Rugby Union

[Bully Wee Villa]

England v France has been called off. No news yet on Scotland. I think the England news is bad news. Can't see how they can not cancel the Scotland game too, unless the forecast is significantly better for Sunday. 

[pandarilla]

Well this would be a new way for a Scottish national team to be eliminated.

 

 

[ajwffc]

Duncan Weir knows how to enjoy watching a game of rugby. Also the London Irish players will be losing their source of Scottish meat.

[ajwffc]

Looks like New Zealand v Italy has also been cancelled according to media reports.

[Swarley]

Question for our resident Japan expert @sjc and any other meteorological arm chair pundits. Presumably this is typhoon season in Japan? Presumably everyone knew this might, highly likely, be an issue? In hindsight was it such a good idea to hold a tournament in a country where the threat of natural disaster was fairly predictable?

The only logical fix is for the tournament to be postponed until November... 

[Mark Connolly]

England and NZ games off.

Our game and the Ireland game still on at the moment, but ongoing reviews

[sjc]

11 minutes ago, Swarley said:

Question for our resident Japan expert @sjc and any other meteorological arm chair pundits. Presumably this is typhoon season in Japan? Presumably everyone knew this might, highly likely, be an issue? In hindsight was it such a good idea to hold a tournament in a country where the threat of natural disaster was fairly predictable?

The only logical fix is for the tournament to be postponed until November... 

It is indeed typhoon season. This is the 19th that's hit the mainland this season, although they are unpredictable.

It'll be the same for the Olympics next year!

[Mark Connolly]

Brilliant get out for them if our game is cancelled - head of WR saying in the press conference there that "Italy are in exactly the same position as Scotland".

[sjc]

5 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

Calling it off on Thursday when it's not due until Saturday?

I still think it's extraordinary they organise the tournament for Japan during typhoon season then make no provision for standby dates. Especially as they're the last group games.

I know a few Cricket World Cup pool games have been washed-out previously, but has anything like this happened before among international finals tournaments?

The World Cup SF in Durban very nearly got postponed due to flooding in 1995.

The World rugby diary (very much like football) determines the dates to be honest. It's a long tournament as is without having spare dates. Other than reducing the number of teams, I can't see what they could have done.

If they are serious about growing the game they need to give the tournament to Countries like Japan and Argentina........even Italy!

[sjc]

3 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Brilliant get out for them if our game is cancelled - head of WR saying in the press conference there that "Italy are in exactly the same position as Scotland".

Exactly. You can't complain about the decor if you're drinking in the last chance saloon.

In fairness to Scotland, we're in good company. Genghis Khan's Mongols were defeated twice by typhoons trying to beat Japan....

[Mark Connolly]

3 minutes ago, sjc said:

The World Cup SF in Durban very nearly got postponed due to flooding in 1995.

The World rugby diary (very much like football) determines the dates to be honest. It's a long tournament as is without having spare dates. Other than reducing the number of teams, I can't see what they could have done.

If they are serious about growing the game they need to give the tournament to Countries like Japan and Argentina........even Italy!

The weather we've had here over the last few days, you could easily have a game cancelled in the UK at this time too.

On the 1995 SF point, IIRC they were about 10 minutes from binning it, and France would have been in the final due to SA getting a red card in the pool stages.

It will be gutting for us if the game is off. We shat the bed in the first game, but have worked our arses off to get it back in our own hands, so it will definitely hurt if it happens.

Those are the rules though, and we'd have been pishing ourselves laughing if Ireland, Wales or England had gone out in that manner.

[Swarley]

 

4 minutes ago, sjc said:

If they are serious about growing the game they need to give the tournament to Countries like Japan and Argentina........even Italy!

I agree with this but unfortunately the tournament will now be tainted, at least for supporters of the countries adversely affected by the postponements. As Hibeejibee said it seems ridiculous that we knew this could happen but made no contingency plans.

