1st time RWC Glory

First topic message reminder :

Will any of these teams win the Webb Ellis Cup for the 1st time within the next five RWC Finals?

Aus were fairly useless at rugby until the 1970s.
Sri Lanka were fairly useless at cricket until the 1990s
China were fairly useless at the Olympics until the 1980s
NZ were hopeless at rugby until the 1890s


So who know what can happen in the long term if a country puts its mind to it.

China vs Russia RWC within 100 years

Like Thomond, I think Madagascar.
If they can get an average of 8k spectators for premiership matches, a good domestic league - and 40K for internationals.
Thats a solid foundation to build on.

Do they have the finances though?

gowales wrote:Do they have the finances though?

Unless those are free tickets they are giving away, their finances should be fine.

You know it's the offseason when we're talking about the finances of the Madagascan Rugby union.



Unless they get caught in some sort of pyramid or trapezoid scheme I'd say they will be alright.

It's great this is still going, some very interesting points have been raised.

Thank you 606v2

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

gowales wrote:Do they have the finances though?

Unless those are free tickets they are giving away, their finances should be fine.

I mean to financially support a team to even go to the world cup! Fiji, Tonga and Samoa struggled last year, so how will one of the poorest countries in the world fair?

IRB funding!
As Scarlet spiderman suggests - with the kind of numbers quoted on total rugby then the funding should be there.
But how come we never hear about players from Madagascar?
With a domestic scene of that size they should be developing a good number of quality players.
Or are they still semi-professional there?

Of course they are semi professional, if not amateur

According to one article I read 90% of their population survive on $2 or less a day!

EDIT - source was Wikipedia

I'm sure they're virtually all amateurs...I also don't think that the government is too stable, so I don't imagine there'd be too much official backing and promotion of the sport.

If they do make it big, then commentators are going to need to take courses in speed-pronounciation: I had a Malagasy friend whose surname was Nainandriatouvaratsepo (I spelt that as best I could!!): can you imagine saying a few of those in quick succession!

Well lets hope Thailand never make it then. You should see some of thier names.