In their infinite wisdom, World Rugby chose to schedule the World Cup in a country that is prone to typhoons at this time of year, and to make absolutely no contingency plans should a typhoon threaten.
In a development that appears to have taken the organisers completely by surprise, there is a typhoon headed in Japan’s direction, and two matches have been cancelled, with Japan v Scotland still in doubt.
France will miss out on the possibility of beating England to top their group, and Italy will miss out on a historic chance to beat the All-Blacks and progress to the quarter-finals for the first time.
All right, nobody thinks that Italy would have beaten New Zealand, but it’s a funny old game and a couple of red cards, or another sneaky peek at the rule-book, could have produced the upset of the century. Apparently we’ll never know.
As Parisse said:
“It is ridiculous that a decision of this nature has been made because it isn’t like the fans arrived yesterday. It is ridiculous that there was no plan B, because it isn’t news that typhoons hit Japan.
“Sure everyone might think that Italy versus New Zealand being cancelled counts for nothing because we’d have lost anyway, but we deserved to be respected as a team. We had the chance to play in a big stadium, against a great team.
“The alternative is plan B. When you organise a World Cup you should have one in place.”
Should the Japan v Scotland match be cancelled, all three teams in Pool A contention will have reason to feel aggrieved also: Scotland for obvious reasons, Japan because it is not the way you’d want to go through, and Ireland because they miss the chance to top the pool (that being in Scotland’s gift, rather than Ireland’s hands, of course).
Quite frankly, World Cup should be handed a red card for bringing the game into disrepute. Players and fans alike (and no doubt the sponsors too) are rightly furious.
These matches should be rescheduled in alternative locations.
Last weekend’s rugby
For a rundown on the state of play as of 07/10, please see Deebee’s excellent synopsis.
On the telly this week … or not
Friday 11th October
| Australia 27 – 8 Georgia | 11:15 | ITV4 |
| Cheetahs 40 – 16 Munster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Dragons 14 – 38 Connacht | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 / TG4 / S4C |
| Leinster 40 – 14 Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Gloucester 24 – 26 Bath | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 12th October
| New Zealand v Italy | 05:45 | CANCELLED |
| England v France | 09:15 | CANCELLED |
| Ireland 47 – 5 Samoa | 11:45 | ITV |
| Kings 17 – 42 Ulster | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Scarlets 54 – 10 Zebre | 15:00 | Freesports |
| Ospreys v Treviso | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow v Cardiff | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 13th October
| Namibia v Canada | 04:15 | ITV |
| USA v Tonga | 06:45 | ITV |
| Wales v Uruguay | 09:10 | ITV / S4C |
| Japan v Scotland | 11:45 | ITV |
Hooley doesn’t believe in soft passes,
LikeLike
Almost the reverse of the 1st half. Second half has been all USA but with little to show for it
Tonga scored tries from limited opportunities
LikeLike
Feel for Scotland, it’s like the world are against you in this game.
The crowd will be baying lunatics cheering every tackle.
LikeLike
Game back on
LikeLike
3 minutes to win it!
LikeLike
Blindside looks half-dead but he grounds on the post cladding.
LikeLike
Ah shite.
LikeLike
Sensational forward pass from the Tongan half back after America risk it all from their 22.
LikeLike
“Feel for Scotland, it’s like the world are against you in this game.”
Everyone needs a pantomime villain
WTF are Tonga doing?
LikeLike
Yay for the Ulsterman!
LikeLike
Genius decision from Tonga
LikeLike
That’s a calm head in the madness
LikeLike
Nige making his play for the final gig
LikeLike
Great win for Tonga. The best win. USA bad – VERY LOW RATINGS
LikeLiked by 2 people
Tipuric captain, finally.
LikeLike
‘sup Killzy.
LikeLike
Nige showing his age a bit?
LikeLike
Hi Craigs 🙌🏻
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ticht,
London Scottish gave Newcastle a close game yesterday, losing 13-17.
