Rugby League Four Nations

Last updated

Rugby League Four Nations
Founded 2009
Abolished 2016
RegionInternational (RLIF)
Number of teams4
Related competitions World Cup
Last championsFlag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia
(3rd title)
Most successful team(s)Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia
(3 titles)

The Rugby League Four Nations was a rugby league football tournament run in partnership between Australia, England, New Zealand, and a guest nation which changed with every edition. [1]

Contents

The tournament replaced the previous Tri-Nations format by including a fourth nation that qualifies by winning their respective regional competition in a rotation between Europe and the South Pacific.

History

Pre–2008: Origins

The Four Nations replaced the Tri-Nations tournament that was contested between Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. The competition ceased in 2006 with the RLIF wanting more nations to play in regular tournaments with the 'Big Three'. England replaced Great Britain as the third nation and the fourth nation has to qualify, depending on where the tournament is being played the fourth nation is either from the Northern or Southern Hemisphere.

2009–2016: Tournaments

Australia celebrating winning the 2016 and final edition of the tournament 2016 Four Nations Final.jpg
Australia celebrating winning the 2016 and final edition of the tournament

The inaugural Four Nations was played in England and France in 2009 with France qualifying to be the fourth nation via winning the 2005 European Championship. The big three dominated the tournament with Australia beating England in the final. The next tournament was played the following year in 2010 with Australia and New Zealand hosting the tournament. Papua New Guinea qualified as the fourth nation through the 2009 Pacific Cup. The big three again dominated and Australia beat New Zealand in the final for their third title. 2011 was the third consecutive tournament being held in England and Wales, Wales qualified by winning the 2010 European Championship. The final was a repeat of 2009 with Australia beating England. The tournament was not played in 2012 to give teams a rest before the 2013 World Cup.

The next Four Nations was played in 2014 after the World Cup. The competition was played in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time since 2010 with Samoa qualifying as the fourth nation. Samoa impressed, although they did not win a game they had close games against the big three. New Zealand beat Australia in the final. The following, and what would be final tournament took place in England in 2016. Scotland qualified for the tournament and also became the first qualifying nation to avoid losing every game when they drew with New Zealand 18-18. The final for the 2016 tournament took place at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool where Australia won for the third time in five tournaments, defeating New Zealand in the final.

Format

Qualification

The fourth nation alternated between Europe and the Pacific and saw a different team take part in each competition.

In 2009 a qualifying tournament was held, the Pacific Cup, involving Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and the Cook Islands. The winners, Papua New Guinea, qualified for the 2010 Four Nations. Likewise in 2010, the European Nations Cup decided the fourth participant in the 2011 tournament, Wales. [2] In 2014, a single game was staged to decide the fourth team for that year, with Samoa beating Fiji 32–16. That same year, it was announced that the winner of the 2014 European Cup would qualify for the 2016 Four Nations, the winning team being Scotland who qualified on points difference by three points over France.

YearCompetitionQualifier
2009 2005 European Nations Cup Flag of France.svg  France
2010 2009 Pacific Cup Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg  Papua New Guinea
2011 2010 European Nations Cup Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Wales
2014 2014 Pacific Qualifier Flag of Samoa.svg  Samoa
2016 2014 European Nations Cup Flag of Scotland.svg  Scotland

Competition

The tournament was organised in round-robin format. Each team played the others once, before the top two teams played each other in a tournament final. The top two teams were calculated using a league table. Teams received:

Results

To date no fourth nation has appeared in the final of the Four Nations and no team from outside of Oceania has won the tournament despite England appearing in two finals, losing both to Australia. Furthermore, no fourth nation has even won a single game however Scotland managed to draw 18–18 against New Zealand in 2016. Samoa came close to a win in 2014 losing their first two games by just one try.

The largest winning margin in a game was in 2010 when New Zealand beat Papua New Guinea by 76–12, a margin of 64 points. There has only been two draws in the history of the tournament when Australia and New Zealand fought out a 20–20 draw in the 2009 tournament and again a draw when New Zealand played Scotland in the 2016 tournament with an 18–18 draw.

Tournaments

YearHost(s)ChampionsFinal scoreRunner-upThird PlaceFourth Place
2009 Flag of England.svg  England
Flag of France.svg  France 		Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 46–16Flag of England.svg  England Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand Flag of France.svg  France
2010 Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia
Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 		Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 16–12Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia Flag of England.svg  England Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg  Papua New Guinea
2011 Flag of England.svg  England
Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Wales 		Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 30–8Flag of England.svg  England Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Wales
2014 Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia
Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 		Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 22–18Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia Flag of England.svg  England Flag of Samoa.svg  Samoa
2016 Flag of England.svg  England Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 34–8Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand Flag of England.svg  England Flag of Scotland.svg  Scotland

