Draw for future tournaments will be held closer to event to avoid group of death

[AzaMatt]

the flipside to having 'groups of death' at the moment is that some pools now are incredibly easy for some of the tier one teams. new zealand and south africa should have no problem topping their groups with little challenge. but might be undercooked for the quarters and semi's. theres no real risk of and upset in their groups in my opinion

 

[goodNumber10]

The USA topic has been moved, so on with discussion of draws and groups of death.

I wish rugby had more groups of death tbh. But for that we need more strong teams. Right now, group rugby feels a wee bit of a farce to me.

as gutted as I will be if we go out, i have to say the Group of death is going to be exciting, all the games are going to mean something now.

p.s. That was a bit of an annoyance to do; there's no split function, I had to copy and then delete posts in both threads. I will not be in a hurry to do it again and will generally only respond to requests for a split in relatively short threads with wildly divergent tangents like these. Just so everyone's clear on that - and that's an announcement, anyone who wishes to reply to this bit should do so somewhere else, so as not to drag things off topic again.

isn't this what you get paid the big bucks for?





ooooooooooops! no need to reply though.

 

[Peat]

the flipside to having 'groups of death' at the moment is that some pools now are incredibly easy for some of the tier one teams. new zealand and south africa should have no problem topping their groups with little challenge. but might be undercooked for the quarters and semi's. theres no real risk of and upset in their groups in my opinion

It is, but even without the Group of Death, it would be the case.

Basically, we need to expand Tier 1. And I'll leave that comment there, as that's how we ended up going way OT last time.

 

[HowieLO6]

It is, but even without the Group of Death, it would be the case.

Basically, we need to expand Tier 1. And I'll leave that comment there, as that's how we ended up going way OT last time.

Trying to steer clear to the draw that that other argument has, would having something akin to a plate tournament increase the chances of an upset result or two? Or at the very least, give the lower teams something worth competing for?

If there's a knockout trophy for the 3rd and 4th-placed teams to be aiming for, might we not see the lower teams giving that extra 10%? While I'm sure our pride won;t allow many of us to admit it, I'm sure we can agree that any time you've gone up against an oppo that is vastly superior, heads can drop. Would giving teams something to fight for not act as a reasonable incentive to up their respective games, whilst also giving some exposure to knock-out rugby against teams of a closer ability?

 

[William18]

Fair play, thanks for that.

I like the competitiveness at the group stages, but when was there last a legitimate upset? They do seem like a foregone conclusion. This isn't like football, where a freak goal can change a result. The better teams can take their time and turn the screw.

Aside from changing the format to fewer groups with more teams in them, I'm not sure how this can be replicated on a regular basis.

In 2011 we had:
- Canada beating Tonga
- Tonga beating France
- Ireland beating Australia

3 decent upsets there.

 

[HowieLO6]

In 2011 we had:
- Canada beating Tonga
- Tonga beating France
- Ireland beating Australia

3 decent upsets there.

I'll give you the first two, but not the 3rd.

That said, you're not wrong, but did they make a difference to the group? The same old's were the one's who went through, which only goes to make it self-perpetuating in terms of the islanders, etc, getting through to the knockout stages on a consistent basis.