2013 Rugby League World Cup pools

[DIEHARD]

Pool A - Australia, England, Fiji and Ireland
Pool B - New Zealand, France, PNG and Samoa
Pool C - Scotland, Tonga and Italy
Pool D - Wales, Cook Islands and USA

http://www.rlwc2013.com/groups

[Titanic]

To be honest, this type of ceding really pulls my chain.

Pool A - Australia, England, Fiji and Ireland
Pool B - New Zealand, France, PNG and Samoa
Pool C - Scotland, Tonga and Italy
Pool D - Wales, Cook Islands and USA

The six highlighted sides should be separated where possible and certainly not three in one pool. At least one minnow from Pool C will take massively one-sided affairs into the filnals ... rubbish.

[Smakked]

Yeah not the best seeding there, looks dodgy, Making Aus v NZ final :|

[Steelers]

This is a stupid way to conduct the WC draw. Samoa have no hope and might as well not turn up, Fiji and Ireland will be playing against each other for a spot in the quarter finals and Wales (who are playing the 4 Nations this year) will seemingly walk into a QF spot against lesser opposition. If Wales are indeed the 4th best team in the world (I think PNG may deserve that title), then the groups should look a little more like this:

Australia
Ireland
New Zealand
Fiji
Scotland
Tonga
Italy

England
France
Wales
Papau New Guinea
Samoa
Cook Islands
USA

Ideally you would probably cull a team from each group (leaving you with 2 groups of 6) and hold a developing nations WC beforehand for the final 3 spots in each group (Australia, NZ, England, France, Wales and PNG earn automatic qualification). Teams play 5 matches and the top 2 or 4 go through to finals. Easy to understand, fair for everyone, and gives fans and players plenty of footy in what should be the pinnacle of international rugby league.

[DIEHARD]

I'd love to see an Emerging Nations World Cup!