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The 2011 Rugby World Cup has ended and unfortunately for the rugby faithful, this means that we’ll have to wait four years once again, but don’t be disappointed, this was a special tournament. New Zealand hosted this time around, and with that, we realize that we may not see the rugby mad country host again for a very long time.
We hope that you all savored every moment and every match, no matter what the outcomes were, the disappointments or heartache. Perhaps what impressed us the most is how well second tier nations developed over the past four years, which is great news for the sport on a worldwide scale.
Development is the key to this game, as any, and this world cup has opened the door to a large number of new fans.
As we take a look back, Shaggy (S), psychic duck (p.d.) and M Two One (M) will review the twenty participants from worst to first over the next week. These rankings were put together through several opinions based on performances. In addition to being split into five parts on the forum, you can also read the individual articles on the TRF front page.
Feel free to debate and discuss, but most of all, please enjoy. The 2011 Rugby World Cup may have ended, but rugby lives on 24/7.
We hope that you all savored every moment and every match, no matter what the outcomes were, the disappointments or heartache. Perhaps what impressed us the most is how well second tier nations developed over the past four years, which is great news for the sport on a worldwide scale.
Development is the key to this game, as any, and this world cup has opened the door to a large number of new fans.
As we take a look back, Shaggy (S), psychic duck (p.d.) and M Two One (M) will review the twenty participants from worst to first over the next week. These rankings were put together through several opinions based on performances. In addition to being split into five parts on the forum, you can also read the individual articles on the TRF front page.
Feel free to debate and discuss, but most of all, please enjoy. The 2011 Rugby World Cup may have ended, but rugby lives on 24/7.
It may seem harsh that Namibia is ranked last, but the reality is that while the Rugby World Cup has generally closed the gap in terms of competitiveness of teams and score line margins, none of Namibia's games were that close. This ranking is no slight on the Welwitschias considering the uphill battle they faced in this tournament.
Namibia was drawn to play in pool D, where the “D†could well have stood for death. Fiji, Samoa, South Africa and Wales were the other teams that made up this pool and they all rated their chances of qualifying for the quarterfinals fairly high. They also all realised that bonus point wins, by scoring four tries, might prove crucial, and as a result, they fielded strong sides that in most cases put Namibia to the sword.
The Welwitschias faced the same scheduling problems that most of the tier two and three nations faced, playing all four of their matches within a 16 day window, but to their credit, they pretty much fielded their strongest team available on each occasion. It's hard to know whether they targeted any particular game for a win, but the sad thing is that the pool draw pretty much prevented them from achieving their first Rugby World cup win ever at this tournament, even before it had begun.
The aim for the team was probably to raise the profile of the team, that being to secure regular test matches for the side and to raise the profile of the individual players. If this was the aim, it was probably a success as the team itself was made up of mostly amateurs drawn from a small number players playing domestically, along with only 12 professional players. While still convincingly beaten in all of the matches they played, Namibia were very competitive in the set pieces.
While the team as a whole showed a lot of heart, Jacques Berger was captain courageous by leading from the front, throwing himself into the breakdowns, and, as an openside flanker, was nothing short of world class having made the more tackles than any other player after the group stages. Heinz Koll was his side's top try scorer for the tournament, with two. His second try against Wales was scored from a long way out as result of a great running display, combining with his locking partner Nico Esterhuyse, to get over the line. The sight of two tight forwards roaming freely and having the pace to finish the job is a great sight for anyone who has ever played in the tight forwards. Theuns Kotze was their top point scorer, scoring 24 points during the world cup, including three drop goals in four minutes against Fiji. He is a young player that hopefully will go on to bigger and better things for Namibia at the fly half position.
Namibia is arguably the most under resourced of all of the unions that attended the tournament, yet have consistently shown that they are the number two playing nation on the African continent. While South Africa is far too strong for them, tier two nations should be encouraged from elsewhere to play against Namibia on a regular basis if they are to improve and secure that elusive first World cup win in the near future. - S
Namibia was drawn to play in pool D, where the “D†could well have stood for death. Fiji, Samoa, South Africa and Wales were the other teams that made up this pool and they all rated their chances of qualifying for the quarterfinals fairly high. They also all realised that bonus point wins, by scoring four tries, might prove crucial, and as a result, they fielded strong sides that in most cases put Namibia to the sword.
