Greed kills World Cup campaigns
Since England’s 2003 World Cup victory it has been 20 years of Southern Hemisphere rule at the Rugby World Cup with the All Blacks and Springboks taking the four tournaments since.
Despite being on different seasonal calendars, there is one undeniable difference between how the two Hemispheres approach the game’s pinnacle event.
One side of the world plays far less rugby, and the other plays far more before a ball is even kicked in pool play.
The Six Nations teams have just wrapped up the annual competition where they have each played five Tests in 2023. With the world’s top two teams Ireland and France in the competition, the intensity has been high.
On returning to club land the players will work through their respective Top 14, Premiership and URC seasons and complete European Cup competitions by late May.
But it is in the summer period is where the Northern Hemisphere nations really harm their World Cup prospects.
Faced with the loss from the usual November international period where they would usually rake in revenue from packed stadiums, the Unions schedule full-blown test matches in August to fill the coffers.
England played Wales twice, Ireland and Italy in summer 2019. Wales played England twice and Ireland twice, four games against two of the strongest in Europe.
These were labelled as ‘warm-up’ fixtures, but presented more like test matches with near full strength line ups. That meant they played another four Test matches on top of the five completed already in the calendar year.
Wales, Grand Slam winners in 2019, were not able to peak at the business end of that year’s Rugby World Cup as a result. The injury toll was immense by the time they reached the semi-final against South Africa.
Gareth Anscombe did his ACL in one of the summer warm-ups against England and didn’t make it on the plane to Japan.
No 8 Taulupe Faletau didn’t make it either after a training run injury before the event.
Josh Navidi was sidelined after the quarter-final win over France with a hamstring tear. Liam Williams was scratched before the semi-final, while George North suffered a leg injury right before half-time. Midfielders Jonathan Davies and Hadleigh Parkes were under injury clouds to even play.
Injuries are expected of course but here many key players in the squad were dropping like flies as they entered their 15th Test match of the year.
Had they made the World Cup final for a 16th Test, they would have been cannon fodder and we know this from the bronze final where the All Blacks wiped the floor with them.
Wales put up a tremendous campaign and valiant effort but undeniably were a shell of the side that conquered all in the Six Nations that February.
They may have won the William Webb Ellis trophy with smarter player management given they still pushed South Africa to the brink in the 19-16 semi-final loss with a walking wounded squad.
They did not have the playing resources available when they needed them most to fulfil their potential.
Scotland and Ireland also floundered in pool play, both suffering shock losses to Japan. Neither team were playing very well while Japan hit the ground running having timed their approach perfectly.
Japan threw conventional wisdom out of the window for their World Cup preparations by pulling all their players out of Super Rugby for the entire season, leaving the Sunwolves without any Japanese internationals.
A shadow World Cup team played a handful of Super Rugby ‘B’ squads instead, even playing total amateurs out of club rugby.
After that Japan played a grand total of four Tests before that World Cup, three in the Pacific Nations Cup against Tonga, Fiji and USA and one warm-up against the Springboks.
That preparation was enough to stun Ireland 19-12 in pool play, who were playing their 11th Test of the year, many of whom were from a Leinster squad who had also played a European Cup final and a Pro14 final earlier that year.
The amount of rugby that Japan’s players had been put through was minuscule compared to their Irish opponents. The result suggests playing far less in a World Cup year, not more, worked in the Brave Blossoms favour.
European players have a two-month summer break over June and July, but when you consider the actual playing load and demands over the trailing 12 months into a World Cup, it still vastly outweighs those in the South even with the break.
There is a solid argument that greed killed the Northern Hemisphere nations in 2019 as they ran their players into the ground before they were needed to peak.
Even England, who maintained a rather healthy squad without losing key players, just couldn’t match the intensity of South Africa in the final game after emptying the tank to stun the All Blacks.
Yet the Southern Hemisphere teams take the complete opposite approach when it comes to the lead-in to the tournament.
As has been the case for a number of years, the resting protocols are already in place for All Blacks during Super Rugby Pacific, who will be forced to sit out games.
When the Southern Hemisphere nations get together for the Rugby Championship this July, they will play a reduced version with less travel and fewer games.
They will play three in-competition Tests instead of the usual six.
The All Blacks and Wallabies will play one extra test to decide the Bledisloe Cup, while South Africa and Argentina will duke it out again for four tests in total.
New Zealand, Argentina and Australia have one extra warm-up Test in August while South Africa have two.
The Southern Hemisphere nations will begin pool play with just five Tests under their belts, while South Africa will have six.
Ireland and France have the two best teams in the world and currently hold the best chances to end the Northern Hemisphere drought.
There is absolutely no logic to players like Johnny Sexton, Josh van der Flier, Antoine Dupont, and Romain Ntamack playing warm-up Tests in summer.
For Sexton, particularly, even playing for Leinster this year is questionable. He is so critical to Ireland’s campaign that he needs to be preserved at all costs, this opportunity is too valuable to squander.
Irish Rugby doesn’t need him playing another Champions Cup final in May, they need him playing a World Cup final in November.
Japan showed the way, they don’t need to play.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 Go to comments