Rugby world cup 2019

[ScouseFox]

played basically a whole second team though. bit rude that and got what they deserved. 

 

sure, england, SA, NZ and wales or something will play second teams against 5000/1 shots but they are a bit better than fiji. 

[CosbehFox]

16 minutes ago, ScouseFox said:

played basically a whole second team though. bit rude that and got what they deserved. 

 

sure, england, SA, NZ and wales or something will play second teams against 5000/1 shots but they are a bit better than fiji. 

But in some ways that selection of players was dictated by a format which see teams having to cope with ridiculous turnarounds in fixtures. 

 

The format is wank IMO. The tables and positioning all looks done bar England's group. Teams have four days recovery or less as well. 

[ScouseFox]

14 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

But in some ways that selection of players was dictated by a format which see teams having to cope with ridiculous turnarounds in fixtures. 

 

The format is wank IMO. The tables and positioning all looks done bar England's group. Teams have four days recovery or less as well. 

well yeah, same as russia having to play friday night then tuesday night. and they literally don't have any chance to change their team cos their first team is pretty rubbish as it is. not really any wonder that they tired in the second half. 

 

not too sure what the other options are though, unless you want the tournament to last about 6 months?

[Finnegan]

21 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

But in some ways that selection of players was dictated by a format which see teams having to cope with ridiculous turnarounds in fixtures. 

 

The format is wank IMO. The tables and positioning all looks done bar England's group. Teams have four days recovery or less as well. 

 

Certainly the tier two nations tend to get shafted everywhere with the scheduling. 

 

Last time out, Japan had to pay Scotland a couple days after they'd played South Africa whilst Scotland hadn't played a game yet. It was ludicrously unfair. 

 

Not a lot you can do about it though really without having a hugely long tournament. Rugby just requires more rest than football. 

[ealingfox]

The scheduling is already crap and too strung out though with there only being one game per day on loads of days.

 

How is having one game a day and that game being Samoa against Russia going to get people interested in rugby?

 

Considering the sport already suffers from not being very entertaining to watch they should be packing games in all over the gaff to try and make people watch.

[KrefelderFox666]

1 minute ago, ealingfox said:

The scheduling is already crap and too strung out though with there only being one game per day on loads of days.

 

How is having one game a day and that game being Samoa against Russia going to get people interested in rugby?

 

Considering the sport already suffers from not being very entertaining to watch they should be packing games in all over the gaff to try and make people watch.

Maybe an expansion of teams is necessary and so that groups are an even number. Maybe 6 groups of 4 and have a format like the Euros in football. Then eventually move into 8 groups of 4. Everyone plays 3 games and the groups are staggered over several days so that fans have games to watch every day.

[Finnegan]

4 minutes ago, KrefelderFox666 said:

Maybe an expansion of teams is necessary and so that groups are an even number. Maybe 6 groups of 4 and have a format like the Euros in football. Then eventually move into 8 groups of 4. Everyone plays 3 games and the groups are staggered over several days so that fans have games to watch every day.

 

There's arguably already too many teams in the tournament, we're scraping the barrel in terms of quality. 

 

The format is fine really, it's the best we're going to get, there's some flaws but they're tolerable. 

 

The vast, vast majority of rugby fans I know are really enjoying it so far, it's been an entertaining start to the tournament and there's plenty of casual fans that have been getting pretty in to it. 

 

[CosbehFox]

32 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Certainly the tier two nations tend to get shafted everywhere with the scheduling. 

 

Last time out, Japan had to pay Scotland a couple days after they'd played South Africa whilst Scotland hadn't played a game yet. It was ludicrously unfair. 

 

Not a lot you can do about it though really without having a hugely long tournament. Rugby just requires more rest than football. 

Two ways around it - make the format to ensure that everyone has one of these shorter weeks and/or try to make it the Tier 1 nations who have the short turn-arounds. 

 

Other ways would be 4 team groups - can have 20 teams still and make it something like 5 group winners and 3 runners-up or similar. Q/F, S/F and Final makes the six weeks we have at the moment. You could maybe lob-side the groups so - 3 of the groups are stronger than the other two. Or an elimination/preliminary system like used in Rugby League playoffs. 

 

So you'd have

A: Ireland, Japan, USA, Samoa

B: New Zealand, Fiji, Italy, Uruguay

C: England, Australia, Tonga, Namibia

D: S.Africa, Scotland, Argentina, Russia

E: Wales, France, Georgia, Canada 

 

So a simple - A-B Group Winners, C,D,E Group Winners + Runners-Ups through. 

 

The elimination format could be something like:- 

Week 4 - (Game 1) A v B [Ire v NZ] and Worst record of two Group Winners play each other so let's say C v E [Game 2 - Eng v Wal]

Week 5 - Game 1 loser v Group D Winner who have the best record and hardest group according to rankings [Ire v SA] - Game 1 Winner v Game 2 Winner [NZ v Eng]

Week 6 - Final [SA v NZ] 

 

The five groups strengths are tied to the rankings and continued performance over time. Similarly Groups A and B would take great importance for Tier 2 teams with a 2nd position gaining automatic qualification for the next World Cup. 3rd position for Groups C-E. with the same. 