Results by Nation

CountryAppearancesChampionsRunners-up
Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 53 (2009, 2011, 2016)2 (2010, 2014)
Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 52 (2010, 2014)1 (2016)
Flag of England.svg  England 502 (2009, 2011)
Flag of France.svg  France 100
Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg  Papua New Guinea 100
Flag of Samoa.svg  Samoa 100
Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Wales 100
Flag of Scotland.svg  Scotland 100

Sponsorship

PeriodSponsorName
2009–14 Gillette Gillette Four Nations
2016 Ladbrokes Ladbrokes Four Nations

Attendances

(as of 20 November 2016)

Average Attendances

The average attendances of the Four Nations tournaments fluctuate between the northern and southern hemisphere competitions with the southern hemisphere always having higher averages than the previous tournaments in the northern hemisphere. The largest change between two tournaments was between 2009 and 2010 which saw an 18.45% increase or an average of 3,060. The largest total stadium capacity was 214,500 in 2010 despite this tournament having the lowest stadium occupancy with 64.10%.

YearHostTotal attendanceMatchesAverage attendance % of changeStadium Capacity % Capacity
2009 Flag of England.svg  England
Flag of France.svg  France 		116,089716,584N/A159,30072.97%
2010 Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia
Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 		137,504719,644Increase2.svg 18.45%214,50064.10%
2011 Flag of England.svg  England
Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Wales 		128,065718,295Decrease2.svg 6.86%193,10066.32%
2014 Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia
Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 		144,722720,675Increase2.svg 13.00%201,40071.85%
2016 Flag of England.svg  England 132,655718,951Decrease2.svg 8.33%193,30068.62%

Highest Attendances

To date, there has been 4 attendances over 40,000 and 8 attendances over 30,000. Three of these attendances were double-headers which took place at Eden Park, Auckland in 2010, Wembley Stadium, London in 2011 and Lang Park, Brisbane in 2014; the latter two double-headers are also the largest attendances in the respective hemispheres. Four of these games were tournament finals in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2016. Only one final did not have an attendance over 30,000, this being the 2014 edition.

RankGameStadiumAttendanceEvent
1Flag of England.svg  England v Flag of Samoa.svg  Samoa
Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia v Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 		Lang Park, Brisbane, Australia
(double-header)		47,8132014
2Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia v Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand
Flag of England.svg  England v Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg  Papua New Guinea 		Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand
(double-header)		44,3242010
3Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Wales v Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand
Flag of England.svg  England v Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 		Wembley Stadium, London, England
(double-header)		42,3442011
4Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia v Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand (final) Anfield, Liverpool, England 40,0422016
5Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia v Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand (final) Lang Park, Brisbane, Australia 36,2992010

Venues

As of 2016 Four Nations (in order of matches played and highest attendance).

StadiumCityMatches playedHighest Attendance
Lang Park Brisbane 347,813
Eden Park Auckland 244,324
Wembley Stadium London 242,344
Elland Road Leeds 234,174
Westpac Stadium Wellington 225,093
Galpharm Stadium Huddersfield 224,070
AAMI Park Melbourne 220,585
London Stadium London 135,569
KC Stadium Hull 123,447
DW Stadium Wigan 123,122
Ricoh Arena Coventry 121,009
WIN Stadium Wollongong 118,456
Toll Stadium Whangārei 116,912
Forsyth Barr Stadium Dunedin 115,863
Halliwell Jones Stadium Warrington 112,491
Stade Ernest-Wallon Toulouse 112,412
Twickenham Stoop London 112,360
Keepmoat Stadium Doncaster 111,529
Parramatta Stadium Sydney 111,308
Leigh Sports Village Leigh 110,377
Derwent Park Workington 16,628
Stade Sébastien Charléty Paris 16,234
Rotorua International Stadium Rotorua 16,000
KC Lightstream Stadium Kingston upon Hull 15,337
Racecourse Ground Wrexham 15,233

Player statistics

(As of 2016 Four Nations)

Overall try-scorers

Over the history of the competition 125 players have scored tries. The top try-scorers are Jason Nightingale of New Zealand and Ryan Hall of England with 11 tries each. The highest try-scorer from a 'fourth nation' is Daniel Vidot from Samoa who scored 3 tries in the 2014 competition. Australia has had the most try-scorers with 39 different players scoring. Both Samoa and Scotland have had 8 try-scorers each, making them the 'fourth nations' with the most players scoring.

