England vs France - Back in White

[Lizard]

England v France (and NZ v Italy) confirmed as cancelled.

Ireland v Samoa, Aust v Georgia to go ahead.

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/sport/r ... on-hagibis

[Lizard]

[Lizard]

Sunday matches (including Japan v Scotland) remain under review.

[Epaminondas Pules]

A sad but sensible decision.

[Epaminondas Pules]

There’s people actually calling the cancellations a disgrace! What utter bellends! To mitigate this would’ve required having complete contingencies in place for every single game prior to the tournament. Just think of the scale of such an operation.

[Hooky]

Fortunate that France aren't overly fussed about topping the group.

[Hooky]

Really hope japan Scotland remains

[Galfon]

Some sort of contest needs to be arranged for a deciding fixture...even a remote venue, for summut this big.

[Digby]

Not ideal, but Oz might well rest a few against Georgia leaving both sides a little undercooked

[Digby]

And I feel bad for the players when it comes to training, Eddie can indulge his inner sadist for 2-3 days now

[Cameo]

There’s people actually calling the cancellations a disgrace! What utter bellends! To mitigate this would’ve required having complete contingencies in place for every single game prior to the tournament. Just think of the scale of such an operation.

What?? No there wouldn't other than the contingency of being flexible.

How hard do you think it would be to move four teams, their kit and some match officials (plus ideally some TV cameras) to a playable venue. Yes, it's better if we have all the puffery around it but none of that matters. It'd be gutting for the fans with tickets but, again, less bad than the game not even happening.

I'd understand if we woke up on the day of the game and a storm had blown up overnight but if World Rugby can't organise a game of rugby with three days' notice then I think they should hand over the reins.

* I recognise this is all nonsense if there are literally no playable pitches within 10 hours travel but that is not my understanding

[Adam_P]

Not ideal for us to go into the knockouts without having had a proper test of the team, and without a fixtures in 2 weeks. Hopefully Scotland Japan goes ahead - at least our game made no difference to qualification

[Cameo]

"Eddie Jones said he will take his England squad down to Miyazaki for the weekend to train away from the storm before relocating to Oita early next week."

Miyazaki sounds lovely. Are there any rugby pitches there? Was there no space on the train for the other teams and a few refs and touch judges?

[fivepointer]

Kitson's take in the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/ ... own-making

This seems a reasonable point to me - "The tournament organisers insist otherwise, that the integrity of their event has been preserved because, after careful consideration, they have applied the same cancellation rules to everyone. They would have been on firmer ground in that regard had they taken the precaution of setting aside a spare day or two next week as protection against freak weather events. Virtually every other sport out there – golf, tennis, cricket etc – usually manages to find a way. What if next Monday or Tuesday had been allocated as reserve days, with facilities for double headers to be staged, in the event of final pool round games being disrupted?

Also this - "What we do know is that the World Cup organisers went into this tournament with their eyes open. They have known for years when the typhoon season is; as long ago as September 2018 the tournament director Alan Gilpin called it “a real hot topic for us”. Had the competition kicked off even a couple of weeks’ later in September, there would have been less of a threat to keynote end-of-pool fixtures"

[Mellsblue]

I can see the issues in relocating. I can’t see the issues in playing the matches a couple of days later.....assuming the pitch is playable. Ultimately, you’ve got to believe it’s the best/only decision. There is no way cancelling matches is anything other than the last resort.

[Epaminondas Pules]

There’s people actually calling the cancellations a disgrace! What utter bellends! To mitigate this would’ve required having complete contingencies in place for every single game prior to the tournament. Just think of the scale of such an operation.

What?? No there wouldn't other than the contingency of being flexible.

How hard do you think it would be to move four teams, their kit and some match officials (plus ideally some TV cameras) to a playable venue. Yes, it's better if we have all the puffery around it but none of that matters. It'd be gutting for the fans with tickets but, again, less bad than the game not even happening.

I'd understand if we woke up on the day of the game and a storm had blown up overnight but if World Rugby can't organise a game of rugby with three days' notice then I think they should hand over the reins.

