Rugby world cup 2015

[seafoid]

Warren Gatland made a very good point after Englands early exit, i dont have the exact quote but he basically said there should have been no group of hell, it wouldnt happen in football. And hes right. He also said the draw for the pools was made 3 years ago! That surely needs to be looked at for the next world cup. It doesnt make sense to have teams like England, Wales and Australia in the same group, even 3 years ago it made no sense!
The football set up isnt exactly perfect either but it makes more sense than that!

There are 9 decent teams  - the big 4 from the Southern hemisphere incl Argentina and 5 of the 6 nations to divide between  4 pools so one of them has to have 3 ... England Wales and Oz got chosen and that's it

[finbar o tool]

Fair enough, i guess ye know better than Gatland!!
i always thought, to see the best rugby you need the best teams at the business end. Swapping England or Wales with Scotland for example would be a fairer set up in the pools when it comes to seeding.

[Muck Savage]

Warren Gatland made a very good point after Englands early exit, i dont have the exact quote but he basically said there should have been no group of hell, it wouldnt happen in football. And hes right. He also said the draw for the pools was made 3 years ago! That surely needs to be looked at for the next world cup. It doesnt make sense to have teams like England, Wales and Australia in the same group, even 3 years ago it made no sense!
The football set up isnt exactly perfect either but it makes more sense than that!

The problem with the system is when the draw was made in Dec 2012 Samoa were ranked 7 in the world with Argentina in 8, Wales in 9 and Scotland in 10. If the draw was 1 week before the WC Group 1 would have 4 teams from the top ten, Aus, Eng, Wales and Fiji . Where SA's group only has one other, Scotland in 9. Samoa are 15th behind Japan 12th.
.Bit crazy.

[mick999]

Seeding for each group for the 2015 World Cup were based on their respective IRB Rankings. The draw, hosted by Will Greenwood, was conducted on 3 December 2012 in London, and used the World Rankings as of that day, just after the 2012 end-of-year rugby union internationals, which finished on 1 December 2012.[33] The 12 automatic qualifiers from 2011, were allocated to their respective bands based on their rankings;

Band 1, made up of the top 4 automatic qualifiers, (1–4)
Band 2, made up of the next 4 automatic qualifiers, (5–8)
Band 3, made up of the next 4 automatic qualifiers (9–12)
The remaining 8 qualifying places were allocated to Bands 4 and 5, based on previous World Cup playing strength;

Band 4, made up of Oceania 1, Europe 1, Asia 1 and Americas 1
Band 5, made up of Africa 1, Europe 2, Americas 2 and play-off winner
This meant the 20 teams, qualified and qualifiers, were seeded thus:

Pot 1

New Zealand (1)
South Africa (2)
Australia (3)
France (4)

Pot 2

England (5)
Ireland (6)
Samoa (7)
Argentina 8

Pot 3

Wales (9)
Italy (10)
Tonga (11)
Scotland (12)

Pot 4

Canada (Americas 1)
Japan (Asia 1)
Georgia (Europe 1)
Fiji (Oceania 1)

Pot 5

Namibia (Africa 1)
United States (Americas 2)
Romania (Europe 2)
Uruguay (Repechage)

The draw saw a representative randomly draw a ball from a pot, the first drawn ball goes to Pool A, the second Pool B, the third Pool C and the fourth Pool D. The draw began with Pot 5, drawn by All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, followed by Pot 4, drawn by RWC 2015 Ambassador Maggie Alphonsi, then Pot 3, drawn by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Pot 2, drawn by the then Chief Executive for RWC 2015 Debbie Jevans, and finally Pot 1, drawn by IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset.

[deiseach]

I presume Japan are going to be top seeds at the next World Cup. Or do some people think they should be dumped into the third or fourth tier lest, God forbid, three of the big guns find themselves scrapping it out for two places again?

[AZOffaly]

Why would Japan be top seeds at the next world cup? At the moment I think they are 10th?

[deiseach]

Why would Japan be top seeds at the next world cup? At the moment I think they are 10th?

I 'presume' they will be as hosts. Could be wrong, of course.

[AZOffaly]

Sorry, I completely forgot about that!

[Estimator]

The group of hell can all be blamed on Wales.

Autumn Internationals 2012.
The Wallabies was an extra fixture created by the Welsh Rugby Union for financial gain that fell outside the IRB's autumn international window.

If Wales had not played that match they would have finished in seventh with Samoa (eighth) and Argentina (ninth) and avoided having to face England or Australia.

They knew they must avoid defeat against the Wallabies with defeat seeing them slip to ninth place as they lost ranking points.

But that is exactly what happened when Kurtley Beale scored a heartbreaking try with the final move of the match to consign Wales to defeat and see them ranked alongside Italy, Tonga and Scotland in tier three of the seedings.

Two days later the pool draw was made on December 3 and the damage was done.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/how-wales-end-up-same-10085793

[Keyser soze]

The group of hell can all be blamed on Wales.

Autumn Internationals 2012.
The Wallabies was an extra fixture created by the Welsh Rugby Union for financial gain that fell outside the IRB's autumn international window.

If Wales had not played that match they would have finished in seventh with Samoa (eighth) and Argentina (ninth) and avoided having to face England or Australia.

They knew they must avoid defeat against the Wallabies with defeat seeing them slip to ninth place as they lost ranking points.

But that is exactly what happened when Kurtley Beale scored a heartbreaking try with the final move of the match to consign Wales to defeat and see them ranked alongside Italy, Tonga and Scotland in tier three of the seedings.

Two days later the pool draw was made on December 3 and the damage was done.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/how-wales-end-up-same-10085793

I think you will find it's called the "Group of Death". You need to pay more attention.

A 'Group of Hell' would be one in which 15 Mike Browns managed by Warren Gatland and eulogised by Brian Moore were the winners.

[Walter Cronc]

Why would Japan be top seeds at the next world cup? At the moment I think they are 10th?

I 'presume' they will be as hosts. Could be wrong, of course.

Don't think its like soccer lads. Cant see Japan getting a top seed.

[deiseach]

Wales were top seeds as hosts in 1999 when their standing hardly merited the honour. They hadn't finished ahead of England in the Five Nations since 1994 and England had reached the semi-finals in 1995 - you may recall that Lomu chap using Mike Catt as a doormat - yet the English were second seeds. Still, I can see Japan being told to take their place in the cheap seats. Bad enough that the Frogs have to occasionally be accommodated at the top table without going really crazy.

[Walter Cronc]

Anyone been to Cardiff for a game? Any pubs to recommend?

[gawa316]

Wales were top seeds as hosts in 1999 when their standing hardly merited the honour. They hadn't finished ahead of England in the Five Nations since 1994 and England had reached the semi-finals in 1995 - you may recall that Lomu chap using Mike Catt as a doormat - yet the English were second seeds. Still, I can see Japan being told to take their place in the cheap seats. Bad enough that the Frogs have to occasionally be accommodated at the top table without going really crazy.

How come England weren't top seeds this time then?

[deiseach]

Well, that torpedoes my entire argument. England were not top seeds this time round. I stand corrected.