[ScouseFox]

21 minutes ago, ealingfox said:

The scheduling is already crap and too strung out though with there only being one game per day on loads of days.

 

How is having one game a day and that game being Samoa against Russia going to get people interested in rugby?

 

Considering the sport already suffers from not being very entertaining to watch they should be packing games in all over the gaff to try and make people watch.

tbf samoa v russia was actually pretty fun compared to some of the other games so far (cough cough england). 

 

there was about 4 red card worthy tackles, a geezer knocked himself out trying to knock someone else out and 7 tries and a couple of scraps. i enjoyed it quite a lot. 

[Finnegan]

@Cardiff_Fox my friend, your mistake is thinking they give a **** about making it fair for the tier two teams. They don't.

 

 

[RonnieTodger]

You could reduce it to 16 teams with 4 pools of 4. Avoids the Scotland/Japan 2015 scenario, but I do quite like watching minnows.

[egg_fried_rice]

Reece Hodge banned for three games.

[KrefelderFox666]

3 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

There's arguably already too many teams in the tournament, we're scraping the barrel in terms of quality. 

 

The format is fine really, it's the best we're going to get, there's some flaws but they're tolerable. 

 

The vast, vast majority of rugby fans I know are really enjoying it so far, it's been an entertaining start to the tournament and there's plenty of casual fans that have been getting pretty in to it. 

 

But those lower tier teams will only get better with more regular games against the top sides and expanding the World Cup would make them better. Look at Uruguay, 10/20 years ago they would get 100 points on them by top sides, Argentina would be nothing if they hadn't joined the Rugby Championship, Italy are benefitting from the Six Nations. Georgia, Romania, those sort of teams need regular top team exposure to start closing the gap.

 

I enjoy the World Cup but I think having an odd number of teams in groups is not ideal. The idea of 5 groups of 4 is also good but you may as well add one more group as per my suggestion. Then expand the knockouts to Last 16, QF, SF and Final.

[CosbehFox]

If you had another round of fixtures though, you are looking at 7 week tournament with no midweek games 

[ScouseFox]

joe launchbury genuinely hasn't caught the ball yet and we've played for 45 minutes 

[leicsmac]

Good to see the American rugby team matching their current administration in terms of filthy behaviour.

 

Easiest red card ever.

[UniFox21]

Maybe a long way off for football, but playing the communication from the official is brilliant. Clears up so many things and let's a fan see and know why things have been stopped.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Screw the scheduling, it's no excuse for ITV to put the highlights on at a few mins before midnight each night.

 

I hate it when ITV gets the exclusive rights to sports events.

[Nalis]

Big game of the weekend is Wales v Australia surely, every other game is a pretty much foregone conclusion.

 

Will still watch most of it though. 

 

Dispatch Japan and we can ensure most of our first XV only play one more game before South Africa to maintain the balance between match sharpness and rest.

[Finnegan]

Aye first weekend had a lot of great clashes but this one's a bit slower. 

 

Aus Wales should be a good one though. Honestly can't really call it, they're in a bit of a mess but we're deceptively poor offensively. 

 

If we get our way it'll be a poor game for the neutral, a lot will depend on the loose forwards. We're going to need to have a superb game and be intelligent to keep the ball away from Hooper and Pocock. 

[Nalis]

22 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Aye first weekend had a lot of great clashes but this one's a bit slower. 

 

Aus Wales should be a good one though. Honestly can't really call it, they're in a bit of a mess but we're deceptively poor offensively. 

 

If we get our way it'll be a poor game for the neutral, a lot will depend on the loose forwards. We're going to need to have a superb game and be intelligent to keep the ball away from Hooper and Pocock. 

Yeah I didnt want to be mean regarding Wales considering the sh it us Irish get for our style at time (right or wrongly admittedly) but reckon it will be a slugfest with a Wales win, your defence should keep them under 20 pts. Saying that, the southern hemisphere teams seem to step it up in the world cup.

 

Either way, it should be high quality match.

[Finnegan]

Our game requires us to shut teams out, we utterly destroy everyone's attack. Everyone has their "worst game in ages" against us, we just suffocate teams. What we did to Sexton in the Six Nations in Cardiff was brutal.

 

But we don't score a lot so we NEED to keep the score against us low and that's very hard to do if your discipline isn't perfect. 

 

Pocock and Hooper are the absolute masters of eeking penalties out of the opposition so we'll see. I'd be far more comfortable with Warbs still around. 

 

Ps: jesus Wigan are shit. 

[Nalis]

13 hours ago, Nalis said:

Big game of the weekend is Wales v Australia surely, every other game is a pretty much foregone conclusion.

 

Will still watch most of it though. 

 

Dispatch Japan and we can ensure most of our first XV only play one more game before South Africa to maintain the balance between match sharpness and rest.

Erm.......... 

 

Japan should be ahead, very intense and chucking it about well. Less said about us the better!

[Finnegan]

Japan 

[cambridgefox]

10 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Japan 

Playing so well.

Liking their running,quick pace rugby.