* I recognise this is all nonsense if there are literally no playable pitches within 10 hours travel but that is not my understanding

And the running of the stadiums? That doesn’t happen all by itself. Logistics of staging a match goes way beyond the teams, officials and TV. And to have this in place ready for a potential outcome that may or may not happen would be ludicrous.

[Epaminondas Pules]

I can see the issues in relocating. I can’t see the issues in playing the matches a couple of days later.....assuming the pitch is playable. Ultimately, you’ve got to believe it’s the best/only decision. There is no way cancelling matches is anything other than the last resort.

Apart from then creating short turn around times for QF matches.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Not ideal for us to go into the knockouts without having had a proper test of the team, and without a fixtures in 2 weeks. Hopefully Scotland Japan goes ahead - at least our game made no difference to qualification

Don’t we do that twice every year during the six nations?

[Cameo]

There’s people actually calling the cancellations a disgrace! What utter bellends! To mitigate this would’ve required having complete contingencies in place for every single game prior to the tournament. Just think of the scale of such an operation.

What?? No there wouldn't other than the contingency of being flexible.

How hard do you think it would be to move four teams, their kit and some match officials (plus ideally some TV cameras) to a playable venue. Yes, it's better if we have all the puffery around it but none of that matters. It'd be gutting for the fans with tickets but, again, less bad than the game not even happening.

I'd understand if we woke up on the day of the game and a storm had blown up overnight but if World Rugby can't organise a game of rugby with three days' notice then I think they should hand over the reins.

* I recognise this is all nonsense if there are literally no playable pitches within 10 hours travel but that is not my understanding

And the running of the stadiums? That doesn’t happen all by itself. Logistics of staging a match goes way beyond the teams, officials and TV. And to have this in place ready for a potential outcome that may or may not happen would be ludicrous.

What running of the stadiums? I have arranged plenty of rugby matches. Pitch with lines and posts, showers, referee and two teams. I have also played a match at an international stadium organised on two days notice due to frost. When you have no or minimum fans, most of the organising goes out the window.

I'm not even being facetious. Obviously I think they would be able to organise better than that in the time but that is the minimum you need to be better than having no game.

[Mellsblue]

I can see the issues in relocating. I can’t see the issues in playing the matches a couple of days later.....assuming the pitch is playable. Ultimately, you’ve got to believe it’s the best/only decision. There is no way cancelling matches is anything other than the last resort.

Apart from then creating short turn around times for QF matches.

Is that worse than not staging matches at all and Scotland going home without a chance to qualify?

[Which Tyler]

England v France (and NZ v Italy) confirmed as cancelled.

Ireland v Samoa, Aust v Georgia to go ahead.

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/sport/r ... on-hagibis

Nice one for the record books (I think).
New Zealand now lose their 100% record in the pool stages of RWCs

[Oakboy]

I take the view that if all 8 QF places are not properly decided by on-field competitive results, the QFs should not proceed. Play all the matches or call the RWC off. If the competition proceeds on 'non-result' points-sharing it has no credibility.

[fivepointer]

What would happen if a SF or the final had to be called of due to the weather?

Toss of a coin to decide the winner, or would the game be moved to another venue or played 24 or 48 hours later?

I dont doubt the organisers are in a difficult spot, but surely given the real possibility of weather disruption, some thought should have been given to playing games on reserve days and possibly at alternative venues.

[Epaminondas Pules]

I can see the issues in relocating. I can’t see the issues in playing the matches a couple of days later.....assuming the pitch is playable. Ultimately, you’ve got to believe it’s the best/only decision. There is no way cancelling matches is anything other than the last resort.

Apart from then creating short turn around times for QF matches.

Is that worse than not staging matches at all and Scotland going home without a chance to qualify?

They’ve had a chance to qualify.

[Oakboy]

It does not just stop with pool group points awards. There all sorts of unfair scenarios. One QF team does not play their final group game and fields an injury-freee 1st XV. The opposition pick up 6/7 single-game injuries in their final group game etc. etc.