A Reader Looks At Rugby World Cup Reform

CLUBFAN – deep thinker on the game, and friend of this blog, reckons I might be onto something with my suggestion of reducing the number of participating nations in the Rugby World Cup to 16, and having placings games, whereby losing teams would keep playing until they found their position among the entire 16 participants.

At the moment, the nations who qualify for the Rugby World Cup Finals are guaranteed only three group games. If they don't qualify for the last eight and the knock-out phase, that's it, off they go home. The eight qualifiers are guaranteed additional games, as long as they keep winning. Four will go home after one knock-out game, in the quarter-finals. The four semi-finalists get an additional two games, a semi-final and final, or a semi-final and third-place play-off games.

But, if positioning games were added: the eight teams finishing third or fourth in their group would be guaranteed five matches – the three group games plus a further two positioning games; while the eight teams reaching the quarter-finals would be guaranteed six games.

Clubfan has suggested World Rugby takes a leaf from the SRU's Scottish Cup and we have:

• A Rugby World Cup for the top 16 nations

• A Rugby World Shield for the nations ranked 17-32

• A Rugby World Bowl for the nations ranked 33-48

• A Rugby World Plate for the nations ranked 49-54

There are actually 109 nations listed in the current World Rugby Rankings, in current order, dividing them every 16 nations they are:

Top 16 – Rugby World Cup contenders: South Africa, New Zealand, England, Ireland, France, Australia, Scotland, Wales, Argentina, Japan, Fiji, Georgia, Samoa, Italy, Romania, Tonga.

Tier Two – Shield contenders: USA, Uruguay, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Hong Kong, Chile, Namibia, Russia, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Brazil, Germany, Korea, Colombia.

Tier Three – Bowl contenders: Zimbabwe, Kenya, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Malta, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Phillipines, Mexico, Lithuania, Senegal, Croatia, Madagascar, Paraguay, Sri Lanka.

Tier Four – Plate contenders: Morocco, Malaysia, Uganda, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, Cook Islands, Singapore, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Moldova, Luxembourg, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Hungary.

Tier Five: Chinese Taipai, Jamaica, Bermuda, Zambia, Nigeria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Slovenia, Guam, Peru, Thailand, Botswana, Venezuela, St Vincent and Grenadines, China, Barbados.

Tier Six: Bosnia Hertgovnia, Papua New Guinea, India, Ghana, Austria, Finland, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Iran, Laos, Pakistan, Rwanda, Costa Rica.

Tier Seven: Niue, Tahiti, Bahamas, Norway, Burundi, Swaziland, Solomon Islands, Cameroon, Indonesia, Monaco, Greece, Vanuata, American Samoa.

I bet you didn't know, even half these nations were in membership of World Rugby. And if the boys in Dublin ever need a Head of Media Operations for the Tier Seven Championships in Tahiti – I'm their man.

I certainly know of one world governing body – The International Ice Hockey Federation, who organisations their World Championship in tiers, it can be done, and with promotion and relegation between the tiers, would certainly, I feel, stimulate growth in the game.

GLASGOW'S signing of giant South African lock JP du Preez has got my fellow keyboard warriors stirred-up across on TOL. I feel, David Barnes should perhaps offer Nigel Owens a temporary gig as BTL comments moderator, since, some of the comments really are deserving of one of Nigel's catch phrases.

This is not soccer, so why should Glasgow Warriors follow Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers down the route of recruiting second and third rate non-Scots while largely ignoring local talent?

The Bigot Brothers are not owned by the SFA, they do not have a responsibility to develop young Scottish talent for the national team – Warriors do – so they do not need to be signing the likes of du Preez.

If du Preez was any good, he'd already have a few South African caps, and would probably be playing in France. I feel he's a waste of money.

I spent a few years involved in basketball, the sport above all others where height is might. Really big men – six foot eight and upwards – were in a lot of cases in basketball seen as a necessary evil. As one basketball veteran explained to me: “Very few big guys are athletes, you use the ones you have to fill space in the key.”

The sought after big men were the six-five, six-six “leapers” - the guys who could almost bite the top of the backboard when they were airborne.

Scotland's best-ever basketball player is the late Robert Archibald, the only Scots-born player ever to make it all the way to the NBA, where he was a second round pick out of University of Illinois in the 2002 draft.

Robert was six-eleven, but, and this is a big but – he could leap, so he made it to The Show. His Dad, Bobby Archibald – now, there's a different animal. I am convinced, had Big Bobby gone to rugby-playing Paisley Grammar School, rather than Camphill Secondary, where hockey and basketball were the sports – he'd have been an all-time great at rugby for Scotland, just as he is in basketball.

Bobby was six foot six, leapt tall buildings in a stride and oozed smiling aggression, Bobby and his younger and only slightly smaller Paisley and MIM team mate Ian MacLean would have been fantastic successors to Gordon Brown and Al McHarg in the Scotland boiler house. But, it wasn't to be.

As an American basketball coach of my acquaintance once said to me: “Given time, I can teach anyone to play this game, but, I cannot teach them to be six foot eight or taller.”

I think maybe the SRU and Glasgow should stop buying-in partially-ready non-Scots and trying to improve them – they've probably already picked-up bad habits. Instead, go looking for Scottish-born and reared diamonds in the rough whom they can polish.

We don't need to buy-in non-Scottish mercenaries, we should be training our own guys, and only buy non-Scottish when we have no alternative.