Quote:
Originally posted by wellard:
Now people may know that I'm not a big rugby fan, much preferring rugby league, but I am trying to watch the world cup with impartiality and a willingness to be converted. That said I have to say that the standard of games so far has been poor. Blowouts scores by ill matched teams. I'm sure that it will get better but is anyone else *read real rugby union fans* been disappointed so far?
* And no I'm not having a go or stirring.*
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I'm not convinced that the blowouts are good for world rugby. I can't see how Georgia, Romania etc are helped by getting flogged every four years (and that's the only time they play the top teams) and how they could be learning from that.
I definitely think that they should be playing in the WC, but rather than just be used as cannon fodder on opposed training runs by the top teams I would be supportive of having a second-tier Plate competition run in parallel with the WC for any team that doesn't have Top 5 status, to give them their time in the sun and be able to compete in a meaningful basis and actually have the chance to win something. This would speed up their development.
Another, more important, thing to help their development would be for top nations like Australia, NZ etc to send their second squads to tour these places (eg the Pacific Islands, Eastern Europe, North America, Japan etc), like the Australia A squad did with Japan this year. This would be much more helpful than getting smashed every four years.