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 |
@Yos
Good team. Mine would be
Barrett B
Matsushima, JD2, Piutau, Radradra
Ford
G Davies
Marler Kessler Mtawirra
AWJ Snyman
Savea Navidi, B Steyn
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Just in support of the Pro, I’ve seen it happen before on forums etc where you’re not allowed to post certain pretty vanilla views (I.e that Ireland play boring rugby or Scotland were the bad guys yesterday) and it does kind of kill the vibe.
Ultimately it’s nice to have some different voices chiming in, especially when rugby coverage is so centred on Tier 1.
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Pro T2 / ‘going home’ XV
15. Tim Nanai Williams
14. Mike Te’o
13. Semi Radradra
12. Giorgi Kveseladze
11. Josua Tuisova
10. AJ McGinty
9. Santiago Arata
8. Tyler Ardron
7. Tagir Gadzhiev
6. Otari Giorgadze
5. Nick Civetta
4. Leone Nakarawa
3. Levan Chilichava
2. Joe Taufeete’e
1. Mikheil Nariashvili
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Piutau, Radrada, Giorgadze and US hooker all good calls.
I’m enjoying Nick Civetta’s profile here: http://www.redskymanagement.co.uk/our-athletes/nick-civetta
It’s no Phil Davies’ LinkedIn of course.
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With due respect to Scotland fans, weren’t Japan brilliant? Ball skillz from 1 – 15. Speed and dexterity and heart. It was like watching Exeter.
Anyway, England to beat Australia by 20.
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Although this profile is better: http://www.redskymanagement.co.uk/our-athletes/ruaridh-jackson
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I also have a feeling that Japan will manoeuvre the Saffa behemoth around the pitch until it collapses.
The Blackness will have too much for Ireland, I think. Too many key players are undercoked.
Wales to stuff France.
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Remember the days when young Jackson was the great FH hope post Godman / Parks?
Oh the nostalgia.
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Hmm.
England > Australia by 15
ABs > Ireland by 10
Wales > France by 8
Struggling with Saffas vs Japan. Could go anywhere from an easy SA win to Japan scraping it.
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Got loads of sympathy from the kidz yesterday.
‘Harsh times, dad. Now can we have the TV to play minecraft?’
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NZ > Ireland by a bit
SA > Japan by a lot
England > Australia by an awful lot
France > Wales by a very small margin
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Not completely dreading the Quarter final against NZ, beaten them before in high stakes/ high emotion matches, not saying they’re our bunnies or anything but it’s not impossible.
Sorry to see Scotland go home, presumably the players have enforced rest period before they go back to the ProWoo?
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Expro – feel free to fuck off if we bore you.
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@ pro
Good team, and I get the logic of picking Radradra at 13 to accomodate Teo & Tuisova on the wings.
A few disagreements: I thought Nanai Williams wasn’t great to be honest, but not sure who else? Vainu maybe?
McGinty was a disappointment imho. I thought Berchesi and Loubsher were decent, as was one of the Russians at 10 (sorry, don’t recall his name)
I would also have had Kessler and Piuatau in there..
I thought Tonga the most impressive of the T2 eliminees, other than Fiji who are maybe not T2 anymore?
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What I can’t believe in all of this is that it takes a Frenchman to bring rationality and calm to a debate. End of days, for certain.
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The Blackness will have too much for Ireland, I think. Too many key players are undercoked.
@Guns – being undercoked does tend to lead to white line fever.
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@Utna
Yeah, I had Veianu in there first, then decided I wanted to have a Samoan in the team.
Kessler was solid.
Berchesi was classy.
To be fair you have a point on McGinty – he struggled.
I decided to include Fiji as they were eliminated, but while Fiji’s tier status might be debatable I think players like Radradra and Tuisova are very much Tier One.
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By undercocked I did of course mean underCorked.
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Looks like the USA were undone by the scheduling in more ways than one.
The pre-tournament strategy was to field the strongest team v England, then again v France. The team expected France to lose to Argentina and to be in a right mess for the USA game.
The plan was to rest many of the starters v Argentina, ensuring they would be fresh for Tonga 4 days later.
With Argentina eliminated the US management thought they might be vulnerable and changed the plan – putting the strongest team out there anticipating a demoralised Argentina side. The Pumas of course were massively up for that game as a send off for Leguizamon.
