Monstrous IRB maim the minnows
Roar Guru By kingplaymaker, 21 Sep 2011 kingplaymaker is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, International Rugby Board, IRB, rugby minnows, Rugby Union, Rugby World Cup, RWC minnows
Imagine you’re a less than top notch rugby nation such as Scotland or Wales. You can beat one of the top five teams once in a blue moon, but more often you discover yourself quivering at the prospect of defeat at the rough hands of a rugby minnow.
What can you do to avoid the preposterous fate of being defeated and eliminated from a World Cup by one of these poor, vulgar countries?
No problem. You are richer by far than these little guys. You have board members on the IRB. So you can undertake the following easy project to save the day. No one will oppose you, no one will whisper the faintest word of criticism.
1. Exclude them from major tournaments and regular international competition.
Is it really the case that Georgia or Romania are so much weaker than Scotland and Wales and do not merit inclusion in the Six Nations? Wouldn’t it speed forward the development of the game in those countries? Precisely!
They are dangerously close to becoming good teams who could knock Wales or Scotland out of the World Cup or defeat them in the Six Nations.
Deprive them of the opportunity to play regularly and they will never be in shape to amount to much and the game will never grow where they live. Thankfully, with places on the IRB board, it is possible to make certain they never see the light of high end competition.
2. Keep their playing squads weak.
It’s noticeable that the major teams voting against a player changing the country they represent are the those most threatened by the prospect of defeat on the pitch – Wales, Scotland, Ireland (don’t think because the Irish beat Australia that they are not very likely to lose to a minnow normally).
So we see a drastically weakened Samoa, which could have beaten Wales with full access to players who are dragged off by the promise of greater riches to the four corners of the rugby world – Australia, New Zealand, England, Wales. Having taken the best years away from these players, the IRB makes sure they won’t even allow these poor countries the cast-off remains.
3. Fail to expand the game.
There has been almost no improvement in the state of rugby in the minnow countries as a result of the IRB’s intervention. Samoa and Fiji look weaker than they were at the last cup, Georgia no stronger, and it should be noted that there has not been a single upset yet involving a minnow. Not one.
They may threaten through enthusiasm and unfamiliarity (to their opponents) for some time, but the result is always the same.
4. Give them impossible turnover time.
How on earth can, for example, Samoa defeat Wales three days after their previous match?
The malicioulsy planned short turnover for Tier two nations effectively removes the smallest lingering hope of a minnow qualifying from a pool and just as well: it would be at the expense of a Wales or a Scotland.
An extra week added to the world cup could easily solve this. For what it’s worth, it also makes the world cup far less interesting, as there is no point in watching the minnow play when it is certain they will lose.
One thing is clear: the IRB intentionally keeps the weak weak so as not to threaten the strong.
Samoa have been brave in spelling out the horrendous truth, the Prime Minister observing how unfair it is to intentionally rob a team of its players by denying them the right to change nation.
But it took a profoundly honest and courageous twitter post from Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu to make plain reality:
“IRB, Stop exploiting my people. Please, all we ask, is fairness. If they get a week, give us a week. Simple. Equity, justice.”
“Give Wales 3 days off, and give Samoa a week! We would kill them!!!”
The truest line, summing up in a breath the shocking manipulation of these poor countries is the first:
“Stop exploiting my people.”
These poor countries are undermined, underfunded, cleverly weakened, robbed at every stage and are then asked to make up the numbers in the World Cup so that rugby can masquerade as a global game.
It is not. A coterie of ex-players rather than a professional body form the IRB, who conspire to keep power to themselves and prevent the lesser teams from being a threat while abusing them to parade the lie that they have a genuinely widespread international sport.
So when you see Wales or Scotland in a World Cup quarter final, don’t think for a moment they played any rugby to deserve it. The victories won were off the pitch, and they were uncontested.
