2019 Rugby World Cup

Fulcrum29 said:
OT, but I didn't expect it this soon:

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SANZAAR meeting this soon, whilst there is a World Cup in progress... money, money, money, must be funny. The suggestion of battling over Japan for their inclusion in either the Six Nations or Rugby Championship is very much believable, again... money.
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Its always about money, but who cares. Japan in the Rugby Championship would be cool, their style of rugby is A LOT more entertaining than kick-a-trick rugby
 
Rabobi said:
Its always about money, but who cares. Japan in the Rugby Championship would be cool, their style of rugby is A LOT more entertaining than kick-a-trick rugby
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Logistics wise it would make more sense to get on-board with the Six Nations.

Many hurdles to have Japan compete in The Rugby Championship. SANZAAR needs to scrap Singapore, and I don't know why SANZAAR is into Singapore as a venue. Then there is Japan, they didn't have any input in Super Rugby as they were managed by the JSRA which is a board mixture between the JRFU and SANZAAR. The JRFU will need to be invited onto the SANZAAR board as a partner. SARU muddied the water with Japan a bit. Japan doesn't really have a player development program. The Top League is an industrial business with amateur and pro players. Travelling is an issue... It is a messy discussion.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
Logistics wise it would make more sense to get on-board with the Six Nations.

Many hurdles to have Japan compete in The Rugby Championship. SANZAAR needs to scrap Singapore, and I don't know why SANZAAR is into Singapore as a venue. Then there is Japan, they didn't have any input in Super Rugby as they were managed by the JSRA which is a board mixture between the JRFU and SANZAAR. The JRFU will need to be invited onto the SANZAAR board as a partner. SARU muddied the water with Japan a bit. Japan doesn't really have a player development program. The Top League is an industrial business with amateur and pro players. Travelling is an issue... It is a messy discussion.
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Isn't travel already an issue with Argentina, Aus and NZ? Japan is more in line with Aus and NZ so your itinerary could be 3 tests away, rest then have some home fixtures... i dunno
 
rietrot said:
Ja, no. That's cherry picking the stats to fit a certain narrative.
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Everybody cherrypicks stats to fit a certain narrative, just some people do it better than others :-)

But I get what you say. Even the quoted article that you refer to suffers the same problem. Its when you decide to base your game upon the stats and pick a game for the spreadsheet rather than the field that problems arise.

Stats is a good analysis tool, but it isn't great for predicting what will happen. It can give pointers, but the key is in execution. The team with the best statistician won't necessarily win, but the team with the more skillful players (those best placed to execute whichever game plan and cut down on the mistakes) will win. Rugby games are won more by execution than analysis, although from a fan point of view the analysis makes the game more interesting.
An important point about those stats, is that the stats follow the play, it doesn't dictate the play - and as much as it is useful analytics, performance indicators, etc ... those are good to track an individual play rather than a team performance. If, for example you have a line break on the opposition line, after a 50 metre kick giving you 2 metres to go and you get a try, that looks worse than a guy running from his 22 until the opposition team's 5 metre line and then giving up possession. So much of those stats are context specific and relies on another's mistake that you can't really build your game plan according to that.

So, low risk rugby will win far more often than high risk rugby, because you need a higher level skill set to play high risk rugby. Almost anyone can be drilled to be super fit, almost anyone can be drilled to have defensive discipline, almost anyone can be drilled to perform and execute good tackles. That's the easy part of the game and if that's all you have the talent for then you do that. You have one or two players with a bit extra skills (say Faf, PSDT, Cheslyn - even Willie on his day) and that's where you focus the offensive part of your game.

There is one metric that matters more to 99% of rugby supporters than any other -the scoreboard. I feel sorry for the other 1% because they're caught up in a world of idealism. The scoreboard tells the story better than any other stat. When the scoreboard says your team won, you're happy. If you don't like the performance you sound arrogant. If your team loses and you're happy because they "outplayed the other team" but for the scoreboard then you're a bad loser.But if you ask any professional rugby player or any other player whether they would rather play well and lose, or play badly and win, and you expect to get any other answer than a bad win then you have no idea why they're there.
 
powermzii said:
Isn't travel already an issue with Argentina, Aus and NZ? Japan is more in line with Aus and NZ so your itinerary could be 3 tests away, rest then have some home fixtures... i dunno
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Not necessary. They can structure it like the 6N.

SA play Aus and Japan away one year and NZ and Arg at home. The next year it's the other way around.
 
netstrider said:
Not necessary. They can structure it like the 6N.

