So much ridiculousness in this post.
You had 4 home tests this year in the summer (not including the RWCQ). The US had 2. Fiji had 1. Tonga had none. And yet, you're complaining about the lack of home tests and even complaining about noteworthy opponents coming in for a 5th home match. As I said, you're extremely arrogant to expect more given the current conditions.
See little guy's post below, I didn't feel like digging the numbers but am thankful he did for me, hardly an impressive number when you think from 2012 to 2007 not counting American tests we only had 6 matches at home in a 6 year timeframe.
You also treat the PNC like it's a one-off, which is absurd because it's going to be there every year going forward, paid for the IRB and with the North American teams rarely if ever having to play the PI teams in the PIs.
Who says the PNC isn't a one-off. I have been watching rugby probably before you even knew what rugby was and do you know how many tournaments I have seen come and go that Canada and the USA have participated in? Don't know if you know this but the PNC is not a new idea, a similar tournament was held in the 90's called Epson Cup and lasted for 6 years. Guess what, it was an IRB funded tournament as well but folded due to a number of factors and this list is not exhaustive: cost of the tournament, political instability in the pacific nations, dysfunctional and unreliable unions, etc...
This re-iteration of the old Epson Cup AKA Pacific Rim Championship is nothing new and I will be very surprised if the tournament is still running 5 or 6 years from now. In fact most IRB tournaments don't last more then a few years before they end up folding into something else or get re-shuffled. Epson Cup, Super Powers Cup, Pacific Rugby Campionship, Churchill Cup, Pan American Rugby Championship, Nations Cup, North America 4, etc.... all rugby tournaments that are now either been defunct or have been re-shuffled so much from what their initial intent was that they are pointless.
The only way to stimulate the growth of international rugby is through a proper test match schedule that molds Tier 1 & Tier 2 opposition together and not these meaningless one off games and tournaments that aren't going to last more then a few years. I personally believe that During each test window every Tier 1 nation should be forced to play at least one tier 2 nation. Why does France need to play NZ three times in one summer and then play a one off game against the Auckland Blues? Play a warm up game against Canada and then against the USA, then cross over and play two tests against NZ. Would this not make more sense? Likewise, Canada and the USA should be forced to play lower-ranked sides as well in order to stimulate the growth of the game further down. This sort of system would positively impact rugby across the spectrum and not simply benefit the Tier 1 nations which the present system is totally designed to do.
It has nothing to do with being arrogant norcalbuff, it has everything to do with making international rugby a more competitive and fair environment and right now it is not that.
Then you also have an implied complaint about the quality of opposition coming from Tier 1 sides while simultaneously complaining about the hiding you're going to get from a team that isn't even on the level of those teams.
NZ Maori are a decent side mate, my complaint with this was we booked it outside the test-window which is ridiculously stupid. If we are going to play these matches then they should be in the test window so we can secure the release of our best players because right now we are playing the Maori, which could easily slot into the top 10 of world rugby, with what is essentially our second-string and in certain positions, our third-string side.
Also, one could make that argument that because RWC placement is now determined by world rankings, teams should only be playing test matches. It doesn't do anything for anyone to play someone's B-side because it isn't an official match and doesn't help us at all in climbing the world rankings.
Not trying to be a debbie-downer here norcalbuff but, if you look at my forum join date of July 2004, I have seen a lot of these gimmicky tournaments come and go and remain skeptical as to how viable the PNC and other IRB run tournaments are, long-term.
