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 |
Tichtalf the Gray.
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World Rugby statement 12 months ago
Alan Gilpin, accepts it is “a real hot topic for us”, acknowledging a similar pattern of events in 12 months’ time would severely complicate matters. “Teams like Australia and England would have been arriving in Sapporo in that time frame. So, yes, we are planning right through from what happens if a team hotel is lost, what happens if a training venue is lost, through to what happens if one or more match venues are lost. Where do you relocate matches to, what are the time frames, how does that affect transport, planning, moving teams around? We are working through all those scenarios.”
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Pro, I know how you would react if it was Japan facing elimination by weather.
Give it a rest.
Everyone wants the game to go ahead.
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Anyone for the last few choc-ices?
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Looks like the scenario they worked out was detailed in the terms of participation.
That doesn’t actually look like an official statement to me – it looks like a transcript of rather vague comments. I am not a lawyer, but I don’t see anything there to suggest any sort of guarantee that matches can be relocated. It also doesn’t state if this refers to pool games or the knockouts.
And now the Scotland camp have joined Sergio in claiming that NZ would get different treatment.
As if NZ would ever need to win their final pool game to qualify for a QF, NZ have never lost a pool game.
I really hope the game goes ahead.
And that Scotland lose convincingly.
I am thoroughly sick of paranoid whining about a rugby match on the eve of a storm that is actually going to harm people. We don’t know what sort of state Japan will be in after Saturday, and those threatening legal action to demand a game goes ahead are being utter twats.
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“I am thoroughly sick of paranoid whining about a rugby match”
Amazing. Keep going! I especially like how your argument is just “You lost, now for Brexit” reframed.
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“I really hope the game goes ahead.
And that Scotland lose convincingly.”
I love revelling in others’ misfortune!
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@Ticht
I have been remarkably consistent that if one game is rescheduled, then all the affected games should be rescheduled.
There should be no special treatment for Scotland if the game cannot be played on Sunday.
There isn’t going to be, either. I doubt NZ are in much of a mood to agree to a postponed fixture after Scotland and Italy have basically accused them of being beneficiaries of corruption.
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“And now the Scotland camp have joined Sergio in claiming that NZ would get different treatment.”
Cries of different treatment is, of course, a major part of your posting output. Sad to see it’s gone for all time.
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“We don’t know what sort of state Japan will be in after Saturday, and those threatening legal action to demand a game goes ahead are being utter twats.”
Yes. I, too, believe that the SRU are calling for the game to be rescheduled even if it risks the lives of people involved (including, presumably, their own players) and definitely not just saying everything within reason should be done to play the match, even if it’s on another day or in another venue.
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This is a tremendous Friday night. Just a pity I’ve to go to bed early because I’m driving six hours tomorrow to speak for 15 minutes at some conference.
Six hours is there and back, full disclosure.
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This is going to be tough, our locks are callow. A point would be a win
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Gregor Townsend just called for the game to be played on the moon if all of Japan is subsumed by the Pacific.
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He said Japanese people should be burned for fuel to get the players to Luna.
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“Cries of different treatment is, of course, a major part of your posting output. Sad to see it’s gone for all time.”
There is obviously no difference between Tier two teams getting shafted in general (a theme I tend to post on) and the previously unseen phenomenon of RWC matches being cancelled due to natural disasters.
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Pro is a classic troll, stirs shite, gets called out, moves goal posts and targets when it suits, seemingly no self awareness, plays the victim card, rinse and repeat
End of
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“There is obviously no difference between Tier two teams getting shafted in general (a theme I tend to post on) and the previously unseen phenomenon of RWC matches being cancelled due to natural disasters.”
Paranoid whining – your phrase – is paranoid whining.
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Boo! It’s the blue meanies
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@Enzo
Scotland are demanding to be treated differently, and using threats of legal action to try and pressure the organizers into taking a decision that favours them.
They are also demanding to play in an empty stadium, as if that is some sort of compromise on their part, when they know full well such an outcome would be fantastic for them.
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No real skin in this game for Enzo. Embra aren’t in our conference. Leinster will finish ahead of us regardless. Come on the Great Lads, in which case.
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Edinburgh getting penalised for their haircuts at the moment
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Just penalise us again why not
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@Ticht
and you can border on tediously posting exclusively on Scotland and Edinburgh in a rather one eyed manner at regular moments, but we all try to get along.
Some get to post endlessly about obscure Scottish depth and the tragic struggles of the team ranked 9th in the world, others can argue for consistency and fairness when matches can’t be played due to tropical storms.
It’s all part of the rich variety of this place.
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Going to be one of these nights isn’t it
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Ooh penalty the other way
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If we’ve all to mark out our territory can I stake a claim for reusable nappy burning rituals, arse-trombones and redundancy. Thanks.
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We’re really struggling with Leinster’s defence
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Junior Great Lads massively dominating without the points to show for it.
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Ross Byrne is going to be Ulster out half in two years.
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https://earth.nullschool.net/
One for the ‘phoon watchers.
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Unless Lowry finds his groove there.
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Do you people not realise you could be watching Dragons v Connacht on S4C?!
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Loving penalties , this guy
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Rule of thumb for the RDS, get your basics right or you are going to get an absolute tonking
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@CMW – score updates, please. I think the Dregs will improve again this year. By how much remains an open question.
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I’ve got Drags-Conn on. Honking evening in Newport.
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Ach that’s a try
We are still on the bus
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Really, Expro? Can’t say I can ever recall you praising anything Ireland (for example) have ever done, or even congratulating them for a win through gritted teeth, but you have certainly published enormous screeds of whingeing and moaning about them, DBWR, and any other team that catches your ire.
The irony here is that the rest of us are criticising DBWR and standing up for Italy and Japan (and Scotland), which anyone who’d read your history would think you’d agree with, but no….
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Dave Kearney is the Leinster Pete Nelson.
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Sam Davies has just missed a fairly long range penalty won by the scrum half deliberately throwing it into a slowly retreating Connacht player. Drags then nearly scored a try, but the ball refused to bounce the way it damn well should have done.
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Leinster finally score. Nice back line play ends in a bit of pinball but there’s no knock on from the JGLs and JGP dots down.
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Tyler Morgan scoots over. 7-0.
4 years ago he was about to play in a World Cup knockout as a 19 year old.
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Sam Davies puts Iks favourite Tyler Morgan over with ‘y pas flat’. SD converts for 7-0.
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Sam Davies is one I forgot when listing Welsh fly halfs the other day, good player
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Connacht have their own try from close range after kicking to the corner from a penalty after a tacl uchel of the “seatbelt challenge” variety (same words in Wenglish).
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Bad guys have a yellow.
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Ceccarelli and Schoey have made it on to the park at least
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I don’t know who the bad guys are anymore.
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Why not just award the penalty try? This is getting boring.
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Watching Sam Davies play for the Dragons who have dressed up as the Ospreys is confusing. Penalty, number 3 off his feet in a Romanian accent, 7-10 to Connacht.
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