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 |
There was that great one from Freddie Burns which IIRC was important.
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At league training on Saturday I dummied in midfield, went through a gap, and while running through to score the wet ball squirted out of my grip for a ridiculous knock on with no defenders near.
These things can happen to the very best players.
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Imagine the stick he is getting in camp after that. Hallam Aimless?
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Ah yes quite important:
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🎵Howong, as this been going on?🎵
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The Burns one gets me every time. It’s the kiss that does it.
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Burns must be haunted by that every hour.
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has… bugger.
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I’ve got one where I fumbled a simple pass 5 m from an open, undefended tryline against some evil bastards which still haunts me.
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Video Burns is unavailable in Germany.
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Perhaps Hallam took inspiration from another Welsh 11?
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Sorry iksy. Burns breaks through against Toulouse at the Rec in the EuroChpsCup coasts around to land under the posts but Medard runs up behind and knocks the ball out of his hand. It meant the difference between a loss and a victory, huge.
I love Freddie but since it was Bath it remains a highlight for me.
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Smith is a Cardiff legend.
Theme developing here?
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I think I’ve seen it Beadle. I was just imagining a world wide campaign funded by the Burnses to remove it from the interwebs.
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“Theme developing here?”
I guess that’s why they call it the Blues?
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Next weekend’s rugby is panning out like a Caligula orgy rather than a buffet on a ferry.
The quarters tend to be when teams go for bust, and the Japan v Scotland game was like a QF arriving early.
Semis and finals are games not to lose rather than games to win, so with luck next weekend might approach matching the J-Scot game, 4 times over.
So free up next weekend, and fasten your seatbelts.
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‘Bombed’ tries:
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Evil recognized at last
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All these try scoring failures reminds me that RL is much more skillful and the finishing of a much higher standard
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Sonny Bill had to come to Union to learn how not to do what he does in the first miss here:
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Refit – love the will carling one.
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Arf OT. I think there’s been some dodgy dead ball line finishes in this big cup which have been given the benefit of the doubt.
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Sorry, that was meant for TomP, not the RL one from OT featuring Hallam’s mentor.
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Test?
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Yay! I can post on my phone!
Now for some Iks-pleasing Prog….
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If only I can figure out how to add a YouTube video on this bloody phone.
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No one tell him.
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That Carling one was against Rosslyn Park. The fella with the initial tackle was Alex Woodhouse and I think Simon Hunter’s the other guy involved. Both of them were ex-Harlequins players.
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@Craigs. I’ll put some non-prog up if you want.
ABBA OK with you?
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AAARRGGHHH! No no! Prog please!
In fact, I’ll give you some.
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Thaum. You can like both you know…
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ABBA makes my skin crawl. Not least because I know all the fucking words off by heart. So once someone mentions a tune, it’s stuck in my poor, complaining brain for days.
And thanks to Iksy I’ve got that awful Elton John song stuck in my head too.
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This one isn’t catchy
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OT – fortunately I don’t know that one.
The most disappointing xmas ever, I had asked for a Queen album, and sure enough an LP-shaped thing turned up in my stocking. Imagine my surprise and horror when I unwrapped it….
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OT. That’s even sadder than Winner Takes It All, which is saying something.
Thaum – that Yes video was weird, even for a prog band.
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ABBA makes my skin crawl
You’re a trooper Thaum. Some might even say that you are a super trooper.
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Fuck. Now I have ABBA in my heid. Heroine is the only option now.
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@craigs
here’s something to get any earworms out of your head. Best listen to it till the end to get the full effect
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Craigs – it’s your own damn fault. Now apologise profusely.
BB – that was a weird video. Think I might have seen the latter bit back in the mists of time, but not the ‘live’ first bit with the strange intermission.
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Now I’m going to punish you all with what would be an earworm if you’d spent your teenage years where I did.
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Oh yeah, and then there’s this one:
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I like Manfred Mann’s Earth Band!
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OT – better than Winehouse.
*ducks*
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Yeah, me too, BB. That vid is so cheesy, though!
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Sorry Thaum.
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This is genius, and I’m fairly sure that it was someone on here who alerted me to it:
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It’s either heroine or the healing church. Guess I’m going to be praying to the great ones then.
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Craigs – ‘heroine’. Are you playing some sort of Bloodborne game, or do you mean ‘heroin’? :-p
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Last Proggy song:
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