels more like a close shop as F1 and nothing like the organization-chart of FIBA, VNL or IIHF.
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I agree yeah, said as much on another thread this week.

Only big market nations have a chance at breaking through currently and this is the only stab at that so I won't be holding my breath but equally don't think it's a bad thing. The 20 team format was quite problematic too imo.
 
pagliaccio_euforico said:
Pretty decent chance that even with a 24 team World Cup and 3 opportunities to qualify the USA is going to miss out.

Canada was our easiest path and we lost by two tries.
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Totally!

From the 4 PNC unions USA looks like the weakest link, so an other long trip to Chile could cause serious harm and if they are send to the FQT.. damn, to play Namibia and Belgium. 🥸

though, everything is possible and there still a lot of games to play, so we will see.
 
Leonormous Boozer said:
I agree yeah, said as much on another thread this week.

Only big market nations have a chance at breaking through currently and this is the only stab at that so I won't be holding my breath but equally don't think it's a bad thing. The 20 team format was quite problematic too imo.
Click to expand...

I think 20 teams was probably the sweet spot. I really liked the format of the last world cup.

As we have to have 24, if it was up to me we'd have 4 groups of 6 with the top 2 qualifying for the QF..

Would give the minnows more games against Tier 1 opponents.
 
Geordie said:
I see theres some interesting teams in the 2027 WC already.

Hong Kong in their first WC.
Zimbabwe back after decades away....
Spain finally in...
And there could yet be some more new faces depending on the South America / Pacific Island qualification results.

Whilst none will affect the latter stages, its nice to see new faces in the World Cup.
Click to expand...
Black Power Yes GIF by BrownSugarApp
 
Last edited:
Good to see England A are playing Spain in the autumn, would like to see other A sides playing teams that have qualified for the world cup as part of their warm up and development
 
mdaclarke said:
I think 20 teams was probably the sweet spot. I really liked the format of the last world cup.

As we have to have 24, if it was up to me we'd have 4 groups of 6 with the top 2 qualifying for the QF..

Would give the minnows more games against Tier 1 opponents.
Click to expand...
Surely, a better idea would be to not have so many automatic qualifiers, creating more jeopardy for T1 teams.
Having the top 8 qualifying, rather than 12 would mean more matches between T1 and T2 teams in qualifying matches.
The Nations League could then be built around the 8 qualified teams, while the rest play their qualifiers.
 

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