UPTHEPORT wrote: March 21st, 2022, 10:57 am
What I don't get is you got the same 6 sides invited every year why aren't other countries allowed in work all the egg fans say it's because they ain't good enough well if they ain't playing at a decent level they wont improve
I'm a big cricket fan over the years the likes of Ireland and Holland have been allowed to play in the domestic game over here to help development it seems to me there's a closed shop in the egg
I agree, to an extent, it is somewhat a closed shop - indeed for rugby world cup qualification it’s a case of jumping through millions of hoops - while in football a lesser nation (in ‘soccer’ terms) like say Canada (who played in the 1986 world cup and look set to qualify for 2022) have a fair to middling chance to qualify whereas the lesser but no less worthy rugby nations (like say Germany believe it or not who have a decent rugby team) have to jump through hoops and have virtually no chance of qualifying, in fairness Rugby 7’s allows lesser rugby nations to compete and in some cases do so fairly well (say Kenya) but in 15’s I do feel rugby needs to be more democratic.
Short version – a form of promotion/relegation (say team who finish in lowest aggregate position over 3 years plays off against 2nd tier team [say Georgia] with highest aggregate finish over past 3 years and repeat every 3 or 6 years) – but at moment commercial deals have been signed for way into future.
Problem is while football rarely sees true hammerings in rugby due to physicality and training of fully professional teams v semi pro teams its is borderline dangerous to play them off against each other (so say in football England may beat San Marino 5:0 but in rugby would truly batter Romania) horses for courses.