Southern Summer Tours Permutations

So with the dust settle on the re-instated Southern Hemisphere Tours by the 6N team there was some mixted bag of results.

Sandwiching the last stand at RL Park, Ireland get pounded into the NZ turf. Wales were plucky but ultimate falling short of a desperate Austraila and England managed to battle their way to a respectable draw in game 3 in SA. Scotland earned plaudits by doing what Wales couldn't to upset Australia and then became cultural heros by touring the Pacific Islands unbeaten and make a lot of friends by doing so!

But! What might have happen if the touring lottery drew different opponents?

Would Scotland have survived with such impressive records in Australia? Would ENG have matched Australia or New Zealand? Would Wales have come home victorious heros from South Africa? Would any of the 6N sides have survived three weeks in NZ without taking a 60-0 hiding?

Are reputations tarnished and made on the foible of a touring schedule? Did it change the RWC rankings because your team play the wrong opponent at the wrong time? And what about the coach? Did Gatland sacrifice the chance with the Lions by losing to Australia with the grandslam champs? Did Andy Robinson save his career with a well timed carefully managed tour? Did Lancaster enhancing his reputator by delivering conservative losses or reveal his lack of vision and unique direction?

New Zealand were lucky that Wales chose to tour Australia, we would have given them a thumping.

So Australia to thumping NZ in the 4N Scarlett?

Should NH team in the summer tours only play one SH team?

Or would NH teams be better off playing al 3 SH team on the summer tours?

That would be more interesting dont you think?

I thought we all wanted tours Madge? They give us tours and we want tournaments? How fickle...

It's pretty cost effective to have them visit one country too.

Scotland did survive "with such impressive records" in Australia. We won there.

Bazinga.

anotherworldofpain wrote:
Sandwiching the last stand at RL Park, Ireland get pounded into the NZ turf.

Interest assessment...that about fits my recollection of the tour too....

Leaving out the nationalistic bit for a moment.The idea of perhaps like France and England did 1958-64 as a template.Play say 7 matches including Mid week 3 in Australia,and 4 in NZ.With a similar Tour to NH play say 3 mid week and 3 .tests against one country.No team in the World has won many matches in NZ,even the Boks in there pomp only managed a 2-1 win there.France have won 4 matches there,England 1.The Total is about 33 losses total in NZ.
What is required is a proper itineary with reasonable time to recover from travel,acclimatize etc.NOT just arrive 3 tests a week apart home again,maybe 5 or 6 weeks.The corollary of that is the Lions Tours become redundant the concept is now down to a dozen matches.Once it was about 36 and including 6 Months round trip with Players paid £0.25 a day out of pocket expenses.There was a time when a tour mean`t developing players were given a chance at the highest level.Now Tours are just about more matches per year for money for the players now it is just a job not a sport.In Amateur days Pre-1995 Wales,France,England were more successful against Sh sides before a mass of overseas players came here.Wales 3 times versus the All Blacks,England 4 out of 6,France 8 out of 12.Food for thought for many players it is just a job go where the money is best.If you are a Name chances are you can cruise in your Club/Super franchise and still be picked.Nonu,and Weepu seem to give that impression rightly or wrongly.

anotherworldofpain wrote:So Australia to thumping NZ in the 4N Scarlett?

Yeah AUstralia to thump NZ, then SA to thump NZ and Argentina to thump NZ, pretty confident of that. Although I am not sure Argentina, Australia and Aouth Africa will get on between themselves, but I will go with Argentina winning the series on tries difference.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

anotherworldofpain wrote:So Australia to thumping NZ in the 4N Scarlett?

Yeah AUstralia to thump NZ, then SA to thump NZ and Argentina to thump NZ, pretty confident of that. Although I am not sure Argentina, Australia and Aouth Africa will get on between themselves, but I will go with Argentina winning the series on tries difference.

I can tell you are an objective and thoughtful fan who think this through realistically and come to some valid conclusion

anotherworldofpain wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

anotherworldofpain wrote:So Australia to thumping NZ in the 4N Scarlett?

Yeah AUstralia to thump NZ, then SA to thump NZ and Argentina to thump NZ, pretty confident of that. Although I am not sure Argentina, Australia and Aouth Africa will get on between themselves, but I will go with Argentina winning the series on tries difference.

I can tell you are an objective and thoughtful fan who think this through realistically and come to some valid conclusion

N'ah I am just a fan that is tired of the constant looking back at the summer tours when the pre-season for NH has started, and the 4Ns is almost upon us.

Are the tours a lottery?

I would have thought they'd be agreed on between the unions and Sky, with the bigger teams getting the prime match ups to get the best tv figures.

I can't see England ever doing a tour like Scotlands for that exact reason which is dissapointing.

Yappy - the unions get to work out amongst themselves where they tour, or who tours them. There is nothing at all down to a lottery or dumb luck where you end up.

Cheers Scarlet, i guessed that was the case. Would be crazy if it was a lottery.

Okj I think I use the wrong word to expressing my idea!

I didn't mean "lottery" like the random draw, more like rotation and combinator and selector to the permutation of which team play each other and when. How exactly does this get decide? and can we predict it accurately?

Sky decide everything then we (The Unions) agree with it and thank them for their money.