RWC 2011 - The Last?

First topic message reminder :

With a history of just under a quarter of a century, in terms of the rich fabric of rugby history, The Rugby World Cup is a fairly recent event.

Featuring a pool stage typified by one sided routs, and a knock-out phase typified by negative "professional play", as a spectacle it is criticised for encouraging the wrong kind of rugby.

Between tournaments it is criticised for devaluing more traditional encounters, such as the Lions Tour, Barbarians matches and turning yearly encounters into watered down friendlies contested by disinterested B-teams for the purposes of so-called development, capping players to lock them into the country just in case or avoiding injuries.

Controversy has been no stranger to the tournament, the first two marred by the exclusion of South Africa, the third marred by the re-introduction of South Africa, the ensuing fabled "gold watch" incident, and allegations of food poisoning and political motivations eclipsing the final. 2003 was attacked as the second most boring world cup of all time, trumped only by 2007 which was so dull that it prompted a wide ranging review of the laws by the outgoing IRB chief, the tournament was also riddled with refereeing controversy following the appointment of an inexperienced outsider to a showpiece knock out game with predictable consequences.

Unlike the Fifa football world cup, upsets are rare with history showing that more often than not the same few teams contest the same few finals spots, so much so that the bookies odds on the finals are often so slim as to make a flutter a waste of time.

In fact, the only fleetingly interesting talking point in the short legacy of the tournament is the failure of New Zealand, perennial #1 ranked side to win the tournament more than once in 7 attempts. Given the otherwise utter predictability, this statistical blip has become a rugby-culture obsession invariably cropping up in any game commentary with two years of the finals, and in pubs, bars and forums as a stalwart cornerstone of conversation.

Now, should NZ achieve the ellusive goal and take a second title in 2011 thus rendering redundant the sole spark of interest in the tournament, would it even survive long enough for the tournament to return to England in 2015?

Is it the World Cup or merely the advent of professionalism that has led to some of the problems you describe?

The world cup pre-dates professionalism. Definitely the cup itself.

That's true but your so called devaluing of more traditional encounters is surely a facet of professionalism and the related fact that so many international games are played each year.

TheGreyGhost wrote:The "pub drunk dry by British fans" was supposed to be a bit of a back handed compliment, I wasn't accusing you of being a bunch of drink obsessed drunkards, rather of entering into the spirit and knowing how to have a good time.

Last night I was definitely the former...

Regardless of what the hell happens this year, it will never be as dire as the 2010 Soccer WC!!

Rugby players talk about the WC all the time even in non WC years, somehow I dont think it is even 0.01% under threat!!

SneakySideStep wrote:That's true but your so called devaluing of more traditional encounters is surely a facet of professionalism and the related fact that so many international games are played each year.

The number of international games would be fine, I don't think there's too many or too few (although I think last years 3N was stretching it a bit). The problem is not the quantity, it's how seriously they're being taken (or not).

I think it's quite insulting when sides like England or France send deliberately under-strength sides to the SH. Although to be fair this hasn't happened in England's case since SCW's infamous "tour of hell"...and I'm not entirely convinced he thought they'd get the shellacking that they did.

Personally I really enjoy the ABs more recently regular EOY grandslam attempts. In that case, I think the rotation and squad management is part of the necessity of winning all matches, and happens to serve the purpose of rotation and blooding new talent at the same time. They're more interesting than playing Australia and South Africa three times each in a row to me (although less interesting than playing South Africa and Australia once)...adding Argentina to the mix can't happen soon enough as far as I'm concerned.

Not sure if professionalism, or just lack of creativity is responsible for it but frankly the mind numbing repetitive nature of some of the competitions bores me the death. Id' be happy to the BC contested every two years over a three test series, and not rolled up in the 3N. Perhaps the 3N could be every other year and on the in-between years we could fit in the Lions, and some decent tours.

And when did we start needing to have a trophy awarded after every single game?

Wouldnt mind some of the internationals being shelved if we could have the WC and Lions tour every two years

Interesting comments. Hopefully there will be some ineresting comments posted by visitors here. Obviously there will be the usual yuk beer and accommodation dislikes as we arent any better than others in that respect but hopefully our people make up for any misgivings. Thats the main thing. And our places to visit of course.

Accommodation in NZ for the most part is wonderful Taylor, there is something for everyone, Backpacker to 5* Hotel / Motels, it's just there aint enough!

Let's be honest it is not just the WC fans here in Sept / Oct, there will be other tourists here even if they will be in smaller amounts at this time.

I went to watch Wales play the AB's in Hamilton last June and I can tell you every room in every hotel / motel was taken in the city.

The beer continues to be poo though apart from Monteiths which is superb.

Wales fans will have a great sight seeing journy in Taranaki with the mount prominent to everyone, then of course they can take the forgotten highway back to Hamilton and see the King Country in all its beauty.