That left the US with no choice but to ask the likes of Lamositele, Taufeete’e, Dolan, Lamborn, McGinty, Lasike, Campbell, Brache and Scully to suit up again v Tonga. some of those guys played way too much rugby over 17 days.
From what I’m reading plenty of US players were running on fumes for much of the Tonga game.
Despite the brutal schedule, questions are being asked about the conditioning. There is no doubt that guys like Lasike and Taufeete’e are units, but are they not overweight and unfit?
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I have the fear. Howong can a winning streak last?
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What are we talking here Craigs
bloodborne?
Squish?
Possibly even rugby?
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Looks like the old “bring the good biscuits” joke is now common knowledge…
Though I’d have brought chocolate kimberleys if it were me….
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Genuinely couldn’t stop thinking about that as I was going to sleep last night and it was the first thing I thought of this morning.
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‘howong’. What the fuck is that? Baldy levels of autocorrect fail.
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The defender only comes into view at the end!
Why is he so close to touch? Did he leap too early, in the wrong direction, both of these? I can see why you’re so obsessed with it.
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Chimpie – rugby. Our streak vs the aussies…
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Gee…I try not to be critical but there’s no one near him…..
I’ll show this to my eldest who managed to lose the ball from his hands – when having crossed the line – decided to get closer to the posts on Saturday.
As we all agreed – he won’t do that again. He scored a decent try later on. And we actually scored from the scrum 5 for the knock forward despite not having the put in* – so it didn’t affect the actual result much (lost 12-26) .
* we’ve a decent scrum – a Spanish lad is playing hooker and he’s fairly good
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@beadle
“Why is he so close to touch? Did he leap too early, in the wrong direction, both of these?”
So many questions – and no obvious answer as to why you’d do that :)
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3 match ban for Aki, apparently. Don’t know of this is confirmed.
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Yos – put him on the team sheet for some school matches between now and Saturday.
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The bloke who got 4 matches really didn’t up his game on the biscuit front did he? Or he’s actually the devil. Thed actual real one and DBWR are taking a strong moral stance. Wonder what the crappy biscuits were then?
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Yes….https://twitter.com/Murray_Kinsella/status/1183748222738522113?s=20
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Second time lucky…..easier from the phone than from the laptop
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@deebee
“The bloke who got 4 matches really didn’t up his game on the biscuit front did he?”
Lavanini? He has a record “as long as your arm”…..
“Wonder what the crappy biscuits were then?” should have brought alfajores
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Just everything about it is driving me up the wall. I’m not entirely certain, but I think I’ve decided that he’s initially thinking of dotting the ball down and only very late does he decide to go for THE DIVE OF VICTORY. The way he dips and the way he’s holding the ball make it look like he’s going to touch it down properly, and only very, very late does he change his mind. He doesn’t appear to push that hard off his final stride either.
It’s just the most awkward thing ever. Like some kid who has watched his first NRL game and tries to replicate a dive for the corner in the garden. This is what a newcomer’s first attempt would look like.
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Ha. First time I’ve seen that. What a wally.
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@yosoy
I agree that he was just going to dot it down, but you look at his left foot – if he took one more step he would have stepped into touch because he ballsed up his running line that much. So I think he dived to try not to run into touch under no pressure.
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Remember when we all thought Ashton would drop the ball over the line?
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@Yos I think I’ve seen him do it successfully before so maybe he just backed himself to be able to execute it with no one around.
It’s really funny, given it didn’t cost us a match or anything. Not sure what I’d have done if it was important.
I used to rate Amos as a utility back but he doesn’t really look like a 25 year old rugby player in his prime.
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“Remember when we all thought Ashton would drop the ball over the line?”
Still waiting.
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@ot
“to try not to run into touch under no pressure” – I suppose that’s the only way he could have topped this
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I seem to remember Dominici dropping the pill while dotting it down beneath the posts under no pressure at all, way back when
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@Chimpie
“Dominici dropping the pill” – I think I recall he had it one hand and his knee dislodged it as he ran
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That’s the one.
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I don’t even want to think about it. Let’s have this nice little moment where no one got hurt and we all had a laugh.
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I think Hallam is over-educated. Too many thoughts and too much information spinning round in his head.
I’d have him back at the Drags in an instant.
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