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September 21st 2011 @ 9:40am
Shropshirelad said | September 21st 2011 @ 9:40am | Report comment
As an England supporter I’d welcome the likes of Georgia into the (7 Nations!?) and agree that turn arounds should be equal for all – for a minnow Samoa produce some of the best players in the world so what they could do with the resources of the rest of us would be great to see. Beers to all in the WC
September 22nd 2011 @ 10:18am
peterlala said | September 22nd 2011 @ 10:18am | Report comment
Shropshirelad, I’ll drink to that.
Kingplaymaker, perhaps Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu should be arrested for saying Manu Samoa would “kill” Wales. Of course, only a person with a limited understanding of figures-of-speech in English would misconstrue hyperbole for literal fact. That is unless they had another, secret agenda for doing so.
September 21st 2011 @ 10:32am
kingplaymaker said | September 21st 2011 @ 10:32am | Report comment
Shropshirelad the only obstacle to Georgia and Romania joining the Six Nations, is that the IRB will say they don’t bring enough revenue. A bad reason indeed.
September 21st 2011 @ 10:48am
Shropshirelad said | September 21st 2011 @ 10:48am | Report comment
Kingplaymaker – I agree completely – revenue should have nothing to do with it! lets hope the IRB (eventually) take this on board…
September 21st 2011 @ 7:22pm
peter said | September 21st 2011 @ 7:22pm | Report comment
Are u borderline handicap,that is the worst and most stupid article ever written no idea of what your even talking about
September 21st 2011 @ 9:11pm
Eiger said | September 21st 2011 @ 9:11pm | Report comment
peter, KPM’s been able to string a sentence together and make a cogent , reasoned argument, which is a bit more than you’ve been able to do.
September 22nd 2011 @ 9:57am
Osama bin Lockie said | September 22nd 2011 @ 9:57am | Report comment
And Peter your basis for this eloquent summation is????
September 21st 2011 @ 10:40am
Johnno said | September 21st 2011 @ 10:40am | Report comment
If the IRB Wolrd cup is going to be credible and have legitimacy like the soccer World cup, they are going to have to have a fair scheduledlling torunamant. Now the fans have woken up to this, and all fans i think will turn away and tune out which mean less tv ratings$$. Even the fans that beinift form the draw will not feel like world champions if they got there by an unfair draw.It is cheating in reality, and fans who wants to see a legitimate tournament will tune out to, and that means less tv ratings and dollars. The rib have to work out a solution.Maybe extend the tournament to 7 weeks or play more matches per day, but it has not choice it has to make it fair if it wants the tournament to survive. Rugby fans have now woken up to this inequality. AS the USA,RUSSIA,CANada, improve there bigger nations than Irleand wales and scotland. Will wales become the new pacific islands. woULD BE FUNNY TO WATCH. But my heart goes out to th pacific island nations. The most talented production line of talent in the world and the ones, who lose lots of there players to other nations to. Let home have 2 teams in a world cup year. England and NZ supported it. The uneducated rugby fan or sports fan has to understand the complex and unique and special relationship pacific islands have with rugby.
September 21st 2011 @ 11:10am
MR01 said | September 21st 2011 @ 11:10am | Report comment
Johnno/KPM – I did the sums last night to see whether this was a real issue or a perception issue. It is a real issue, in every pool two teams get shorter turnarounds, while 3 teams get a minimum 6 day break. I don’t have the notes but it was a comparison of 16 days to play all games versus 21-22 days. For example in pool D Fijis games are played 7, 8, then 7 days apart. While Samoa gets 4, 7, 5 day breaks.
Now this is consistent in that it’s the bottom two ranked teams that get the shorter turnarounds, with the exception being Fiji/Samoa where Samoa are ranked higher than Fiji although I don’t know what their respective rankings were when the draw was made. A simple solution would be that one of the top 3 ranked teams in a pool has to play a midweek/late week game once which would enable an evening up of the times between matches.
