Rugby World Cup 2019: tier two minnows reaping tier one earnings from World Rugby
- Despite being in all nine World Cup tournaments, the gulf in class between Canada and the top teams remains wide
- Canadian coach Jones is doing his bit to sell their game against the All Blacks to the public
Well, apparently, this is what the coach of Canada wanted. “I don’t think the draw could be set up better for us if I asked for those fixtures myself,” said coach Kingsley Jones of a schedule that opened with Italy followed by New Zealand six days later and South Africa six days after that. Again, is this what you wanted Hong Kong? I don’t think so, unless it comes with a cigarette and a blindfold.
Perhaps no team symbolise the seemingly insurmountable gulf between tier one and tier two rugby in this tournament like Canada. After getting demolished 48-7 by an Italian team who are ranked number 14 in the world and will never be confused with a juggernaut, the mind reels at what’s coming next.
When Canada meets the All Blacks, who laid waste to South Africa in their opener and will be coming off a 10-day rest in the nearby healing hot springs mecca of Beppu, scoring records will be in jeopardy. In the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Australia took out Namibia 142-0 to register the largest winning margin in World Cup history.
All right, maybe the All Blacks do not put up 142 points on Canada because that takes a special breed of heartlessness. But if the will is there they could easily score in triple digits and this is significant because all the talk from World Rugby about growing the game centres on the invaluable experience tier two teams get by playing the best.
Maybe the Canadians, and some of these other hapless tier two countries, need to find jobs for Kiwis like the Italians have for their captain.
Nothing else seems to be working because it has now been 32 years with a spot in all nine Rugby World Cup’s for Canada. Any overall improvements are measured in glacial increments. And yet every one of the 40,000 seats in Oita Stadium will be sold for their match against New Zealand on October 2 with StubHub listing some tickets for more than US$300. I guess that is a nice souvenir to have, a World Cup ticket. But if you are sitting on the fence and 300 bucks means something to you, it’s insane to make that happen.
Still, here’s Canadian coach Jones doing his bit to, uhm, sell their matches with the All Blacks and Springboks. “We got two teams coming up that have won the World Cup five times between them,” he said. “Every player dreams of playing against the All Blacks and the Springboks growing up so it’s something really exciting for the players in every game.”
You know the parameters of insanity get redefined by the moment so it’s hard to keep up. Still, one of the common axioms regarding the insane is that they will do the same thing over and over again and somehow expect different results.
Well, let’s scratch that one now as well because the 2019 Rugby World Cup has given us a convenient revision. Insanity is now doing the same thing over and over again, getting paid well for it and thinking you need to change the results. Yeah, that is insane because no one in sports looks a gift horse in the mouth.
It’s payday baby, no more no less. Still, some sporting organisations with polish and moxie do a much better job of concealing their intent than others. But for World Rugby, and their showcase tournament, it’s blissful – and lucrative – insanity.
