Australia and Samoa would be pitted against each other in a World Cup final rematch in a proposal to revive the “Four Nations” concept at the end of this year’s NRL season.
In the strongest sign yet of plans to reinvigorate Test rugby league, a secret plan has been drafted for Mal Meninga’s World Cup-winning Kangaroos to take on New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga during a four-week tournament in 2023.
International Rugby League, NRL and New Zealand Rugby League officials have discussed the format, which would be played in Australia and New Zealand.
The centrepiece of the proposed tournament would be a triple header at Auckland’s Eden Park in which Samoa and Tonga would meet again, after their World Cup quarter-final, before Australia and New Zealand do battle.
Samoa scraped past Tonga in their final-eight clash before beating England to reach the World Cup final for the first time. A Kangaroos-Kiwis clash would give Michael Maguire’s men a chance for revenge after their narrow semi-final loss.
The day would also feature a women’s international between the world champion Jillaroos and New Zealand’s Kiwi Ferns.
World Cup stars (from left) New Zealand’s Joseph Manu, Samoa’s Junior Paulo, Australia’s James Tedesco and Tonga’s Jason Taumalolo could meet in an end-of-year Four Nations.
There have been growing calls for rugby league bosses to create more windows to grow the international game.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has previously spoken of his desire to create opportunities for Test matches, particularly after the expansion of the NRL to 17 teams forced the mid-season representative window to be scrapped.
The NRL’s regular season now has 27 rounds with all three State of Origin matches on Wednesday nights, sinking the previous representative weekend in which Pacific nations would also play Tests.
A Four Nations tournament hasn’t been played since 2016, when England hosted Australia, New Zealand and Scotland.
The emergence of world No.3 Samoa and Tonga has made a competition in the southern hemisphere a potential money spinner, in particular if the Pacific powerhouses meet at Eden Park, which has a large expat population.
It could also lead to Penrith halves Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai squaring off again. Luai, Stephen Crichton, Brian To’o and Junior Paulo energised Samoa’s World Cup campaign.
The stumbling block could be Tonga, who have previously discussed a European tour at the end of 2023.
A competition would be seen as a crucial platform for the next World Cup, which will be held in 2025.
It is only a three-year cycle from last year’s event to the next tournament given the 2021 edition was delayed by 12 months due to Australia and New Zealand’s concerns about travelling during the pandemic.
The potential new tournament, which would run into November, would force NRL clubs to likely wait until 2024 to have representative stars on deck for pre-season training.
The NRL and players’ union are thrashing out leave entitlements for the game’s top stars in the long-running collective bargaining agreement talks.
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