SA play Aus and Japan away one year and NZ and Arg at home. The next year it's the other way around.
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For the Japan national team to exist in a tier 1 competition then they will need at least a team or two in either the Top14 or Super Rugby. Japan’s plan for their own higher tier and professional competition is only for 2021.

IIRC, the majority of Super Rugby supporters wanted the Sunwolves out. Many are still disappointed that they have a year left of their contract due to broadcasting agreements. If they are to return to Super Rugby 2021, many won’t like it and if they do then they need to go reread their words from a few months ago. The pundits will have a lot to bitch about. I can already see Mark Koehane writing his opinions in a storm in support of opposing the decision of bringing the Sunwolves back.

The competition is too big. Too many teams. In fact, it was only the Aussies and Kiwis who were in support of Japan’s continued involvement. If SARU wants to take more teams to the PRO14, then our neighbours across the ocean may have a lot to argue. The Kiwi media is already talking of SARU slowly abandoning Super Rugby. SARU's main motivation for the competition in Europe is again, money.

It also doesn't help Japan that Jamie Joseph is possibly being headhunted elsewhere as rumours have it that he isn't decided on staying with Japan until 2021. Rebooting the structures in Japan now will put a harpoon in their emerging ship of success.

The only alternative for Japan is to get on board with Global Rapid Rugby which doesn't seem to be of premium quality though they seem to have the money, and it will be based within their vicinity.

The US only started their league last year, and they will also possibly be only ready for emerging after the next RWC. It is a 6-9 year plan for making an effort for emerging.
 
To be fair I think Japan will be included and a regional side as well, with or without SA in the long run.

At the end of the day they will just be taking our seat at the table as the "man with the fat wallet". If we go to Europe we still won't have the biggest say so either way we lose out.

Best to keep feet in both regions for now, I would imagine. Don't want to burn bridges.

Not a big fan of the Sunwolves either and I'd much prefer going to 14 or 12 teams in SR, but SR as it is may not exist much longer and SA may, as the Kiwi media seem to believe, opt out of it altogether.

That would leave NZ and AUS in a bit of a pickle, hence them warming to Japan.

EDIT:

In the long run, if our regional rugby moves North entirely, then it would also make sense for SA to join the 6N or whatever it may be then.

I would prefer if we could play 3 years north and 3 years south, alternating with Japan. That will never happen though.

The reason being that it would make the AB v Bok rivalry even better if we played each other less.
 
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Back the Bucks… It is Boks. Nothing to with the use of Language. I regularly see the Springboks referred to as the Springbucks by South Africans.
 
How about Japan forms a competition with Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.

Fiji has a superb 7's team and their performance at the RWC certainly showed potential.
 
daveza said:
How about Japan forms a competition with Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.

Fiji has a superb 7's team and their performance at the RWC certainly showed potential.
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They already play in the Pacific Nations Cup since 2006.

For club teams, who are then funding the Pacific Islands with the bulk of their players plying their trade in Europe?

Fiji is likely to onboard with Global Rapid Rugby.

Tonga is corrupt. As much as World Rugby wants to help them out they cannot do anything about their corruption.

Samoa... also have their corruption and they are bankrupt with most of their top tier players based overseas.

Just to add, Fiji is already onboard with Australia's NRC and the Fijian Drua is the current competition champs.
 
Christo4 said:
Money goes to your Takealot account. Anyway that you can cash that in?
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6. The Refund: If the Springboks win the 2019 World Cup rugby final, Takealot will refund all eligible participants the full value of the promotional purchasing price of the selected Samsung TV. The refund will be processed by way of a credit to the participants’ takealot.com account. Credit refunds will be processed within 10 working days after the 2nd of November 2019 and confirmed with successful participants via email. Where a participant does not wish to receive the refund in the form of takealot.com credit, s/he may indicate so by replying to the notification email, whereafter the refund will be processed according to the participant’s original payment method. For the avoidance of doubt, should the Springboks not win the World Cup rugby final on 2 November 2019 no refunds will be processed.
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Christo4 said:
NO comment re All Black yellow card/penalty try?
"Diving in front of the post to prevent a try"
Lets hear it.
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Yeah that was a ridiculous call on a number of levels. He wasn't offside (ref might have been confused him with a retreating player who didn't actually engage in play), and how are you supposed to stop a try against the post if you aren't allowed to put yourself between the post and the attacking player?
 
I agree to a certain extent. My issue is that he did not try to tackle or stop the attacker. All he did was to prevent the attacking player to score at the bottom of the post.
This move was definitely discussed before the time.
The top ref in the world. Surely they have discussed it also.
No mention of it in any rule book.
 
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