Beers and beef on the weekend menu as game-free England get out of Tokyo
Eddie Jones claims the “typhoon gods” have smiled on England after their World Cup group decider against France was cancelled due to the approach of Super Typhoon Hagibis.
In one of the most extraordinary days in the tournament’s 32-year history, the all-Six Nations meeting, along with New Zealand’s match against Italy, has been cancelled with each side receiving two points.
Still under review are Sunday’s matches including Scotland’s last-gasp attempt to avoid elimination by defeating Japan, which is also being staged in Yokohama.
Hagibis has been described by the Japanese Metrological Agency as “violent” and has the capacity to cause widespread destruction around the Tokyo region.
Satellite images of the extreme weather event displayed at World Rugby’s press conference on Thursday revealed it is the size of Japan and shows no sign of deviating in its path or decreasing in magnitude.
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It dwarfs Typhoon Faxai which brought Tokyo to a standstill for the day of England’s arrival in Japan, delaying their exit from Narita Airport by six hours and leaving a million homes without power, killing three people and injuring scores more.
But for Jones, this it is an opportunity to recharge his players and give the injured Billy Vunipola, Jack Nowell and Joe Marler time to heal ahead of the last-eight appointment with Australia or Wales. Rather than see the two-week enforced break between games as an impediment to lifting the Webb Ellis Trophy, Jones has taken his squad to Miyazaki for some warm weather training.
“The Japanese have a saying – shogun-hi – we can’t control it. It’s not something you can control. This is the situation,” Jones said. “We excited about the prospect of having great preparation for the quarter-final now. Who would have thought we would have two relatively easy games, one tough game and then two weeks to prepare for a quarter-final. So someone is smiling on us – the typhoon gods maybe?
Sergio Parisse doesn't pull his punches in slamming the decision to cancel Italy's match on Saturday versus the All Blacks https://t.co/ojuGuS5bRK
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 10, 2019
“We love Miyazaki beef. We have 80kgs of a special consignment coming Saturday night and Billy is allowed his beef again. We will do a bit of light training Friday, a good hit-out on Saturday, a few beers, some beef and get ready for the week ahead.”
World Cup tournament director Alan Gilpin stated that the governing body’s hand was forced by the danger posed by the region’s biggest storm of 2019, which is on course to hit the mainland in the early hours of Saturday.
Defeat was conceded in attempts to move the cancelled games to Oita due to the logistics demands. “As you can imagine the decision has not been taken lightly and is in the best interest of safety as a priority,” Gilpin said.
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“We looked pretty exhaustively at all the options. Important to note is that we are in accordance with what we said we’d do before the tournament. Moving teams round on this scale and being able to deliver safely the exit of 12 teams… we couldn’t guarantee contingency plans consistently. If we can’t do it for all, we can’t do it for any.”
World Rugby’s decision has received a mixed reception, with Italy captain Sergio Parisse describing it as “ridiculous” and adding that the Azzurri “deserve to be respected as a team”. All Blacks coach Steve Hansen admits it is unsatisfactory but backed World Rugby, stating “the right decisions are being made because it’s all about safety”.
No one expected Italy to topple world champions New Zealand and replace them in the quarter-finals, but Scotland have every chance to defeating Japan and potentially denying the hosts a first-ever quarter-final place.
The Scottish Rugby Union has demanded a contingency plan be drawn up for the match and head coach Gregor Townsend has urged that everything possible is done to ensure it goes ahead. “We have to have faith in the organisers that the game will be played even if it’s behind closed doors or at a different venue,” Townsend said.
– Press Association
WATCH: The moment two of Saturday’s World Cup games were officially cancelled
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments