World Rugby should have tried harder to fulfil pool-stage duty

Visiting rugby fans feel they are in a movie, with warnings to “stay indoors” when “the biggest typhoon of the 2019 season” might hit. They know they have lost matches and holiday money. But has the World Cup also lost its symmetry, its competitive integrity?

If this blows over quickly, the quarter-finals will come soon enough and the revelry will return. Yet this World Cup is now clouded by an imbalance the organisers claim was impossible to avoid. Some teams will play only three pool games and Japan could be waived into the last eight without having to grapple with Scotland, who need a victory to progress. The organisers tried – but maybe not hard enough.

Delivering all the fixtures is a responsibility all impresarios bear. So inured is cricket to rain that this summer’s World Cup schedule lost several games to the weather without an outcry. Rugby, though, is synonymous with defying the elements. Nobody is suggesting fans should be exposed to 100mph winds on the way to stadiums. For World Rugby to make that the central issue was misleading. The crux was whether it should have been more flexible and inventive to obey the old showbiz mantra: the show must go on.

In his address yesterday, Alan Gilpin, the tournament director, said he and his colleagues had been “intensively working” on a solution, adding: “However, the risks are just too challenging to enable us to deliver a fair and consistent contingency approach for all teams and participants – and importantly to provide confidence in the safety of spectators.”

This explanation sidesteps two possible solutions. If Japanscotland goes ahead on Sunday, some of the heat will be taken out of the debate raging here in Tokyo, but New Zealand-italy and England-france have already been lost. In all cases, the organisers have rejected two opportunities: 1. To reschedule games for Monday or Tuesday, and 2. To move them to cities unlikely to be affected by Typhoon Hagibis – though predicting its course is hard.

Two games have been lost and a third will be condemned or saved on Sunday morning. If Japan v Scotland is also cancelled, the big weekend losers will be Italy and Scotland. The big winners will be New Zealand, France and England, who will all have to play one game fewer. Japan would be the biggest gainers of all. A cancellation would guarantee them a quarter-final and shave a match off their schedule.

You can see why Japan benefiting in this way would provoke disquiet – especially with Scotland, who have examined the possibility World Rugby ignored its duty to see the pool stage through to completion. Italy would not have beaten New Zealand, but still deserved the chance to try.

Many justifications have been advanced. Many are logistical – the problem of shifting teams, fans and broadcasters around a country where infrastructure damage is predicted. Another is the difficulty in moving back into stadiums that have already been decommissioned as rugby venues.

Nobody could claim it would have been easy, but there are big holes in the argument. First, the authorities seem to be saying there is no wriggle room in the schedule on Monday and Tuesday, despite them saying months ago that flexibility was built in.

Ask Scotland whether they would rather go home without playing again, or have five days to prepare for the All Blacks. Gregor Townsend, their head coach, would

It should have been more flexible to obey the old mantra: the show must go on

not depart quietly. “I think there has to be a game,” he said. Monday and Tuesday should have stayed open for business, along with the possibility of playing games in other cities, even behind closed doors. The integrity of the pool stage should have come first.

The biggest contributing factor in the success of rugby World Cups is the physical commitment of the players, who take extraordinary risks to lay on the spectacle. That investment should be honoured. World Rugby says Scotland could not be given a second chance that was denied to Italy; the answer to which is – rearrange New Zealanditaly as well.

“While making every possible effort to put in place a contingency plan that would enable all of Saturday’s matches to be played, it would be grossly irresponsible to leave teams, fans, volunteers and other tournament personnel exposed during what is predicted to be a severe typhoon,” World Rugby’s statement said.

Of course. But what about Sunday (potentially), Monday and Tuesday – after the storm? The main hope for all of us is that Typhoon Hagibis fizzles out or veers away or leaves life and property undamaged. Beyond that, people want a whole World Cup, not one with bits missing and questions unresolved.