News broke at 4am GMT+1 that two Rugby World Cup clashes in Japan shall be cancelled, with a further in question. Under World Rugby rules, pool matches that are cancelled due to natural disasters are counted as a 0-0 draw, with both sides taking two tournament points.

The cancelled fixtures will be England vs France who are both qualified for the quarter finals and Italy vs New Zealand which sees New Zealand qualify for the quarters, but Italy crash out. Whilst an Italian win may seem unlikely, if they were to win, they would have been able to secure a spot in the quarter finals for the first time ever. (Despite putting both Italy and New Zealand on 14 tournament points, the winner head to head, goes through)

Safety is the number one issue

With all of the reaction on the internet, it is important to make this point clear. Safety is paramount. A typhoon of this scale and ferocity can wreak havoc upon a country and ultimately cost lives. That has to be remembered.

The absolute first priority must be for the safety of the players, fans, volunteers, organisers and the general public and nothing should get in the way of that. Original fixtures are absolutely right to be cancelled if they are not safe.

In the case of England v France, whilst that game would have been good preparation for both sides for the quarter finals, as the pool has been decided, it is absolutely sensible to cancel the fixture. Whilst it’s not the case for New Zealand Italy, a strong case can also be made for cancelling that fixture, due to the probability of an upset of that scale happening, though I’d still like to have seen the fixture rearranged.

“If it was the All Blacks on the line it wouldn’t be cancelled..”

Perhaps, this is a valid point people are making. I mean no disrespect to any of the other teams involved in the implication here, but it would be a bit different, wouldn’t it? The All Blacks are back-to-back World Champions. For the integrity of the competition, if they were to somehow lose out on a quarter-final spot, that would be the headline of Japan 2019, much to the frustration of the eventual winners and not to mention the organisers.

I am firmly of the belief that any side who gets to the knock-out stages is good enough to win it, even if that takes a bit of luck. Ultimately, throwing out sides such as Italy or Scotland does no way near the damage to reputation of the tournament that kicking out the All Blacks would do. Fair? Perhaps not, but let’s not look at hypotheticals too much anyway.

World Rugby must protect the integrity of RWC2019

The bottom line, however, is integrity. The side most likely to be effected, is Scotland. Are Scotland going to win the Rugby World Cup? Probably not. Could Scotland win the World Cup? Given a huge amount of luck, refereeing decisions and a tartan-rocket up their arse, who knows? Put simply, eliminating sides that mathematically have a very realistic shot at knock-out rugby is an absolute disaster for rugby, for the World Cup and for Japan in trms of hosting large scale sporting events. Imagine a similar scenario for the Tokyo Olympics.

World Rugby has rules. The day can’t be changed, for one. But you have to ask, if safety has been considered and the teams consulted, can an alternative not be found? If the game was brought forward, held back a day, played in secret on the back fields of some school playing field with no crowd, no cameras, just the two consenting teams and World Rugby officials, would that not be better? Rules exist for a reason, but if safety permits it, there’s a strong argument to make this exception; not for Scotland, but for the integrity of the tournament.

I don’t pretend to know much about typhoons, organising rugby events (or even rugby itself) but you have to feel that if Scotland were consulted today, they’d probably rather play the game under alternative and less favourable conditions, than not at all.

You can read the full World Rugby statement, here.

The Scribbler, 10th October, 2019

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