However, they should not be denied the opportunity to go down fighting with everything they have got at their disposal. If you take the World Cup to be a truly global competition, rather than a battle between the five or six nations who hold a chance of winning, then every country is entitled access to their best players. Whether it is Ortega or Census Johnston, the Samoa prop, each player who is misses the tournament leaves a hole in the World Cup’s credibility that is threatening to be colander-shaped come September.