RWC 2015 - tournament of upsets?
The history of the World Cup tells the subjective story of how New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England reign supreme.
|||The Rugby World Cup tournament may have been started by the game’s elite as a means of showcasing the game on the global stage and in the process basking in the glory of their small and exclusive world.
What was never said about taking rugby to the rest of the world was that it wasn’t a game meant to be won by every and any nation.
That privilege has seemingly always been reserved for the super powers who have held a stranglehold on the game for decades prior to the first World Cup tournament in 1987.
And so the history of the World Cup tells the subjective story of how New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England reign supreme over other nations that have participated in the tournament.
But it has been the desire to be recognized around the globe as one of the major sporting events that will probably turn the world rugby order on it’s head at this year’s World Cup with many of the so called minnows finally confident and brave enough to proclaim their intentions of being more than just ushers to the powers that be.
While there is still a considerable distance between the haves and the have nots in rugby’s hierarchy, it is at this World Cup played at the home of rugby that the likes of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England might finally relinquish their grip on the game.
At times it seems as though the powers that be have artfully designed the tournament to end in a climax concocted of age old rivalries between the great nations.
It is understandable why this as New Zealand, Australia and South Africa each boast of two world titles while England still speak fondly on their sole victory in 2003.
A look at this year’s tournament makes for interesting reading with a possible semi-final clash between the great rivals the All Blacks and Springboks while England or the Wallabies could easily be involved in the other semi-final encounter.
By virtue of their world champions status, the All Blacks have been handed an easy ride to the knockout stages of the tournament and will easily rumble over the likes of Namibia, Tonga, Argentina and Georgia.
The Springboks on the other hand will be met with much stiffer opposition with the likes of Samoa and Scotland in their pool but should make easy pickings of Japan and the USA which would see them through to the quarterfinals for a rather tricky encounter with either England, Australia or Wales, depending on which team finishes in second place.
It is at the quarterfinals where the real World Cup begins with the separation of the contenders from the pretenders but there could be teams that end up as collateral damage to the flawed seeding system of the tournament.
Pool A, which is regarded as the pool of death, could hold the aces to which team claims the ultimate prize with hosts England not guaranteed of a place in the knockouts along with Australia as they will face stiff competition from Wales and to a lesser extent Fiji for the top two coveted spots in their pool.
As much as the usual suspects still standout as the obvious choices to hoist the Webb Ellis trophy aloft at the end of October, there is an overriding feeling amongst rugby pundits and the public at large, that the likes of Samoa, Fiji and Argentina are destined to produce something special.
Samoa have often come within an arm’s length of dining with the upper echelon with their quarterfinal appearance in 1995 and their ability to always be one of the teams to watch out for.
Fiji showed in the 2007 edition in the quarterfinal match against the Springboks that they could be a force to be reckoned with if they get their act in order while Argentina reached a personal high in the same tournament by finishing third.
Add to the list the growing belief amongst the nations that have often been threading water between dining at rugby’s top table and those left to battle it out for the crumbs at the foot of the table.
Ireland, Wales, France and even Scotland have often been regarded as good enough to play in the knockouts but never seen as overwhelming favourites to win the tournament, so they have bravely contested every World Cup with the ambition of finally getting recognition amongst their much vaunted peers.
As much as France belongs to be mentioned in the same breath as the four super powers, it is their erratic form between World Cups and to a lesser extent at the tournament that is unconvincing about their ability to be consistent for the required seven matches it takes to be world champions.
The French have appeared in three finals, two against the All Blacks in New Zealand and the other a one-sided affair against Australia in 1999, but they have always come into those finals as underdogs.
France are in one of the easiest pools with Ireland a real concern for them but they will somehow conjure up a way of making it difficult for themselves against Italy who have beaten them in recent seasons in the Six Nations.
Ireland will certainly be a team to keep an eye on as they are almost guaranteed a place in the quarterfinals and from then on they will rely heavily on their ability to churn out big performances on more familiar ground.
If Ireland can display the sort of form that they did in the Six Nations then there is no reason why they can’t make it into the last four.
This World Cup will certainly not be the playground for the super powers as the odds are heavily staked against the defending champions who have never won the Webb Ellis outside of their home country, while England’s win was in the southern hemisphere while the Springboks won it in France courtesy of the rugby gods that saw the All Blacks and Wallabies fall by the wayside in the quarterfinals.
Australia will take some comfort from having won both of their world titles in the northern hemisphere in 1991 and 1999 but they will need to survive the pool of death before entertaining any thoughts of silverware.
It can’t be doubted that the contenders to rugby’s Holy Grail have certainly increased and there will be a need to make more space at rugby’s top table at this year’s World Cup.
It might be one tournament too early but England 2015 could just see the rebirth of rugby, not just as a game for the privileged few but as a game embraced by the rest of the world with many of the minnows and pretenders of the past finally staking their claim to the game.