As for the IRB not looking after the minnows, don’t Samoa/Fiji/Tonga/Japan play in a Pacific Cup funded by the IRB ? Perhaps they should get more than the occasional one-off against NZ/Aus ? Italy were brought into the 5 nations and Argentina are being brought into the Tri Nations. I’m unsure what goes on for Russia, Georgia, US, etc. But while it’s easy to bag the IRB, they do appear to be moving in the right direction although the scheduling issue does need to be addressed.
The ability to play for two countries would benefit the minnows and this could be simply implemented, unfortunately the IRB are dominated by the home nations. Then again it could be a lot worse, we could have a Blatteresque organisation where they can’t even implement goal line technology in a World Cup.
September 21st 2011 @ 11:22am
kingplaymaker said | September 21st 2011 @ 11:22am | Report comment
MR01 the objection the IRB produce to that idea, is that they need any game featuring a top nation to be at the weekend so as to maximise ratings and therefore money, which they claim to put back into the minnows who have just been battered in the mid-week in order to allow this glorious circle to be completed. As Johnno says, other simple solutions are an extra week in the tournament or all the matches played at the weekend.
Samoa/Fiji/Tonga are too good just to play in a low key Pacific Cup. All three should be better than Italy and Scotland who have their own regular high level international tournament. What’s the Pacific Cup to the Six Nations? And the IRB consistently vote to keep the Pacific Islands from using players that have changed country, as this would make them really much better. Fiji would have had Sivivatu and Rokocoko this year. Georgia and Romania are both good enough to join the Six Nations now, but are now allowed to.
The IRB are making an appearance of expanding the game but in reality are doing nothing of the sort, and are keeping all the power in their own hands and making certain the minnows are shut out.
September 21st 2011 @ 2:56pm
AndyS said | September 21st 2011 @ 2:56pm | Report comment
“Samoa/Fiji/Tonga are too good just to play in a low key Pacific Cup”…..Actually, the problem is they are not. The teams that play in the PNC are a pale shadow of the RWC teams, as all the players are in Europe. A related problem is that the IRB doesn’t seem real keen on forcing the issue about releasing players.
September 21st 2011 @ 9:32pm
Johnno said | September 21st 2011 @ 9:32pm | Report comment
Other issues to is money for coaches. At world cups match day coaching is everything as dingo deans is finding out. These teams fiji /samoa/togna get less money to spendd on coaches/ strength and condoning coaches/and assistants and technical staff (computer stats).
Fiji or Samoa would love a warren garland standard coach or even a Nick mallet or kieren crawly but cant afford them, or even dingo deans. Sam dominii not as good a coach , nor is former all black tongan coach isotope mika.
IMagine what samoa could do with a fair schedule and england team’s budget.
September 21st 2011 @ 12:45pm
Johnno said | September 21st 2011 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
MRO1, yes good man you did the sums, and i haven’t but what your sayings so so true. It is so unfair it almost to be honest made me cry and i barley cry with sport, it is only sport at the end of the day but sport brings multiple emotions up and unites countries. Only time i have cried watching sport, Aust V Iran 1997, and British lions south africa tour 2009. And this samoa V Wales match, i almost cried was so mangy negative emotions.
Anger , injustice,sadness,and also after and calm down a loss of motivation for this2011 RWC tournament. A bit like match fixing in cricket sad issue with the pakistan team. All those aussie wins like at SCG in 2010 v pakistan doubt it was real coz of match fixing issues. And same with this draw, i started to feel whats the point of supporting this torunmant giving time to it watching it on tv , and in other words giving the IRB money watching a tournament that is not fair,. It feels all those words , a con , a scam a fraud, not a fair tournament , injustice, lacks credibility and legitimacy.
How can the winner of this RWC feel satisfied and wales may win it, how can they feel satisfied knowing they won the world cup by dodging a fearsome bullet in Samoa. Very empty feeling. Basically cheating, or match fixing, or when the east german athletes athletics and east german swimmers took drugs in the cold war days. Ask Rayleen boil how she felt to lost to them.
