Luck of the draw

Just a few short months ago – back in August – I waxed lyrical in a post on these very pages on the subject of the delights and pleasures that we anticipated would be associated with the then upcoming 2023 Rugby World Cup.

This gripping competition has now arrived at the sharp end – with the quarter final matches having taken place this weekend just passed and with only the semis and the final to come.

The gentle reader may be wondering – therefore – why there has been a stony silence in these quarters on the subject since that last posting. Have we not been enjoying the splendid matches with which we have been regaled by the French hosts?

Well – yes, we have. There has been much joyous and exciting play at all levels of the competition – and some great games. It is truly wonderful to see the progress that has been made by a number of the Tier 2 sides.

The tournament has, however, been somewhat tarnished by the fact that – because the draw which resulted in the seeding for the competition was made more than three years ago – a number of sides have found themselves at a considerable disadvantage in terms of their current strengths. I have already made mention of the fact that the poor Scots (before the tournament ranked as number 5 in the world) found themselves in a pool which also included the world’s number 1 side – the Irish – and the number 3 side (and current world champions)- the South Africans. Other sides with considerably lower rankings found themselves in relatively easy pools.

I lamented in my previous post that the Scots would need to play out of their skins to get out of the pool stages – the which they duly failed to do.

This might just sound like the gripings of a sore loser, but the lop-sided nature of the draw has had other and greater effects. For example, the current top four sides in the world – the Irish, the All Blacks, the Saffers and the French might have expected to meet each other in a pair of titanic semi-finals, yielding two worthy contenders for the final. The latter will certainly still happen, but those two eagerly anticipated encounters actually took place in the quarter finals (Ireland/All Blacks – France/South Africa) and the two semifinals will as a result also include two sides who – with due respect to the Argentinians and to the English – are not playing at anywhere near the same level.

This is frankly disappointing and – whereas it will not in anyway diminish our enjoyment of the tournament – should not be allowed to happen again.