One Lithuanian lad on the wing and another lad of Lithuanian heritage in the pack.
LikeLike
Got the queasies, rather than The Fear. I hope Amos the Dislocation goes well.
LikeLike
Scoreboard flatters Tonga.
Equal turnaround and we would have won that one, I fancy.
We started last out of all the teams and played 4 games in just 17 days. (3 of which were against vastly superior opposition)
I think we possibly had the shittest schedule of all the teams, with the only game where we could reasonably expect to compete in coming at the end, just 3 days after a test against Tier One opposition.
Still, some of the play has been good, and 7 tries is a decent turnaround considering the quality of opposition in the pool.
Next MLR season will involve 12 ‘professional’ teams, with the likes of Ma’a Nonu and Digby Ioane in attendance as well as dozens of new young US players.
The future looks pretty bright and we should set our aim at consistently beating other T2 teams and overtaking the weaker T1 teams like Scotland and Italy in the next decade.
LikeLike
Maybe the biggest game of the cup so far will be a bogged down affair, tense but not a showpiece.
LikeLike
Good luck Scotland and Wales. I’m not going to be able to watch as I’m playing in a squash tournament. Not that I really ever play squash…
LikeLike
Game turned on 2 moments, both involving Nick Civetta making a surging run deep into the Tonga 22.
On the first occasion Nige penalised US for not releasing despite a Tongan player coming in with his hands after the ruck had formed. Still, Nigel often likes to penalise the attacking team when a ball carrier is even remotely isolated. It’s something he likes.
On the second occasion Civetta was stripped of the ball and Tonga booted it up the other end and scored.
A different outcome on either of those occasions could have seen a different result – but we didn’t do ourselves any favours at all giving them so much ball. Making 100+ tackles in the first half on a 3 day turnaround was far from ideal.
LikeLike
I’ve lost track with’Scottish, Tom, just through lack of time, something has to give etc, but they do have some good players.
They made the decision to not push properly for the premiership and there was the falling out with the SRU, plus the ongoing tetchy relationship with their flatmate Richmond.
I still think they are a viable proposition as our third pro team, there is a huge potential market of ex pat Scots around London and it would be far less expensive for the SRU to back ‘Scottish than to set up a team from scratch in Aberdeen
LikeLike
The SRU have some kind of deal with Newcastle now, but I don’t know any details
LikeLike
Good anthem, especially the intro.
LikeLike
Like the ‘Hail, Hail Freedonia’ like spring in the Wrwgwai anthem.
LikeLike
Wow, beautiful quick heel at that first scrum from Los Teros. Play of the tournament so far.
LikeLike
Wales on the ropes here.
LikeLike
It’s cheating playing Tipuric.
LikeLike
Never entered Aled Davies’ head that he might need to pass there.
LikeLike
How many knock ons?
Too many players trying to force things
LikeLike
Play the ball, Wales . Don’t fish for penalties if you have clean ball available.
LikeLike
Boring 9 man rugby from evil 1st Tier team.
LikeLike
Not sure about that being forward , Angus.
LikeLike
Maybe, just.
LikeLike
yay, 7-3
LikeLike
France will be crapping themselves watching this…..
LikeLike
Wrwgwai look more comfortable and penetrative with the ball. Aled is really annoying me.
LikeLike
Forward?
LikeLike
As I write, Wales put a good move togther. Watkin and Parkes create a try for Amos
Perhaps a forward pass in there?
LikeLike
Neat play for Dr Amos to go over.
LikeLike
Yep, forward from Parkes.
LikeLike
Hadleigh’s NZ hands letting him down. Hey ho.
LikeLike
Amos having a stinker.
LikeLike
Crazy to try and trap that.
LikeLike
Quality stuff from Amos
Fair play, Wales need an absolute b#locking from Gats at halftime. Very sloppy in all respects
Uruguay have looked decent with what little possession they have secured
LikeLike
Oh dear, Dr Amos. That was … not very good.
LikeLike
WTF is this? Terrible stuff
LikeLike