Samoa not a rich country yet, they had to have a national campaign basically a tele ton to raise the money to get there stars to play in the RWC and pay for the coaches and accomadaiton and flights etc. I think they had to raise between $6-$8million. While teams like England are so resourced up. They did give there hard earned money to lose or make up the numbers. They gave them the money to watch Samoa have a fair attempt to win the damn thing.
FIFA soccer World cup is fair. IRB if it wants the RWC to survive and have legitimacy has no choice but to have a fair world cup with fair scheduling otherwise fans now aware of this inequality will tune out, as it will be a meaningless world cup. And as the nations like USA russia, brazil, canada get better, teams like Irleand , scotland ,wales, better treat them with respect at the negotiating table or this bog nations are big enough to break away form the rib and set up a new rugby board to run the game, and teams will follow them as they will have serious $$$$ as they are such big nations MR01/KPM.
September 21st 2011 @ 10:50am
kingplaymaker said | September 21st 2011 @ 10:50am | Report comment
‘Maybe extend the tournament to 7 weeks or play more matches per day’
Exactly Johnno, these are two very simple solutions to this problem. But then the IRB suggest the only one is to reduce the number of teams to 16. Why is this? Is it beyond the realm of human possibility to extend the tournament a week or play more of the matches at the weekend? The IRB supposedly want to play some in the week and hence the minnows are forced to provide the spectacle of a massacre. It is a cruel luxury requiring the minnows to be served up as losers in order to have some games in the week for the IRB.
In ancient Rome in the breaks between large and significant gladitorial bouts, when only the dedicated sadists were watching, abhorrent spectacles would be shown where for example, one man would wear armour and the other would not, and when the armoured one had triumphed, his armour would be stripped off and he would have to face a new armoured foe, who when he won, would have his armour stripped off and so on. Or where a man would face one foe, and when he defeated him another would appear, and then another, until he lost, in which case the winner would face a new foe, and if he defeated him another, and so forth. Such contests had no purpose beyond sadism. The connoisseur of cruelty could enjoy himself during these interludes, while awaiting the major battles. The RWC pools and midweek minnows matches recall this very strongly.
September 21st 2011 @ 11:29pm
Johnno said | September 21st 2011 @ 11:29pm | Report comment
Very sad Kingplaymker, ancient Rome was a bloodbath and some Sadists existed in rome for sure, and still do in Spain if you ask me with bull fighting. What a cruel sport if the bull is victorious he he slaughtered to death in front of a collesium or a bull ring of fans. Curela , Sad , sadistic, and unfair simply like the way the pacific islands and minnows, have this world cup.
Jus timagine to if the minnows and pacific islands could afford the coaching quality of coaches like Grahame Henry, Warren Gatland, John Kirwan, Kieran Crowley, even Dingo Deans. WOuld eb so much better.
One only has to look at the massive positive form reversal of the wellington Hurricanes that got into the All Blakc squad, under the Grahame Hnery lead system. (Andrew Hore, Ma Nonu, Corey Jane, Conrad Smith, totally different players altogether).
The samoan have top quality coaches in the euro league and it shows same with Fiji and Tonga).
Samoa could not afford one of those fancy pre world cup sports science camps in Poland that Wales went on.
Another unifier advantages ot the big nations, more money on high quality coaches and computer technical advisors, and strength and conditioning officers.
Would love to see how wales would of gone against samoa with a 7 day rest, no 1 5/8 and flanker playing, a coach of graham henry or warren garland’s standards, and the entourage england have like full time cooks, best sports science strength and conditioners, computer anlaysis men like john Buck buchhanan standard, and we could go on and on, 5 star hotels, it never ends the inequality for the poor or minnow nations. Watch teams like USA and russia and caned in 25 years with there money. look out wales scotland, and irleand.
September 21st 2011 @ 11:52pm
kingplaymaker said | September 21st 2011 @ 11:52pm | Report comment
Johnno firstly I completely agree with you about bullfighting which is absolutely vile and despicable.
It’s interesting to think that in the northern hemisphere it should be easy for teams to join the Six Nations, because Georgia and Romania are close to the required standard, whereas it is harder for teams to join the Tri-nations because the level is so high.
