The most competitive RWC ever

[Set piece magic]

We are a week into the turnament or so with the first round over, and I've gotta say the games have been great. No one has scored 50 points yet. In the past we've seen up to 3 100 point margins by now.

Has all that irb money from 2003 and 2007 actually gone somewhere :O?

 

[FiveStarStu]

It is looking a mighty tasty competition so far. The Scotland v Romania game was some of the best fun I've had watching rugby, and the Boks v Wales game was just class.

Buckle up!

 

[spectator]

A contributing factor to this newly discovered competitiveness of the non- Tier 1 nations, must be the number of their players who ply their trade in the various competitions in the Northern Hemisphere and Japan. A better standard of competition and a professional training regime would be big pluses and doing battle with a lot of the big names on a fairly regular basis would diminish self doubt about competing with the world's best.

The challenge for the minnows will be to replicate their first up efforts for another three games. Let's hope they can.

 

[saulih]

Having watched all of the games so far except the Saffa/wales game, I have been truly entertained. Having paid for the sub to get get all the games on universalsports, I was wondering whether it was worthwhile. I am so glad I did. Highlights outside of the Wobs win so far have been:

Namibia kicking field goal after field goal
Romania nearly beating the Scot's
USA defending well for once and not completely coming apart like I had feared
Tonga making the All blecks work for a win
Wilko missing goal after goal INDOORS in the game against the Pumas

Good signs for the future of rugby if the rest of the tournament goes this way. Still looking for an upset though... who is it going to be?

 

[Jumpers]

Missed the Wannabes poor first half performance and being dominated by Italy in the forwards. Mr. Coopers late tackle, the ref missing forward passes that led to tries, punches thrown by Mr. Genia and talking back to the ref. These were missed by officials during the Wannaabe/Italy game. I agree its been a very comp WC and some good games played by the minnows! Still the Big guns haven't fired all their guns yet as with the ABs, the Boks, England and France. Very impressed with the Welsh effort and were just unlucky not to beat the Boks!! More to come watch this space!!

 

[Cassius88]

A contributing factor to this newly discovered competitiveness of the non- Tier 1 nations, must be the number of their players who ply their trade in the various competitions in the Northern Hemisphere and Japan. A better standard of competition and a professional training regime would be big pluses and doing battle with a lot of the big names on a fairly regular basis would diminish self doubt about competing with the world's best.

The challenge for the minnows will be to replicate their first up efforts for another three games. Let's hope they can.

My thoughts exactly

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

I'd expect at least one more really competitive round before fatigue starts to sets in (really hope not, would be great for it to continue throughout the pool stages) but nonetheless a definite clear jump forward by most. Namibia really impressed me against Fiji, Japan wasn't much of a shock actually as they really pushed the Italians pre-RWC (maybe a 6 Nations in 2016?), the US has seen a 200% increase in professional contracts since 2007, all they need really is a 5/8 to provide the guidance for their backs which actually aren't too bad. There's a lot of positives to talk about. I expect Georgia and Canada to do rather well to.

What's also very encouraging is that there are a couple of team particularly in Europe that would also be competitive (in Romania's case more so) that didn't qualify. Both Portugal and Spain beat the same Romanian squad by more than Scotland did just this year in the ENC 1A. So the IRB are definitely doing a good job there.

This leaves a question though. How do they accelerate this? Personally, alongside current funding objectives maybe a push toward establishing more professional 'leagues' to help boost the standards further. Countries like Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have formed a Super Rugby-esque style tournament with 4 clubs from each nations called the Euro Cup looking to boost their standards, the IRB should be looking to support these.

 

[Empire]

I actually thought Roland Suniula did rather well, considering last season he was with us at Easts playing 12, not 10. Fair bit of potential for the US there!

Ran to the line, distribution was good, and judgement around kicks certainly suprised me. Love to see him stretch those calves out more however, and get more electrolytes - not the first time he had had cramping issues!

 

[tigerland12]

I thought Japan's performance on the weekend was the most pleasing. They were great imo, give them 10 years and they will be on the same level as the likes of Italy and Samoa.

Same with the USA and Romania, the US will benefit from the funding they will get from 7's now an olympic sport. I also have big hopes for Georgia to push sides.

The gap is closing, there is still a distance, but in 10 to 15 years I think it will be almost closed with the mentioned sides improving vastly.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

At the rate the Japanese have improved, I expect to see them do really well at their home event in 2019. Same could be said for the USA and Canada. Russia are another who could rise around that time as well. Georgia imo opinion are actually really, really close now but I guess time will tell. Here's a prediction. Brazil to debut in 2019 and begin to pressure Argentina in South America.

Wouldn't it be great that by 2019 we are debating not a retraction of the RWC back to 16 teams but how best to expand it to 24 to include new emerging nations who are then themselves bridging the gap. It could be definitely possible.

 

[exISA]

Yep real excited about Georgias game on Wednesday. Craig Dowd is in the same mind as me. he has been bleating on all year about georgia beating the scots on the sportal podcast. he even commented on the fact that the georgians have a scarier forward pack than the romanians.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Yep real excited about Georgias game on Wednesday. Craig Dowd is in the same mind as me. he has been bleating on all year about georgia beating the scots on the sportal podcast. he even commented on the fact that the georgians have a scarier forward pack than the romanians.

Put it this way. In the ENC 1A this year, they obliterated the Romanian pack. Completely and utterly.

 

[Melbourne Terrace]

This world cup has so far been incredible with no 50+ blowouts yet! I think we are approaching to the point were we need to be getting these emerging nations at least one game against a top tier nation a year. wouldn't it be good to have these nations that are based in europe play a midweek match against a SH side during spring tours instead of some club team? maybe it's time to look at some forms of regional competition that is outside the world cup and includes both top tier and emerging nations. they wouldn't need to be played each year like 4 nations or six nations but it could be a way of having these nations getting their top players released to have a real chance for a result more often than just once every 4 years. of course it would be much easier/simpler if the IRB just threw the book at clubs who refused to release players for international duty.

 

[Sluggy]

Yes.

Fantastic to see sides who have previously copped 100 point thrashings (Japan, Namibia) take it to the big boys.

 

[Bowside]

of course it would be much easier/simpler if the IRB just threw the book at clubs who refused to release players for international duty.

This needs to be done. No club comp is bigger than the international game.

 

[wobbly]

Would be nice to have Super rugby clubs mandated to contract at least two tier two country qualified players.

 

[Sluggy]

I thought we were moving toward this already. E.G. Cipriani and Delve.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Pretty sure the IRB have organised a Tier 2 test schedule from next year onwards, plus the likes of the Eagles will have IRB sponsored Test windows in Novemeber so they maybe starting the move to bring on the next 10 or so nations.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Would be nice to have Super rugby clubs mandated to contract at least two tier two country qualified players.

Super Rugby is an interesting case, you could do it a couple of ways in my opinion. You could go out a open say 5 squad positions per team for Argentine/promising Tier Two nations players (75 in total). That would allow each nation to also add another team each and thus 15 more places. Or and even more radically, look at the viability of adding in a new conference to involve the Americas. Either way, Super rugby could be a fantastic vessel.

With the first option I'd look to have at least 50% of the total influx of foreign players being Argentinean.

 

[Bowside]

Pretty sure the IRB have organised a Tier 2 test schedule from next year onwards, plus the likes of the Eagles will have IRB sponsored Test windows in Novemeber so they maybe starting the move to bring on the next 10 or so nations.

If the eagles could have a regular 4 nations series with canada, uruguay and argentina A that would be good.

Will they tour Europe in November?