Shaggys Blog No 2

[Getofmeland]

Hey, I'm back again & it's funny how you start writing about something, and end up writing about something else

Once again I find my focus on Rugby World Cup related issues, and this time, my attention is on the competitiveness of the Pools.

Ever since the draw came out, it's been obvious that Pool B, with Argentina, England, and Scotland, is going to be the most competitive in terms of which two teams make the quarter finals.

I mean no disrespect to the likes of Italy, who's recent win over France must have the likes of Australia and Ireland taking their games against Italy more seriously, or the likes of Fiji and Samoa, who are probably targeting Wales as the game they need to win to advance their causes, but these results are probably less likely to occur, making these pools easier to predict.

As a supporter of the game globally, I'm happy to be proved wrong, as I see more interest being generated, and the game expanding more worldwide, if all of the Pools end up as competitive as Pool B.

How do we get this to happen? - I'm not sure that there's actually an answer that will address all of the problems that up and coming Rugby nations face.

Certainly some initiatives are starting to pay dividends, with the likes of Italy starting to see some benefit from their inclusion in the Six Nations, and also now having two sides regularly competing in the Magners league.
Argentina should also benefit from 2012 onwards, with regular test matches against Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

I guess that's one of the answers, regular competitive matches, but for that to happen, perhaps the IRB, Home Nations, and SANZAR Nations, need to look at what's good for the game in terms of global expansion, rather than purely from a monetary perspective, or what's best for their own team.

Here lies the major obstacle in my opinion, each union is out for what's best for itself & if I can just for a moment take off my global cap, and put on my black eye patch with the silver fern on it, I quite like that the All Blacks are the number one ranked team in the world, and I guess if I was a member of the NZRU, it would be my primary duty to make sure it stayed that way.

Don't get me wrong, the IRB has a number of good initiatives in place to raise the standard of play worldwide, and in terms of different nations winning the World Cup, Rugby compares favourably with Soccer with four different nations winning the Webb Ellis trophy from Six tournaments, compared to Eight Nations from Nineteen for Soccer, but if we ever want to get to the point where quarter finalists aren't a fore gone conclussion, the Tier One nations need to do more by playing the Tier Two nations more, and the Teir Two Nations need to play more test matches in general

Blog Written By Shaggy

 

[LittleGuy]

Just a few of my musings Shaggy on this topic which I've though about a lot over the last couple of days, I may add more comments later.

I think Pool B will be great to follow, I think Georgia will also play a factor in who advances with try bonus points certainly not a guarentee in games against them and perhaps the Lelos may even give the Scots a run for their money.

I think Pool D is the group of death though, with South Africa, Wales, Fiji and to a lesser extent Samoa being all solid squads, I really feel bad for Namibia though they'll be lucky to keep one game(probably the Samoa one) close.

I wouldn't count out an Italian appearance in the quarters with the Pool C group but Pool A would take an epic French collapse to see Canada, Tonga or Japan advance.

There are still some compelling reasons to follow the minnows in these groups as a first to third place finish in a pool qualifies you automatically for the 2015 RWC. As a fan of Canada with two teams close in ability in my pool I am looking forward to this world cup, but that being said the New Zealand game will be hard to watch the kiwis run up the score although hopefully the second 15 will be on for the AB's to keep it a little closer.

I do think we are past the days of Namibia losing 142-0 to the Aussies, but many of the minnows lag behind the first tier nations by an astronimcial margin.

In the tier two countries problems are different, with the Pacific Island nations struggling to hold on to players, and clubs not releasing them for international duties. Whilst here in Canada and the rest of the America's are players are held back by lack of a good domestic league and limited overseas spots. I do think action is being taken on promoting domestic leagues here with the CRC, ARC and Argentina joining the Tri Nations. I hope the vision of an America's Rugby Championship with squads from Canada, USA, Argentina, Uruguay and even Chile comes true this would be a huge boost here.

The Pacific Islands have a much smaller population base and I would defer to fans of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa(along with other smaller Pacific nations) to best judge thier situation. But I'd love to ask whether it would it be possible to start a Super Rugby franchise mainly playing out of Suva, Fiji but with a game or two a year in Samoa/Tonga? This would be great to keep a core of Islanders near home, and I think really give the national teams a boost.