So whereas it is easy for Georgia, Romania, Russia, Portugal, Spain to get to the level of Scotland or Italy in the Six Nations, it is very hard for Japan, the U.S.A. and Canada to get to Tri-nations level because they are light years away from the quality of New Zealand and Australia.
This is a big problem. Obviously Japan, U.S.A. and Canada could joing the Six Nations too but this is very far from ideal and it is in no one’s interest to have a 10 nationa and a 4 nations. It would be much better to balance it out.
It is a problem with no obvious easy solution.
September 22nd 2011 @ 12:21am
Johnno said | September 22nd 2011 @ 12:21am | Report comment
I think Kingplaymaker, ZANZAR should have a SH title. At club and international level. We won’t debate the super 115 at length here i don’t have time. But a test match SH title, with promotion and relegation perhaps.
Maybe 5 teams with 2 home and 2 away matches, or 7 teams with 3 home and 3 away. would eb a success.
Japan now in Tokyo would not be easy to beat if they are at full strength. one problem to incorporate Argentina and the other nations into a ZANZAR test tournament is that dreaded word again scheduling, and of course conflict of interest.
if we had a global rugby clanger Euros playing same calendar as ZANZAR liken rugby league where euro leagues and NRL same season, IRB could schedule weekends so the other team players Agrentina, Samoa,Fiji could come from euro and compete with current ZANZAR teams.
I thiink myself with the new 4Nations argentina’s inclusion will be met with initial hype but unless they get a por league or USA and canada get there league going it may be a farce. Tp many ARG player will pull out due to fake injuries by there clubs, or if they play at end of eeuro season will be stuffed and lacking in motivation to compete like we see now with a lot of NH aussies tours when they come out. Lopsided scores sometimes however england did well in 2010 but most NH tours have been a total waste of time for everyone fans, players, tv ratings everyone. SO global rugby calendar would be fantastic i thought of a rebel idea, could Australian rugby be a summer code like soccer is play all matches form 7pm or 8pm starts. It is not that hot in summer at 8pm to play rugby they play soccer , not overnight is 30 degrees or even that humid. They played the rugby world cup here form memory septtemberor october and it was fine.
An 8pm kickoff in the middle of january i doubt will be dangerous to the players. Heck they play footy trials in january anyway and the super 15 seasons starts in summer in febuary anyway. Coz if we we were in euro calendar we could have a legitimate SH title every year or every 2nd year.
September 22nd 2011 @ 1:23am
kingplaymaker said | September 22nd 2011 @ 1:23am | Report comment
Johnno it is tough. The IRB could invest in a dramatic way in Japan, the U.S.A. and Canada
with a view to bringing them in to the Tri-nations within a decade. Their governments will be spending far more on rugby because of Olympic inclusion anyway, and so now is the time to strike.
Also, those are gigantic financial markets so there are significant motives of the kind the IRB love as well: money related ones.
How hard could it be to get those three up to Argentina’s standard with large-scale investment?
Any TV deal with them in an expanded Tri-nations would provide millions to reinvest in the game there.
The reality is the following: Georgia, Romania, maybe Russia, U.S.A., Canada and Japan are all at the level of rugby necessary for entry into a major competition. The IRB must find a way to do it.
September 22nd 2011 @ 8:43pm
Colin N said | September 22nd 2011 @ 8:43pm | Report comment
The IRB aren’t made with an endless supply of money. They already give 2/3rds of their expenditure to tier two nations.
You can’t just say they have to put money into this, this and this, it just doesn’t work like that.
September 22nd 2011 @ 1:17am
Ben S said | September 22nd 2011 @ 1:17am | Report comment
‘It’s interesting to think that in the northern hemisphere it should be easy for teams to join the Six Nations, because Georgia and Romania are close to the required standard, whereas it is harder for teams to join the Tri-nations because the level is so high.’
Closed to the required standard based on what? Bizarre, fantastical guff as ever.