[ajwffc]

England and NZ games off.
Our game and the Ireland game still on at the moment, but ongoing reviews

With the NZ v Italy being off that is me done with watching any of the games now.

Brilliant get out for them if our game is cancelled - head of WR saying in the press conference there that "Italy are in exactly the same position as Scotland".

True but Italy have never not been beat by the All Blacks (NZ have won ne 14/14 so far scoring 320 points and only conceding 131). But in our case we have never lost a caped game v Japan (7/7 scoring 313 points while conceding 84).
I feel sorry for the 2 Italian props who were flown out to play the match on Saturday(one would of made his international debut).

[ajwffc]

also Leonardo Ghiraldini has spent the last couple of months getting himself match fit so he could make his final ever appearance as a rugby in Italy's last game at the RWC.

[Ro Sham Bo]

Brilliant get out for them if our game is cancelled - head of WR saying in the press conference there that "Italy are in exactly the same position as Scotland".

Yep by cancelling these games the precedent has been set for the Sunday fixtures. Unless the forecast changes the Scotland game will probably get called off within the next 24 hours.

[Donathan]

Italy weren’t going to beat New Zealand, but they earned the chance to at least try to do so by winning two pool games and setting themselves up pinch a QF spot with an unlikely win.

The fact that the organisers didn’t find a way to get this game played is an absolute scandal.

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

If our game is also cancelled, a brief look at the tables shows that the only countries screwed by the whole thing are us and Italy.

NZ finish top of their group, with SA second. Japan will finish top of our pool with Ireland second, meaning that Japan will play SA and Ireland will play the All-Blacks (you could say that the decision has a slight negative effect on Ireland as well).

The only other country effected is France, who had the chance to finish top of their pool and play Australia instead of Wales. They were already through so they won't care that much I suppose.

World Rugby will be looking at this and calculating the impact on countries......their best case scenario is if only Scotland and Italy are complaining about it, because nobody will care. I suspect that they already have the quarter-final line ups in their heads, so let's cancel a few games and get on with it.

If anyone thinks that games would be cancelled if their was a direct negative impact on Japan, the All-Blacks, England etc., then they're naive. 

 

Edited October 10, 2019 by Bob Mahelp

[Mark Connolly]

1 minute ago, Bob Mahelp said:

If our game is also cancelled, a brief look at the tables shows that the only countries screwed by the whole thing are us and Italy.

NZ finish top of their group, with SA second. Japan will finish top of our pool with Ireland second, meaning that Japan will play SA and Ireland will play the All-Blacks (you could say that the decision has a slight negative effect on Ireland as well).

The only other country effected is France, who had the chance to finish top of their pool and play Australia instead of Wales. They were already through so they won't care that much I suppose.

World Rugby will be looking at this and calculating the impact on countries......their best case scenario is if only Scotland and Italy are complaining about it, because nobody will care.

If anyone thinks that games would be cancelled if their was a direct negative impact on Japan, the All-Blacks, England etc., then they're naive. 

 

1. World Rugby are enforcing the rules that were in place before the competition, and have been in place for a number of World Cups.

2. It's a fucking typhoon, and it sounds like the whole country will be shutting down.

It may be working out the way World Rugby might prefer, but you can't blame them for trying to ensure the safety of everyone involved, and enforcing their own rules.

[Mon_The_Fife]

What a farce the World Cup has became now. I understand that there is nothing to stop Mother Nature but surely there should be contingency plans in place instead of not giving teams the opportunity to qualify (us and Italy).

[SlipperyP]

8 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

1. World Rugby are enforcing the rules that were in place before the competition, and have been in place for a number of World Cups.

2. It's a fucking typhoon, and it sounds like the whole country will be shutting down.

It may be working out the way World Rugby might prefer, but you can't blame them for trying to ensure the safety of everyone involved, and enforcing their own rules.

It's typhoon season, there should have been a contingency plan for this scenario in place.  Why even have the tournament during this season, as you say it puts people life in risk.