Hands up for a truly Global RU sport.

Let's say half the size of football.

With Nigeria, Brazil, China, India, Germany etc. seriously in it and committed. Countries with giant populations, massive economic potential and a huge diversity of physical attributes.

The likelihood of course would be that most of our nations would never stand a chance of winning anything of any consequence.

Portnoy wrote:Let's say half the size of football.

Therein lies the problem. If even rugby fans think of it as a subornitate code to soccer what chance do we have of convincing the population of Antartica and the Mariana Trench its worth setting up a Union just to beat the Welsh?

Currently the only countries I see really capable of stepping up are Italy, Russia, Japan and Germany and probably in that order too. I'd expect it to be around 25 years before Russia and the Japanese domestic game have emerged properly. Germany is a longer term project. The funding doesn't seem to be there in Africa and the appeal seems to be lacking in the Americas.

Here are the latest IRB World Rankings so that you can see who is playing the game and how they are getting on.

1(1) NEW ZEALAND 93.19
2(2) AUSTRALIA 87.45
3(3) SOUTH AFRICA 86.44
4(4) IRELAND 82.51
5(5) ENGLAND 82.48
6(6) FRANCE 82.06
7(7) WALES 79.55
8(8) ARGENTINA 78.97
9(9) SCOTLAND 77.35
10(10) FIJI 74.05
11(11) SAMOA 74.02
12(12) ITALY 73.54
13(13) JAPAN 71.45
14(14) GEORGIA 70.30
15(15) CANADA 69.78
16(16) TONGA 68.90
17(17) USA 66.78
18(18) ROMANIA 65.57
19(19) RUSSIA 61.93
20(21)  NAMIBIA 61.43
21(20) PORTUGAL 60.67
22(22) URUGUAY 60.02
23(23) SPAIN 59.43
24(24) CHL 59.19
25(25) BELGIUM 56.50
26(26) MOROCCO 56.11
27(27) HONG KONG 54.49
28(28) BRAZIL 54.35
29(29) MOLDOVA 54.10
30(30) KOREA 53.89
31(31) CZECH REPUBLIC 53.78
32(32) KAZAKHSTAN 53.66
33(33) UKRAINE 53.34
34(34) POLAND 52.88
35(35) KENYA 52.85
36(36) TUNISIA 52.24
37(37) GERMANY 51.83
38(38) LITHUANIA 51.49
39(39) SWEDEN 50.99
40(42)  ZIMBABWE 48.97
41(40) PARAGUAY 48.84
42(41) NETHERLANDS 47.71
43(43) IVORY COAST 47.52
44(45)  UGANDA 47.46
45(44) SRI LANKA 47.24
46(47)  PAPUA NEW GUINEA 46.19
47(48)  TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 45.85
48(49)  CROATIA 45.56
49(50)  MALTA 45.23
50(51)  SINGAPORE 44.92
51(52)  BERMUDA 44.74
52(53)  COOK ISLANDS 44.61
53(46) MADAGASCAR 44.31
54(54) SWITZERLAND 44.22
55(55) CHINESE TAIPEI 43.93
56(56) SENEGAL 43.83
57(57) GUYANA 43.74
58(58) VENEZUELA 42.88
59(59) ANDORRA 42.83
60(60) LATVIA 42.69
61(61) MALAYSIA 42.29
62(62) PERU 41.98
63(63) THAILAND 41.74
64(64) COLOMBIA 41.73
65(65) CHINA 41.39
66(66) CAYMAN 41.23
67(67) NIUE ISLANDS 41.11
68(68) ISRAEL 41.05
69(69) SERBIA 40.81
70(70) DENMARK 40.60
71(71) SLOVENIA 40.20
72(72) HUNGARY 40.10
73(73) ZAMBIA 39.97
74(74) ST. VINCENT & THE GRENADINES 39.30
75(75) INDIA 39.22
76(76) BARBADOS 39.13
77(77) SOLOMON ISLANDS 39.06
78(78) CAMEROON 38.21
79(79) BOTSWANA 38.17
80(80) AUSTRIA 37.76
81(81) BULGARIA 37.12
82(82) GUAM 36.80
83(83) ST. LUCIA 36.76
84(84) SWAZILAND 36.68
85(85) JAMAICA 36.35
86(86) BAHAMAS 36.33
87(87) TAHITI 36.25
88(88) BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 36.18
89(89) NIGERIA 35.29
90(90) MONACO 35.17
91(91) NORWAY 35.02
92(92) VANUATU 34.77
93(93) LUXEMBOURG 32.49
94(94) FINLAND 27.70

There are lots of European countries it could develop in more and to a similar extent to England, ireland, wales etc. Russia, Romania, Georgia, Germany, Portugal, Belgium.

In Africa, Kenya are doing well in the 7's.

Canada and America are trying to expand the game.

I imagine the next unexpected team to win the RWC will be somone like Fiji.

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:
I imagine the next unexpected team to win the RWC will be somone like Fiji.

Well New Zealand are a bit like Fiji and everyone expect sthem to fluff it again....


The IRB rankings dont mean that much in term sof who has potential to grow the sport. I dont ever see how the likes of Fiji and Samoa will ever have the resources or player bvase to become global giants, unless its through the top nations declineing. They have pretty much peaked. Theres a chance Argentina could get back where they were a couple of years ago in terms of quality, and maybe even develope something like a proper professional league. Will that ever challenge soccer ? No.

The places where theres real potential are China and Japan, and to some extent Russia. The playing quality is still appalling but theres a genuine interest in developing professional sports beyond soccer in these countries from both the population and from government. USA theres been a big rise in the game being played at colleges over the last decade but its yet to really translate into any genuine audience or a decent national team, and I dont see it ever doing that...Quidditch is a massive college sport but can you imagine that taking over from the NFL?

JOOI, How is New Zealand like Fiji?

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote: The places where theres real potential are China and Japan, and to some extent Russia.

Why China? Russia is looking a great bet to me. They have a fully professional league. Their star player has just been signed by Northampton Saints. They are miles ahead of China.

I'd love to see argentina do well again.

I think russia and Georgia have got the best chance in the next few world cups of getting out of their group and maybe America but I doubt any will.

I'd track the progress of Kenya carefully they have been quite successful in 7's and the sport could take off over there.

TheGreyGhost wrote:JOOI, How is New Zealand like Fiji?

Its an archipelago in the southern hemisphere.

TheGreyGhost wrote:JOOI, How is New Zealand like Fiji?

Well they are both fiull of New Zealanders and regulalry beat Wales for a start. So a bit like England, except for the second bit.

China have been promoted to Division 2 in the Asian 5 Nations for 2012. 'ware the sleeping dragon!

global paticipation wont increase until countries start developing their own coaches as well as players.
O f the 20 countries at this years WC, 7 have New Zealand coaches, I cant see how this helps those countries in the long term,coaching should be a progression from playing.....