WELLINGTON — Battered bodies and creaking bones are all part of life as a rugby player.

But in the past few weeks at the Rugby World Cup there have been many players — not all of them professionals — who have been feeling that pain just a bit more than the rest.

The tournament this year has seen several second-tier nations forced to play games just four days apart, while the top-ranked teams like New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, France, Ireland and England have predominantly played their matches on the weekends, with a week between games.

The commercial reality is that broadcasters, who are paying vast sums of money to show matches, and sponsors want the top teams playing in the prime viewing slots, meaning those lower down the pecking order have found themselves playing two games in four days instead.

In the early stages, teams like the United States, Canada, Romania, Georgia, Japan and Namibia were competitive against their more illustrious counterparts. But as the tournament has worn on, their performances have dropped as fatigue and the scheduling have taken their toll. The scores have reflected that, with Namibia losing Monday to Wales, 81-7; in the days before that, Fiji lost to South Africa, 49-3; Romania dropped its match against England, 67-3; and the United States fell to Australia, 67-5.