September 21st 2011 @ 10:51am
Ben Carter said | September 21st 2011 @ 10:51am | Report comment
Hi KPM. Fair points. I am seeing the admin side of the IRB in terms of World Cup handling as very similar to the ICC. A top 10 of major Test nations that play all the time against only each other, then a batch of half-a-dozen middling/decent teams that deserve more playing opportunities than they are given, then a drop-off. The answer is indeed better scheduling – when you tour England/Scotland/Ireland/Wales, hop on a plane and meet France, Italy, Spain, Georgia, etc. Same in cricket – tour England for the ASHES? Fly over and play Ireland, Scotland, Holland in a couple of ODIs as well. It doesn’t cost a lot extra in airfares and will give a real boost to the sport overall…
September 21st 2011 @ 10:55am
kingplaymaker said | September 21st 2011 @ 10:55am | Report comment
Ben indeed, but I feel the deep problem lies in this being intentional. As Fuliota-Sapolu observed, Wales would find it extremely difficult to defeat Samoa after seven instead of three days rest. It would be even harder if Samoa had access to players who had changed nationality. Yet harder if Samoa had other international competition.
Wales have powerful votes on the IRB board along with other weaker Tier One nations.
This weakening of the minnows in order to prevent them threatening the progress of the Tier One nations is fully intentional.
September 21st 2011 @ 12:55pm
Johnno said | September 21st 2011 @ 12:55pm | Report comment
And KPM if the IRB keep treating the devlopnign nations with contempt, they better be careful.
As big nations USA,RUSSIA,brazil, canada get bigger rugby wise, they will have the money to set up lucrative pro leagues, and also with tv deals run world cups as they have the stadiums and the tv audience, to make trillions form advertising. The IRB better treat these nations what are bigger than all there loyalist nations england france, wales, scotland with respect.
September 21st 2011 @ 1:43pm
ABFAN said | September 21st 2011 @ 1:43pm | Report comment
KPM agreed with u mate. Talking about IRB voting system, it’s funny how the tier 1 nations have 1 or 2 votes ea (NZ, OZ, SA, ENG, Wales, IRE, SCOT = 2 votes – JPN, ARG & ITALY = 1 vote ea) compare that to the pacific islands they only have 1 vote between them. Even though they seems to be at the same playing level or better than the likes of Italy, Scots, wales & ireland almost all the time. Therefore a chance of getting anything going for them is same as winning the Lotto 3 weeks in a row.
September 21st 2011 @ 1:12pm
Rightio said | September 21st 2011 @ 1:12pm | Report comment
Mate. You can’t say Scotland or Wales would get in to the quarter finals undeservingly. Okay minnows dont have the same oppertunities but it doesn’t mean these two countries dont put the effort in. Samoa are a good team, proving that by beating Australia, and although they were looking tired towards the end of the Wales game, they still had the majority of possession and territory. This shows the main reason for not winning was their failure to capitalize on their oppertunities! I’m sure the samoan team in general would not be making excuses for the loss apart from their performance on the day, regardless of the unfair turnaround time. As for the six nations, “Is it really the case that Georgia or Romania are so much weaker than Scotland and Wales?” yes it is! For now anyway! In the future i’m sure other nations will join in a similar manner to Italy, but for now there is too big a gap between the nations! To suggest Wales, a team who only recently lost to the reigning world champs by a point, are only enjoying success as a result of IRB board members is absurd.
September 21st 2011 @ 1:58pm
Johnno said | September 21st 2011 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
Rightio , failure to capitalise on opportunities is down to issues like fatigue. I have played rugby not at the elite level but at a good standard and that last 30 minutes you really feel it, your human and your mental intensity drop and your desire to play through pain drops as the match goes on as you getmore physically tired .All the will in the world can not motivate the body if you are really tired or exhausted, it is impossible, plust the 4 day turnaround samoa were missing there no1 5/8 much better thasea lave ex league lol, and a star flanker, the star 5/8 tusk pusi who is vital to them said he would of played 100% if given 2 days more rest, and they had to move Khan foetal there star halfback ex crusader and would of played for AB’S if he wanted to he was ahead of andy ellis, he moved to 5/8 for last 15 minutes as Tasea lave was going so bad, all the penalites he conceded, so samoa had the backline formation stuffed up in the key positions to coz of the tusk pusi injury and he would of played if given 6 days of. So they samoa barring injury in the match could of kept tusi pusi and khan foetal at halfback the whole match.