Tries scoredName
11 Jason Nightingale (New Zealand), Ryan Hall (England)
10 Greg Inglis (Australia)
9 Brett Morris (Australia), Cooper Cronk (Australia)
8 Billy Slater (Australia)
7
6 Sam Tomkins (England), Sam Perrett (New Zealand), Junior Sa'u (New Zealand)
5 Michael Jennings (Australia), Lance Hohaia (New Zealand), Darius Boyd (Australia), Johnathan Thurston (Australia)
4 Luke Lewis (Australia), Cameron Smith (Australia), Brent Tate (Australia), Sam Burgess (England), Tony Clubb (England), Shaun Kenny-Dowall (New Zealand), Blake Ferguson (Australia), Josh Dugan (Australia), Gerard Beale (New Zealand)
3 Darren Lockyer (Australia), Josh Morris (Australia), Willie Tonga (Australia), Peter Fox (England), Luke Robinson (England), Sika Manu (New Zealand), Manu Vatuvei (New Zealand), Daniel Vidot (Samoa), Gareth Widdop (England), Jermaine McGillvary (England), Shaun Johnson (New Zealand), Jordan Rapana (New Zealand), Josh Mansour (Australia)
2 Daly Cherry-Evans (Australia), Ben Hunt (Australia), Chris Lawrence (Australia), Tony Williams (Australia), Jharal Yow Yeh (Australia)

Tom Briscoe (England), Chris Heighington (England), Richard Myler (England), Jack Reed (England), Lee Smith (England), Kallum Watkins (England), Elliott Whitehead (England), Liam Farrell (England)

Nathan Fien (New Zealand), Bryson Goodwin (New Zealand), Benji Marshall (New Zealand), Frank-Paul Nuuausala (New Zealand), Frank Pritchard (New Zealand), Jeremy Smith (New Zealand), Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (New Zealand), David Fusitu'a (New Zealand), Jordan Kahu (New Zealand)

Pita Godinet (Samoa), Elliot Kear (Wales), Emmanuel Yere (Papua New Guinea)

1 Paul Gallen (Australia), Jarryd Hayne (Australia), David Klemmer (Australia), Sione Mata'utia (Australia), Josh Papalii (Australia), Beau Scott (Australia), Matthew Scott (Australia), Sam Thaiday (Australia), Lote Tuqiri (Australia), Akuila Uate (Australia), James Maloney (Australia), Tyson Frizell (Australia), Michael Morgan (Australia), Jake Trbojevic (Australia), Matt Gillett (Australia), Valentine Holmes (Australia), Trent Merrin (Australia), Boyd Cordner (Australia)

Josh Charnley (England), Kyle Eastmond (England), Gareth Ellis (England), James Roby (England), James Graham (England), Michael Shenton (England), Kevin Sinfield (England), Joel Tomkins (England), Kirk Yeaman (England), Ben Harrison (England), Mark Percival (England), Luke Gale (England)

Kane Bentley (France), Vincent Duport (France), Olivier Elima (France), Sébastien Martins (France), James Wynne (France)

Lewis Brown (New Zealand), Greg Eastwood (New Zealand), Kalifa Faifai Loa (New Zealand), Kieran Foran (New Zealand), Issac Luke (New Zealand), Kevin Locke, Simon Mannering (New Zealand), Ben Matulino (New Zealand), Kevin Proctor (New Zealand), Dean Whare (New Zealand), Solomone Kata (New Zealand)

Macali Aizue (Papua New Guinea), Glen Nami (Papua New Guinea)

David Fa'alogo (Samoa), Joseph Leilua (Samoa), Isaac Liu (Samoa), Tautau Moga (Samoa), Ben Roberts (Samoa), Tim Simona (Samoa), Antonio Winterstein (Samoa)

Jordan James (Wales), Rhys Williams (Wales)

Ryan Brierley (Scotland), Ben Kavanagh (Scotland), Kane Linnett (Scotland), Matty Russell (Scotland), Dale Ferguson (Scotland), Lewis Tierney (Scotland), Ben Hellewell (Scotland), Euan Aitken (Scotland)

Top pointscorers

The five highest overall points-scorers are goal-kickers with Johnathan Thurston being top, having scored 126 points; 106 of these points have come from 53 goals. The highest points-scorers who are not goal kickers are Jason Nightingale and Ryan Hall who have both scored 44 points from 11 tries and are the joint sixth highest points scorers.

Overall Four Nations Tournament Top Point-Scorers
PlayerTeamTGFGPts
1 Johnathan Thurston Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 5530126
2 Cameron Smith Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 426068
3 Kevin Sinfield Flag of England.svg  England 127058
= Benji Marshall Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 225058
5 Gareth Widdop Flag of England.svg  England 318048
6 Jason Nightingale Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 110044
= Ryan Hall Flag of England.svg  England 110044
8 Greg Inglis Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 100040
9 Brett Morris Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 90036
= Cooper Cronk Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 90036
11 Shaun Johnson Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 311135
12 Bryson Goodwin Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 213034
13 Billy Slater Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 80032
14 Sam Tomkins Flag of England.svg  England 60024
= Sam Perrett Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 60024
= Junior Sau Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 60024

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dean Ritchie (24 February 2009). "UK stuff-up in league of its own". news.com.au. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
  2. ↑ NRL (22 November 2008). "RLIF unveils expanded Test schedule". NRL Partnership. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
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