World Cup draw a victory for tier-two nations

OPINION: Shock, horror! All indications are that we have a Rugby World Cup draw that appears to be fair and consistent for all concerned.

What next? The seedings done a year out so they actually reflect real form, rather than ancient history. That, folks, remains what you might call a work in progress. Stuck right in behind a true global season.

But back to the point at hand. Rugby World Cup has released its match schedule for the 2019 tournament in Japan, and a first perusal indicates that they have done about as equitable a job as was possible within the constraints of that restrictive thing they call a calendar.

Rule No 1 of a draw in any sport is that you can’t please everybody. But that’s closely followed by rule No 2 which is that you should always create as level a playing field as possible.

My initial eye test is that World Rugby may just have achieved rule No 2. And about time too, after the disadvantages afforded the tiertwo nations in previous events had become downright despicable.

By squeezing each nation’s four pool matches into what is effectively a window of 23 days, and also spreading games out to provide fans with a regular flow of action, it is simply not possible to have a perfect world where each country has seven days between matches.

That’s square peg in round hole territory.

So, that accepted, then it becomes inevitable that there is going to be a need for at least one short turnaround match for most nations. In the case of this event four days has been deemed the minimal time permissible between two matches.

That is not a long time in a collision sport such as rugby. In fact it’s such a short gap that players required to back up on those occasions will effectively be jumping between the ice bath and the bus to the next match. Not the most ideal of circumstances.

But when you accept that one four-day turnaround is necessary given the constraints of playing the tournament out within an acceptable and realistic time period, then the onus simply goes back on coaches to manage their resources smartly.

It has long been a rugby tenet that you will not win a World Cup with 15, or even 23 players. Squad depth is as important an ingredient as scrum power, breakdown tactics, defensive alignments and big men who can run swiftly.

So handling the four-day turnaround is simply part of the challenge.

The key thing is it is part of the challenge for all teams, and not just the smaller, less influential, nations. And that there is a consistency around the way the matches are spaced.

That appears to have finally been achieved in this draw.

The All Blacks’ second pool match is 11 days after their opener against South Africa. Their third four days after that, and their pool finale against Italy six days following that.

That sort of spacing has been applied consistently. South Africa has seven, six and four days between their games; England four, nine and seven; Australia eight, six and six; Ireland six, five and nine.

Pluck out some of the tier-two sides and you will see a similar theme. Hosts Japan have the most generous spacing of eight, seven and eight days, which is understandable. But Tonga have six, eight and seven; Fiji four, eight and six; and Georgia six, four and eight.

In a perfect world everybody would have the appropriate amount of time to prepare for all matches. But this ain’t a perfect world, and in that case we just have to settle for imperfectly perfect.