Officials make right call

EACH SATURDAY The Chronicle team talks about the big issues in sport locally, nationally and internationally. Glen, Jason and Sean share some of their views in the hope it will generate some discussion among The Chronicle’s readership.

Tell us what you think about today’s topic by emailing jason.gibbs@thechronicle.com .au or send an SMS to 0437 875 203.

Today The Chronicle sport team talks about the decision by World Rugby officials to cancel cup games due to Hurricane Hagibis

JASON GIBBS: I completely understand and accept why this decision was made.

The safety of players, officials and fans must come first.

The question now though is where does it end?

As it stands Scotland is going home - they’ll finish third if their pool game with Japan is cancelled.

In this scenario Japan go through as the top team in their group.

But what happens if the hurricane causes major damage?

Who keeps going forward if games can’t be played?

GLEN McCULLOUGH:

This is an unusual scenario and coincidentally occurs on the same weekend as a similar happening in Toowoomba.

Toowoomba Speedway officials on Thursday decided to cancel its meeting scheduled for Saturday due to predicted rain.

It was a brave call so far out from the event.

But their intention of trying to prevent competitors racking up costly travel from as far away as Tasmania for the meeting only to be left high and dry was an unselfish gesture and one that should be appreciated by all competitors regardless of whether it rains tonight or not.

The World Cup cancellations are a different kettle of fish.

In our politically correct world, workplace health and safety for players and spectators is paramount.

It’s a no-brainer for officials to heed the warnings of a devastating weather event and put human life first.

Whether or not a contingency plan should be in place to play the match elsewhere on another day will be debated.

But the logistics of moving an event, players, officials and thousands of fans from one place to another in predicted typhoon conditions would be pretty hairy in itself.

The resulting shared points from a cancelled match is not a good outcome in a tight, prestigious tournament, but it seems nature and common sense have won out on this occasion.

SEAN TEUMA: It’s one of the more unusual events I’ve head of in the sporting landscape.

Normally a game being called off is because of actual rain resulting in a local cricket fixture being reduced in overs or the last race of the day being abandoned, but a handful of games being cancelled at a World Cup due to a potential typhoon is something else.

I get that it’s in their rules that pool games have to be cancelled, but surely they could’ve held off an extra day or two to make a decision, especially considering the bearing the games could’ve had on the final pool standings.

Obviously you wouldn’t expect them to play if the typhoons do actually hit, we wouldn’t want to have someone blown away and ending up in Hong Kong, however surely there could’ve been more done to ensure that the games could’ve been played elsewhere, or at least rescheduled?

With the money that rugby union has, surely they could afford to get all the players and match officials on a plane within a few hours, fly them to somewhere in the country that has a footy field, whether it be a huge stadium or a cow paddock.

Even fly them off to another nearby country if they have to, play the games and then return once everything has settled down a bit.

Personally I think they could’ve made more of an effort to get the games played.