The Welwitschias faced the same scheduling problems that most of the tier two and three nations faced, playing all four of their matches within a 16 day window, but to their credit, they pretty much fielded their strongest team available on each occasion. It's hard to know whether they targeted any particular game for a win, but the sad thing is that the pool draw pretty much prevented them from achieving their first Rugby World cup win ever at this tournament, even before it had begun.
The aim for the team was probably to raise the profile of the team, that being to secure regular test matches for the side and to raise the profile of the individual players. If this was the aim, it was probably a success as the team itself was made up of mostly amateurs drawn from a small number players playing domestically, along with only 12 professional players. While still convincingly beaten in all of the matches they played, Namibia were very competitive in the set pieces.
While the team as a whole showed a lot of heart, Jacques Berger was captain courageous by leading from the front, throwing himself into the breakdowns, and, as an openside flanker, was nothing short of world class having made the more tackles than any other player after the group stages. Heinz Koll was his side's top try scorer for the tournament, with two. His second try against Wales was scored from a long way out as result of a great running display, combining with his locking partner Nico Esterhuyse, to get over the line. The sight of two tight forwards roaming freely and having the pace to finish the job is a great sight for anyone who has ever played in the tight forwards. Theuns Kotze was their top point scorer, scoring 24 points during the world cup, including three drop goals in four minutes against Fiji. He is a young player that hopefully will go on to bigger and better things for Namibia at the fly half position.
Namibia is arguably the most under resourced of all of the unions that attended the tournament, yet have consistently shown that they are the number two playing nation on the African continent. While South Africa is far too strong for them, tier two nations should be encouraged from elsewhere to play against Namibia on a regular basis if they are to improve and secure that elusive first World cup win in the near future. - S
Russia was the only new addition to the 2011 Rugby World Cup, marking their debut and replacing fellow European debutants from 2007, Portugal. It seemed inevitable that the Bears would qualify for the tournament as despite not having a club competing in European club competition, they do have internationally recognized players such as Vasily Artemyev, Andrey Ostrikov and Adam Byrnes.
However, three players do not make up the core of the squad and it would be ignorant to believe so. Despite spending all of his time playing in Russia, team captain and hooker Vladislav Korshunov was a name on many lists of players to watch prior to the tournament, as well as his club teammate, fly half Yury Kushnarev, dubbed as the Russian Jonny Wilkinson.
Coming into the world cup, the Bears had the mindset of coming out with at least one win. It was obvious that they were targeting their matchup with the United States in their first match since the Eagles would be coming off of a short rest following their match with Ireland. The Bears failed to make an impact and ultimately lost, but continued to improve as the world cup wore on, despite not having much rest due to a tight schedule.
Even though Russia’s following three matches were all losses by considerably large margins, the team was able to impress as newcomers to the international stage. They managed to score three tries against not only Italy, but eventual third place victors Australia as well. Wing Vladimir Ostroushko scored one try in each of those matches and proved through some occasional brilliance that he can play for club in England or France. 20-year-old fullback Denis Simplikevich tied Ostroushko for most tries scored for the Bears, but being five years younger may have proved his worth even more to the rest of the world.
Konstantin Rachkov ended up scoring the most points for his nation at the tournament, despite only being used as a starter once. The veteran fly half had an excellent kicking game against Australia where, despite the few chances he had, had gone for a perfect three for three with a drop goal to boot. His counterpart, Kushnarev, did not impress at the world cup, most notably against the United Statesâ€"an example of why Rachkov was utilized so often from the benchâ€"and will go home disappointed.
