Bravo, rugby, for making the effort. Well done, for offering the rest of the world a chance. Chapeau for realising your sport can become genuinely global by offering more World Cup berths, not less.
A 20-team event. Six continents represented. Inclusivity like that should shame some other leading sports, most notably cricket, which provides World Cup entry passes for half the amount of sides rugby does.
And all that, despite no obvious historical evidence to show the rest are catching up with the best. The seven World Cups so far have been won by just four teams.
In 1987, at a 16-team World Cup where a try counted for four points, not five, New Zealand beat Italy 70-6 in a pool match.
In 2011, South Africa beat Namibia 87-0. There is much else besides to suggest the gap between the haves and the have-nots has expanded rather than contracted in the 28-year history of the World Cup.
A series of mismatches is guaranteed at this competition, too. Take Pool C.
When Georgia or Namibia play against New Zealand, both teams will start with the same amount of players. The score will begin at 0-0.
The All Blacks might even pick an entirely second string side. Yet it is inconceivable either Georgia or Namibia can win. Holding them to less than a 30-point winning margin will constitute success.
Is an imbalance like that healthy at a sport’s flagship tournament? If it was a schools game, the fixture would have been dropped long ago. In some parts of the world, the teams would be mixed up at half time to make it competitive.
So are World Rugby right in offering so many sides the carrot of qualification for the World Cup? The chance to get beaten up by the game’s most gilded stars, on the biggest stage?
Some players from the lower ranked sides do not need the hassle. Georgia’s Mamuka Gorgodze and Namibia’s Jacques Burger are stars of the European club game.
Presumably, their bank balances reflect that status.
They do not need the international game. Instead they choose it, for nothing more than the glory of representing their country and playing alongside their mates.
They know they are going to get battered against the big sides. Look at the faces on both of them: they are obviously masochists.
Whether or not rugby’s claim that its World Cup is the third largest sporting event, it is unarguable that more countries play the sport to a good level now than in 1987.
Mainly in the sevens format, as we see in Dubai on the National Day weekend every year.
Wales were once world champions of the abridged game. Kenya and Argentina are forces to be reckoned with. The United States won the most recent World Sevens tournament.
Making it work in XVs is a conundrum that is proving difficult to solve, though.
Of course, rugby’s administration can do so much more.
To pick one example, knowingly looking the other way while powerful clubs pressure players from impoverished unions to skip the World Cup is a blight on the game.
If that persists, the final leap in the development process, from tier-two also-ran to tier-one contender, will never be possible. That is a glass ceiling in a different guise.
But at least the governors should be commended for trying to keep its main event open to as many as is feasible.
While some sports do their best to take the “world” out of their World Cup, at least rugby is trying. For better or worse.
Players to watch
Nehe Milner-Skudder (New Zealand)
As close to a bolter as a modern World Cup is ever likely to throw up, the Hurricanes wing was a late arrival in the All Blacks squad. A fine season as part of a box-office Hurricanes backline earned him a call up for the Rugby Championship, and he scored twice on debut. Sensational footwork from the Jason Robinson school of sidestepping makes him easy on the eye for spectators, but a nightmare for defenders.
Marcelo Bosch, Argentina
The Saracens centre is a pillar of Argentina’s powerful midfield. Watch for his long-range goal-kicking, too: his right foot is a rocket-launcher.
Mamuka Gorgodze, Georgia
“Gorgodzilla” has had a successful career in France, where he became a European champion with Toulon last season.
pradley@thenational.ae
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