Road to World Cup 2015

Discussion in 'Rugby Union Discussion' started by Magrat Garlick, Dec 4, 2012.

Page 7 of 43

  1. Howe JHF Howe

    They already do play in the Pacific Nations Cup (USA, Canada, Japan, the three good Islander teams) which is in theory a great second tier competition. Problem is that all of those are expected to qualify as they're all well within the top 20 sides in the world, so it doesn't fit the bill.

    One solution might be to do with something like they had in the Oceania group, where the crap teams played a tournament to earn the right to have a qualifier against Fiji, which Fiji will win and qualify without having to go through the rigmarole of smashing everyone.

    I think the pretence for the Asian qualifying is trying to get Japan enough games, but since they're in the aforementioned PNC and the standard of their league is improving (thus helping their developing players), it's not really needed.

    In any case this will be the last world cup with this system as Japan are hosting the next one, and by the 2020s they'll probably be in a completely different situation.
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2014
    Howe, Apr 3, 2014
    #121

  2. Cribbage RG Cribb

    How do teams like New Zealand go about qualifying? That'd just be automatic in some way right? Could they not just automatically admit the sixteen countries from the Six Nations, Rugby Championship and PNC, and have the rest of the teams battle to qualify for the other four(?) places?
     
    Cribbage, Apr 3, 2014
    #122

  3. Mariner CL Warrington

    Yep, finish in the top 3 of your pool in the last WC and you get into the next one I believe.
     
    Mariner, Apr 3, 2014
    #123

  4. Weeman27bob BE Force

    If you finished in the top 3 in your pool in the previous world cup then you get an automatic place (or if you're the host).
     
    Weeman27bob, Apr 3, 2014
    #124

  5. Weeman27bob BE Force

    Mariner WAC.
     
    Weeman27bob, Apr 3, 2014
    #125

  6. BoyBlunder BOY Blunder

    Might lead to a potentially interesting situation where one of Wales, England or Oz could finish 4th in our WC group and have to qualify next time out
     
    BoyBlunder, Apr 3, 2014
    #126

  7. Mariner CL Warrington

    If that happened, they might as well put out a third team out and still walk it. Though I get a feeling that the IRB would still let them through automatically anyway, regardless of where they came in the group
     
    Mariner, Apr 3, 2014
    #127

  8. Weeman27bob BE Force

    Yeah you'd imagine they'd change the rules slightly to something like "finished in the top 4 and ranked in the top 10"
     
    Weeman27bob, Apr 3, 2014
    #128

  9. BoyBlunder BOY Blunder

    Would be funny if the side was ranked 3rd or 4th in the world and couldnt auto qualify. I guess though that a) they would nolonger be that high in the rankings after wC and b) would probs just be let off regardless as you say
     
    BoyBlunder, Apr 3, 2014
    #129

  10. Howe JHF Howe

    Yeah they would change the rules to get everyone there who obviously shouldn't bother qualifying. The rules used to be that you automatically qualified if you made the quarters, but when Argentina got good they realised they had more than a guaranteed top 8 and so changed it to what it is now.
     
    Howe, Apr 3, 2014
    #130

  11. The Boy Brumby ZJ Brumby

    We used to have to qualify, tbf.

    We smashed the Dutch (IIRC) 110-0 in one such game. One suspects the futility of this fixture convinced the IRB to rejig. Might even have been for the one we won too.
     
    The Boy Brumby, Apr 3, 2014
    #131

  12. Howe JHF Howe

    After having a look it turns out that basically every tournament has had different rules in some way, only the last couple being at all similar

    Turns out in 1999 they only had four automatic qualifiers.
     
    Howe, Apr 3, 2014
    #132

  13. Cribbage RG Cribb

    Still reckon this is a goer really. If a country is good enough to enter a major competition then it shouldn't have to bother IMO. Good solution as it avoids the ridiculousness of Japan's matches against the other Asian sides. Having a look at the official rankings, it could possibly piss Georgia off somewhat though; has there ever been any talk of them joining the Six Nations?
     
    Cribbage, Apr 3, 2014
    #133

  14. Howe JHF Howe

    Georgia (and Romania) are nwhere near good enough for that but there isn't really anything separating them from Japan or Canada afaic.
     
    Howe, Apr 3, 2014
    #134

  15. Weeman27bob BE Force

    I guess it depends on how you assign those extra four places because giving a place each to Europe, Africa, Oceania and Americas isn't going to get the best teams in. But equally you can't really be sending relatively poor federations halfway round the world all the time to put them all in one competition.
     
    Weeman27bob, Apr 3, 2014
    #135

  16. The Boy Brumby ZJ Brumby

    Japan holds a 2-0 AT record versus Georgia & 3-1 versus Romania.

    Romania is an odd one, actually. There was very serious talk of them being allowed into the 5 Nations before Italy back in the 80s. Before the fall of communism they had a very decent side. In The 80s they managed to beat France, Wales (home and away), drew with an Ireland XV at Lansdowne Road (Ireland in all but name, but the home side chose not to award caps for the game) and had far the better of things versus the Italians.

    Had they not been a communist country they may have been admitted. Since then tho they've lost their way somewhat.
     
    The Boy Brumby, Apr 3, 2014
    #136

  17. Cribbage RG Cribb

    Do you not have the same problem with the current system though?
     
    Cribbage, Apr 3, 2014
    #137

  18. Furball G Furball

    IIRC Wales had to qualify for the 1995 competition after failing to get to the quarters in 1991 and spent the qualifying period smashing the likes of Germany and Portugal.
     
    Furball, Apr 3, 2014
    #138

  19. Weeman27bob BE Force

    They beat Portugal 102-11 and then Spain 54-0.
     
    Weeman27bob, Apr 3, 2014
    #139

  20. The Boy Brumby ZJ Brumby

    I actually think the Scots declined to award caps for their qualifying games versus the Iberian minnows, which pretty much sums up the pointlessness of making tier one nations qualify against tier two or three countries.
     
    The Boy Brumby, Apr 3, 2014
    #140
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