And with the possession imagine if they had been even fresh they would of had even more possession, and also used the possession better as they were fresher.
Wales had 4 more days off than samoa and it sure showed. But samoa had the ability to beat a very good welsh team no question. Wales or Irleand now may go and win the world cup, they are better than aussies at moment, and really should of beaten south africa except the touch judge got the conversion wrong it went through the sticks, or if hook missed he just missed, so south africa got lucky so lucky vs wales.
September 21st 2011 @ 7:08pm
Rightio said | September 21st 2011 @ 7:08pm | Report comment
Johnno, so if samoa could beat wales, and wales could have beaten south africa/ australia why aren’t they regarded as one of the top teams in the world at the moment? I just think that samoa, knowing the quick turnaround between matches well before the world cup could have worked on fitness rather than having it as an excuse! Something the welsh side did in Poland before the world cup to avoid their usual trick of fading away. I too played rugby for many years, and one thing that is common in any sport is to be ready for adversity! Complaining is not going to get you any respect! Now imagine if they had won, chances are they wouldnt have complained! I think it’s too easy to use 3 less days as an excuse rather than a challenge.
September 21st 2011 @ 9:19pm
Johnno said | September 21st 2011 @ 9:19pm | Report comment
Rightio Samoa only have there full strength squad at world cup time, so do not play as much and when they lose often in the pacific cup they are not at full strength. Fiji is a better team than the one that lost to south africa. They have all sort sof internal problems. And teams like wales get more money to spend on better head coaches and asisstants and technical assisatns. The players form samoa ar ejsut as good but are let down by not as top level of coaches and technical staff. At there euro clubs they get all that and look how good they go. jUST LOOK AT SOME OF THE ALL BLACK PLAYERS THIS YEAR HOW MUCH BETTER THEY PLAYED UNDER GRAHAME HENRY THAN AT THERE SUPER 15 TEAM. wellington hurricanes the perfect example( andrew Hore, nonu, conrad smith, corey jane).
And wales and irleand have peaked at the right time and they have the best welsh team wale shave had in a long time jus tlike irleand and samoa have top teams this year as opposed to previous for all teams, so this year the can beat Audstralia/south africa’s of this world.
Samoa had a training camp in samoa and they simply could not afford high tech training camps like the one in poland. They had to have a national tele ton to raise the funds just for the players to get to the world cup, and pay for all the coaching and logistics.
They can’t afford a full time coach the level of warren garland, graham henry, even dingo deans now that is saying something lol.
And as 4 the 4 day thing no matter how high tech a training camp you do sports science can not close the gap yet, i think it is medically and scientifically impossible. All the money the welsh rugby union have they could not of beaten samoa with a 4 day turnaround. It is like jet lag there is no cure fo it now matter how many ice baths, private jets, nice food massage you spend to deal with jet lag, you still we fatigued.
September 21st 2011 @ 1:26pm
turbodewd said | September 21st 2011 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
Are we sure IRB doesnt actually stand for IPGB – International Penalty Goal Board…
September 21st 2011 @ 2:36pm
Chris said | September 21st 2011 @ 2:36pm | Report comment
Perhaps there should be a requirement that every Tier 1 country has to play at least a couple of Tier 2 countries every year. I’m not so much worried about what happens during a World Cup – I think getting the minnows regular top-line competition each and every year is much more valuable goal.
September 21st 2011 @ 3:19pm
jumpers said | September 21st 2011 @ 3:19pm | Report comment
Thats crap man get your facts right!!!