While the Bears didn’t pick up a win, they were able to accomplish something importantâ€"putting their players’ names out there. With more Russian players at bigger clubs, the Bears will only continue to improve from here. Perhaps a future club (or two) will be introduced to the Amlin Challenge Cup to further the country’s development. - M
Romania was the last side to qualify for the 2011 Rugby World Cup by winning their return match against Uruguay in late November last year. While they were expected to be competitive in their matches against fellow Pool B teams Argentina, England and Scotland, they would have undoubtedly targeted their game against Georgia as the game that they could win. Unfortunately they didn't manage to win that match, or any of the others, despite pushing Scotland to the limit in their opening match in Invercargill.
Scheduling may have again played a part in their final rankings, as the compressed nature of the scheduling only gave them four days break between their match with England and a crucial last match with Georgia, where as Georgia had an eight day break. Taking nothing away from Georgia, had the scheduling been around the other way, Romania may have won, and their ranking would have been higher.
Romania’s strength lies in its forward pack and that definitely caused problems for Scotland in the opening match, but inevitably they were found wanting as the tournament progressed. The toll of playing so many matches in such a short space of time affected all teams, but for sides such as Romania, the effect was greater, as they lack the quality players to substitute as injuries and fatigue set in.
The Oaks played with a lot of heart, but their inexperience in making correct decisions at crucial times in attack and defensive lapses, ultimately cost them. This was particularly evident in the matches against the pool heavy weights, England and Argentina, where those teams were able to easily rack up the points, despite Romania being generally competitive around the park. The good news is that some of the tier one nations support taking their share of short turnaround games during the next tournament.
Romania placed much of their faith in their veteran players, such as hooker Marius Tincu and loose forward Ovidiu Tonita. The age of quite a few of their players suggest that many of these players won't be around in 2015. However, they do have a number of players that play professionally in Europe and play regularly in the European Nations Cup, which they have won nine times. They have been at every world cup so far, so it might be surprising that they didn't perform a little bit better. It may be more of an indication of the general strength and improvement in European Rugby, rather than an indictment of how poorly they may or may not have played. While this is good news for European Rugby in general, it may make qualifying for future World Cups for Romania more difficult.
Teams like Romania would undoubtedly benefit from a revamp of the tournament structure, not just to allow their front line players time to recouperate, but also if the tournament adopted a format where the eliminated teams get to play in shield and plate competitions at the conclusion of pool play. - S
Four years ago Fiji qualified for the quarter finals by defeating Wales 38-34 in what was undoubtedly one of the most exciting world cup matches of all-time. Although they went on to lose in the quarters to eventual cup winners South Africa, the tournament was considered major success that launched the Flying Fijians into ninth in the IRB world rankings.
Fast forward to the 2011 Rugby World Cup and you have to wonder, what exactly happened to Fiji? There are several problems, most notably scheduling concerns and of course the political problems back home. All of that aside, Fiji simply looked as though they didn’t want to play for anything at times.
The world cup started fairly well for Fiji with a win over Namibia. Vereniki Goneva scored four tries in this match, but even he took second to Namibia’s surprising play, which had the rugby world buzzing with excitement. Fiji was nearly perfect in this match, only missing one conversion and securing six tries in total. Their second match, against the Springboks, was a total blowout. South Africa proved their superiority by a 46 point margin victory, although many speculate that Fiji were still fatigued from their previous match only four days prior.
Their third match was against fellow islanders Samoa. Many believed that this match would be a close one considering that both teams had faced Namibia already, and the two pool favorites leading into the match, but it didn’t end that way. Samoa had no trouble handing Fiji a loss by utilizing their kicking game through the entire first half. Fiji scored and converted a try in the second half, but their opponents added two of their own to make it a twenty point margin.
One of the most anticipated matches of this world cup was Fiji against Wales in a rematch from 2007. The two clubs were already a good distance apart on the IRB rankings prior to the tournament, but that didn’t really affect anyone’s anticipation. Perhaps it was fatigue setting in deep, but this match was surprisingly one of the biggest blowouts of the world cup. Prior to the match, no one really expected Fiji to really contend anymore, but to see a 66-0 final score was incredibly painful for the Fijian crowd.
Fiji’s poor play spans further back than the world cup, but their pathetic display on the big stage dropped them even further down the IRB world rankings. Fiji have a solid pool of players to choose from, but whether or not they can get them to play for their home nation is another question entirely. - M
