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 – in this case, it’s Leinster.
And Embra don’t need the penalty try, because they’ve scored it anyway.
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Connacht on a roll. 15-7 after a Healy chip and chase.
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Another yellow
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And now another try. After dominating the early stages Dragons have since conceded at every opportunity. 7-17.
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Why are they booing and why is Ferris saying that is okay?
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Useless Joe getting a yellow for a Gareth Davies on Farndale.
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Now that was a very harsh card. Leinster now down to 13 men for a while.
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So if you collapse the scrum straight away, you can’t concede a penalty try? Pathetic. Four scrum penalties under the posts should have been penalty try all day long.
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I’d say they’re booing because it’s a very minor example of something that never gets penalised. Personally I think it’s something that needs to start getting pinged so hopefully this is a thing now.
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Commentator is a wanker. The Leinster 12 had no need to slide in. Could a and shoulda jumped over the try scorer.
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Drags drop the ball at both ends of the pitch in the same passage of play with SD juggling a pass he had to take on his knees in between. They win a penalty in their own 22 to get away with it.
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“Drags drop the ball at both ends of the pitch in the same passage of play”
That definitely sounds entertaining.
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Whitehouse was looking for a reason to penalise Edinburgh there, Leinster push early but win the pen
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Jordan Williams is such a lovely runner
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Hibbardy-Hibbs keeps throwing lineout ball to Irishmen.
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Full disclosure, I support Edinburgh
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Leinster are now properly rattled, which you don’t see often.
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@Enzo – entertaining with a hefty dollop of inept.
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Connacht winger sees melyn for taking a man out in the air. Chwarae brwnt indeed. Hibbs throws the resulting lineout to an Irishman.
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S4C Clic packs in for a bit and now it’s half-time. Might have been another score, but I doubt it.
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Really Ticht? I never knew!
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@CMW
No further scoring. Half ends and we’re straight into the Welsh language ‘get ready for Brexit’ advert/propaganda.
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The bad guys take the lead…
Is what I would have said, had the moral geopolitics not shifted. The bad guys had a scarcely deserved lead approaching half time but our brave hosts not only overhauled that margin they did so by declining a straightforward kick for a lead, and going to touch and scoring a try.
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Enzo, Leinster are the new Ghandi to our Pol Pot
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Personally, I cannot see anything wrong with Scotlands actions in this situation. In fact, for the good of rugby, its followers and junior teams, it would have actually been nice for the major teams affected, England, New Zealand, and France, to actually come out in support of the other teams , and integrity of the tournament as a whole, to all stand together and try to make World Rugby actually try and look a bit deeper into postponement, not cancellation. They looked at other options, and thought that moving games 500 k was too problematic. At least wait and see if the typhoon actually strikes land and causes damage. Japan, you have a once in a lifetime opportunity here to make something work, and you couldn’t be arsed. Certainly won’t be booking tickets to see the Olympics.
I genuinely suspect that any of the big teams would have been making a hell of a racket if they were in Scotlands situation.
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“The Cheetahs hooker is terrific”
Said that during Currie Cup. TomP pfff-ed me and said wait until he plays Pro14. Joseph Dweba is awesome and future Bok hooker ahead of Malcolm Marx. You heard it here first. Unless you live in the Free State, in which case you knew it all along.
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SBT – now that you mention it, France could’ve shrugged and walked away as winners of the Semi in Durban in ’95, when a freak storm flooded the field. Instead they allowed the helicopters to blow the water off the field so the match could go ahead. The rest, and Invictus!, is history.
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To echo what Sunbeam says, I think Scotland are completely justified in making the point that cancelling matches is not good enough
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Lovely start to the second half by the gallant heroes.
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Poor first five minutes of the ail hanner from Sam Davies. Off to read about toeless pobbles and hat-wearing quangle wangles to the little one.
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Letks not get carried away, Larry
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Leinster are so efficient, they have so much depth and they all play the same game, excellent side.
Bastards
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Leinster doing an All Blacks (evil) and scoring 14 points either side of the break.
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Temporary reprieve means I get to see the next Connacht try from a driving lineout. Dean Ryan has the right sort of face for staring impassively into the Rodney Parade rain.
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Connacht drive a maul over. 22-7 with kick to come. You’d think that’s the ball game. Still half an hour to go but the conditions aren’t conducive to chasing a game and I’m not sure conceding 22 points on the bounce is much of a signal that a comeback is on.
Drags restart out on the full.
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Happy to see him doing well in Proper Rugby, Deebee. Bongi’s the man at the moment. Playing well, excellent throwing and good at scrums.
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And Connacht get a penalty from the resulting scrum.
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The Pro14’s pretty interesting when the World Cup’s on. All those decent looking Under 20 World Cup players from the last few years getting a shot.
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Having said that, Louis Fouche was at 12 for the Cheetahs tonight and they stuck 40 on Munster, which shouldn’t compute.
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The lovely, completely un-cynical Leinster are turning the screw now.
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The world is cold and cruel and dark but here, in the floodlights of the Royal Dublin Showgrounds, that which is good and right begins its march against evil.
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Indeed TomP – Marx is 3rd best on form.
Schoeman is a marshmallow. Couldn’t shove a shadow on this showing.
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Scott Penny should be a star. Leinster’s back row resources are phenomenal.
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Bongi, Schalk, Dweba, Marx. If Llanelli were a country, …
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Max Deegan looking pretty good despite being absolutely written off by CJ.
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Thing is, Cheetahs don’t really have any more gears to go through. They’re cashing in at the right time.
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Baby Glaws got the fastest prem bonus point against Bath, Burns on fro Bath to stabilise the ship. 24-12 so far.
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Not many on show in Newport for either side, but if you like mid/late career journeymen, this is the place to be.
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Nic Groom made a great effort to run a support line there – before colliding with the lad who passed him the ball.
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Bit of a collapse there by embra
One could almost say classic embra
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