Gordon Tietjens rails at 'unfair' system that ranks Kiwis No 4 at sevens World Cup quarters
Coach says World Cup rankings unfair after Kiwis seeded fourth despite recent dominance
Gordon Tietjens fired a stinging broadside at the International Rugby Board for persisting with the format, which was used yesterday to decide the Cup quarter-final line-up at the World Cup, saying it failed to reward consistency over a long period.
"We finished top in our pool, but we don't know if we will be the top seed until all the [pool] games are over and the ranking has been decided on a points differential. This is a crazy system because not all pools were balanced," Tietjens said after the Kiwis had completed their games early yesterday.
It proved so with New Zealand being ranked fourth and drawn to meet Wales, the fifth-ranked of the top eight teams, a rematch of their tie four years ago in Dubai when Wales knocked out the men in black.
The other quarter-finals pitted top-ranked South Africa versus Fiji (8), Kenya (2) vs France (7) and England (3) vs Australia (6).
Tietjens was critical of the fact that unbalanced pools allowed teams to pile on the points.
New Zealand finished unbeaten in their pool with wins over Canada, the United States - coming back from 5-19 to win 26-19 - and Georgia. Their points differential was 45.
Kenya had an easier first round considering that their pool included debutants, the Philippines, and finished unbeaten, but with a points differential of 71 to be ranked above the Kiwis.
"The best team in the world should be the top seed, and the best team should be measured by its performance over the last two years. I honestly don't know why the IRB is continuing with this system. The emphasis should be to win any game," Tietjens said.
The IRB refused to comment although it is believed this system was favoured as some teams might have strengthened their sides for the World Cup, and as such using past results did not give a true reflection.
Wales coach Paul John defended the format, saying it was used four years ago and that it was fair.
"This is a one-off tournament, a World Cup which comes along every four years, so why should the best team over the last few years be rewarded," John asked. "A World Cup is what happens over this weekend and I believe your performance on the field is a fair reflection of where you end up in the knockout phase."
Wales, the defending champions, also finished unbeaten in their pool after holding on to a superb 19-14 victory over Fiji who were reduced to six men in the second half after the referee spotted a shoulder charge. It was revenge for Wales, who were denied their first World Series title in Hong Kong by Fiji in March.
Fiji coach Alifereti Dere said: "It is a good wake-up call. Better to lose today than on Sunday."
Victory enabled Wales to finish top of pool E and Fiji finished second, but still advanced to the Cup quarter-finals.
The big surprise was the failure of Samoa to make it through to the Cup. Australia and France played out a 17-17 draw, which saw both teams advance to the Cup competition at the expense of Samoa, who would have gone through if either Australia or France had won.
New Zealand had to pull out all the stops to overcome the US who looked on course for an upset win leading 19-5. "You can't play rugby without the ball and they denied us possession plus uncharacteristic errors almost cost us," Tietjens said.
Meanwhile, in the women's World Cup, Asian teams China and Japan both had a poor first day, losing all their three games to be relegated to the Bowl.
