Well, I've been saying this for a long tme and finally the IRB comes up big!! 2013 will see the addition of Canada and the USA to the Pacific Nations Cup. They will be permanent additions as well.
This will be big for North American rugby. :)
http://www.irb.com/pacificnationscup/news/newsid=2065050.html#exciting+look+pacific+nations+cup
Just looked, and realised that now every country in the top 16 of the world is involved in a major annual tournament. This is good stuff for Rugby.
So soon Canada and America will be stealing South African youngsters?
Just kidding, sounds good.
LOL. We already have poached one.......kind of. Daniel tailleferre hauman Van der merwe. Or as we call him, DTH Van der Merwe. Was born in SA then moved to Canada. He is our best back, and probably our best player. Plays for the Glasgow Warriors with Josh Strauss, and scores lots of tries for them. Probably their best back as well.
This is great news Can!
I suggested some years ago th atthi sbe don ean dat the time also included Argentina, Uruguay etc. A tremedoulsy beneficail step and long overdue.
Canada and the United States will join rugby's Pacific Nations Cup this year, the International Rugby Board said, providing a boost for tier two nations with more competitive matches. The North American duo will be permanent additions to the IRB-funded annual tournament which features Japan,Tonga, Fiji and Samoa, the IRB said in a statement on Monday. "This exciting enhancement to the IRB Pacific Nations Cup is good news for Japan, Canada, USA and the Pacific Islands," IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset said. "We now have in place an annual high-calibre competition that will deliver compelling matches, while also fulfilling the high performance needs of our Unions." Japan, World Cup hosts in 2019, will stage the final round in June, though holders Samoa will be absent as they take a sabbatical to compete in a four-team series in South Africa against the Springboks, Scotland and Italy having qualified as the best tier two side. The initiative is the latest move by the IRB to try to improve standards in world rugby, which is dominated by New Zealand and a handful of other nations. "The IRB has a long-term commitment through our strategic plan to create greater levels of quality test competition for tier two nations in order to boost the competitiveness of the world game and rugby World Cup," IRB Head of Development and Performance Mark Egan said. "To that end we are investing more than 10 million pounds ($15.87 million) per annum in tournaments and high performance programmes for our targeted group of Strategic Initiative Unions." 'WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY' While undoubtedly talented, the Pacific Islanders have suffered from a player drain to bigger nations, with Samoan-born Manu Tuilagi currently playing centre for England and Fijian-born Radike Samo representing Australia in the backrow. Despite the player losses, Samoa have moved up to seventh in the world rankings after wins away to Wales andAustralia in the last 18 months, while Tonga won 21-15 in Scotland in November, their first victory over the Six Nations side. With the expanded Pacific Nations Cup (PNC), coaches of the tier two teams are hopeful the upsets will continue. "The new look PNC will provide the Eagles with consistent fixtures against some very competitive teams, this can only be good news for the Eagles as we plan our path to Rugby World Cup 2015 in England," USA Rugby Chief Executive Nigel Melville said. Japan head coach Eddie Jones, who took Australia to the 2003 World Cup final, agreed with the Englishman. "The IRB Pacific Nations Cup is a wonderful opportunity for Japan and all participating unions to elevate their performances to a higher level in order that we can be more competitive at future rugby World Cups," Jones said.Anything that stops the parasitic nz and more lately Oz living off the backs of the islanders is to be welcomed. They should also form their own version ofthe Super 15. That could spell disaster for nz as they have many an islander playing in the super 15 I believe.
Canada will only benefit and one expects a rise up the rankings for them and the USA. Japan - well unless they import do the yhav ethe big guys locally?
As for league well how long will it last. Rugby Union rules! A truly international game.
Beeno the visionary (years ahead of his time) living to see his suggestions at last come to fruition. How long til they form their own Super 15 type of comp one wonders.
beeno,
These countries making their own super 15 style league will be many many many years away. I believe the PNC has only been around since 2006. It has now just added Canada and USA. That will probably be it. Let's just let this tournament percolate a bit. I believe Japan has gained a little from this tournament in the last few years, but it will take longer for them to really gain from it. With Canada and USA joining hopefully we start seeing the pay offs in the next 5 years as well with Japan really starting to see the benefits.
Having a balanced field of play is really what the sport needs. 16 solid countries playing year round will make the RWC a bigger and better spectacle. Yes, it's great for those couple of countries that just beat everybody, but that isn't sustainable. More countries need to be better. It doesn't do much for the sport in a country when you're country is losing 70-14 to teams like the AB's and Spring boks. This will help a little.
this is awesome news, will be great for the north american countries and aid greatly in developing their rugby.
ive mentioned in the past a number of ideas to involve canda and the US and being included in the pascific nations was one of them.
i would also like to see a TriNats tournament involving the US/canda/russia, it woulr be a rugby marketing dream come true for that region and would only help elevate the status of rugby, especially in years to come.
i think in our life time we will see the US in particular on the verge of tier 1 status, after college, thay have so many basketball and american football talent who are pretty much discarded into the veryday american wilderness if they arent picked up by the NFL, NBA or overseas basektball leagues, the potential for rugby to capitalise on those players is mind blowingly huge.
Sasuke.
I've always said that if the US just takes 5% of it's athletes and puts them into Rugby they could challenge for top 10 in the world easily.
@ben10,
heres a fact u are completely oblivious too, cos as we all know ur the least informed blogger here, samoa have had more NZ born players playing for them then NZ have had pacific island born players.
can u name the number of pacific born players NZ players who were born and raised on the islands before turning 20??? 0
the number of pacific born players who spent their teens on the islands??? 2
again, better to talk about things u know about, but then u would have no reason to blog here, so quite a conundrum there beeno.
