The World Cup of Hockey. What's the relevance?

[jezzer]

In the 2016 World Cup of Hockey Final, favourites Canada beat .... hang on... who?.... TEAM EUROPE????

A team of all the best players from the nations who had no shot at making the WCH on their own. Pulled together under a coach from one of the nations to tkae on the established superpowers and.... they got to the final?

While it might ruffle a few Blazer Buttons, wouldn't it be amazing if rugby had the foresight to include a Team Europe in the 6N every year. Talk about promoting the game. Talk about extended TV coverage. Talk about giving Italy and Scotland extra motivation. Take the best players from the second tier and make a side out fo them. I know, preparing a rugby side is more difficult than a hockey side. I know, the gap between the 6N top 3 and any of the lower teams is huge. But the gap between Canada and Denmark is also huge in hockey. Yet Denmark had a sporting interest in the competition and their guy/s got into a final. Imagine the buzz across Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and wherever else these guys came from. Whole nations would be watching because they had one or two guys in there.

to win a 6N with a scratch Europ side would be a tall order, but i bet nobody expected Team Europe to make the hockey final. Team Europe rugby would just have to take a scalp or two in the 6N for it to be a big deal. Georgia, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Belgium... you'd have to be able to put together a decent pro squad between those nations and the extra revenues of extra games and much wider TV would be a result for all, not to mention growing the game in those countries.

[Dave Cahill]

The idea is a good one.


The example is a poor one. It was an invitational tournament and Team Europe was entirely comprised of professional NHL players - they weren't scouting the rinks of Dubrovnik for players. It was the Lebanese RLWC team on ice basically.

[jezzer]

??? And the Georgians plus several other players from various Tier 2 nations aren't professional also? I have no doubt you can put together a Europe team made up entirely of pro players in the top two divisions of the various leagues.

Isn't the 6N an invitational tournament at the end of the day - not that I see the relevance..

Back to the suggestion, as opposed to the vague differences between the two examples....