The International Rugby Board said on Monday it has revamped the 2015 World Cup match schedule to stop giving top nations an unfair advantage by allowing them a week’s rest between games.
IRB chief executive Brett Gosper also said he had moved to clamp down on clubs preventing players from smaller nations attending the tournament, although he admitted it was a difficult problem to solve.
Small nations complained bitterly during the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand that the timetable was skewed towards the game’s traditional superpowers because their matches were scheduled at the weekends to maximise television audiences.
This gave them six or seven days to recover, while the less high-profile sides often had to play mid-week and weekend matches, giving them as little as three days between matches, before a longer break.
Gosper said the timetable for the 2015 tournament in England, due to be released in late April or early May, had been altered to fix the problem.
“There’s very strong fairness in terms of rest periods and so on. It will be the same for all teams,” he told reporters. “It will be far more equal compared to the last World Cup.”
New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew backed the move, saying it was a question of fairness.
“We asked for it,” he said. “We thought that it was unjust that the small unions were asked to play a critical event with shorter (rest) times than our games, so tier one nations made that request at the end of the last World Cup.”
Gosper said the IRB was also working to address concerns raised by smaller nations, particularly in the Pacific, about European clubs preventing their players from participating in world cup tournaments.
He said the IRB recently held a meeting on the issue, attended by representatives from the English and French leagues, and warned clubs they were obliged to release players and could face sanctions if they refused to do so.
But the IRB chief admitted it was a difficult issue to enforce, despite assurances from the clubs that they would abide by the regulations and not hold back players from international duties.
“It’s a bit like tax-dodging, there are always going to be around-the-fringes issues,” he said.
“Maybe things will happen behind our backs that we can’t quite control. All we can do is make sure that the intentions behind regulation nine are imposed as best as they possibly can be and made as robust as possible.”
dadiggle
Guest
How about no calling the referees up during mid tournament and tell them to blow the game differently?
Wii
Guest
You are deluded
Matthew Skellett
Guest
So tell us all here Jerry why did Mr Jourbet choose to do nothing when he was staring down on Mr McGaw lying all over the ground at the back of the french ruck time and time again huh ? Also maybe you can explain Mr Jourbet's performance in the Six Nations game Ireland vs Italy in the 2012 season ?
atlas
Guest
That would be Henry Speight - paid not to play for Fiji RWC 2011. Incentivised, as you say.
Wii
Guest
That's a huge load of it and you know it. I've seen some really dour and inept posts on this site but this just takes the cake for all time stupidity
Jerry
Guest
If the final was fixed, it was an awful job of fixing a match - why did Joubert give the French a kickable penalty that would have given them the lead with 15 minutes to go for instance? Why didn't he call the French for offside at the ruck leading to the turnover for their sole try? Etc etc.
Matthew Skellett
Guest
No he's not kidding Wii and why don't you go back to some of the on-field testimonies of some of the french players in that final and ask them if it was a fair contest ?
Matthew Skellett
Guest
AND while we're about it why doesn't the IRB either SCRAP or OVERHAUL the WORLD RUGBY RATINGS Table???- it's a gerry-mander of power and priviledge and only serves to reward the Top 10 countries who largely only play each other anyways and is a blight on the wprld-wide development of the game
Matthew Skellett
Guest
Make that a double -take for me too Shop , to hear Mr Tew say he's for fairness in the Rugby World has gotta be front-page news if Mr O'Brien was dead he'd be making like a rotisserie right now
Wii
Guest
You are kidding right? The world cup fixed so New Zealand could win. I didn't even bother reading the rest of your novel after reading that line.
Bakkies
Guest
''Small nations complained bitterly during the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand that the timetable was skewed towards the game’s traditional superpowers because their matches were scheduled at the weekends to maximise television audiences.'' To be fair to 2011, the tournament was held in a bad time zone for European and South African tv networks so I can understand the bigger games being on the weekends so people don't skip work or school at 9 am in the morning to watch a RWC match. With the 2015 RWC you can have marquee matches midweek in prime time ratings slots to please the tv networks. For casual Rugby viewers the build in to the bigger pool matches in 2003 took a while with a lot of minnow matches occurring earlier in the tournament before Eng v SA, NZ v Wales, Aus v Ireland, France v Scotland, etc.
Keeping it real
Guest
+1
Johnno
Guest
Put it this way I have more faith in the IRB than FIFA. NZ AB'S winning the world cup was good for rugby growth on so many levels. The AB'S are one of the most marketable sports teams in the World and to win a home world cup, has woven in so well for the sport. Call the draw fixed, rigged, biased, even cheating if you want, what ever the point is if all those things were done, long term it was in the best interests of the sport, even if the 2011 world cup was fixed for NZ to win the world cup, and for big teams to be there at the end. Now we have done and dusted and got NZ winning a home world cup, out of the way, and the sponsorship revenue and exposure a team like the AB's brought, and all that revenue now for the IRB to invest, we can now have morally fair and equal world cups. So the IRB will not be sacred of a Tonga VS Samoa final, as opposed to a England VS NZ All Blacks. EIther one now will bring in the revenue. So long term happy days ahead, no more cheating refs, or fixed matches, or fixed tournament schedules that have been admitted by all relevant stakeholders to be unfair. Now some purity will be brought back to rugby, now NZ have the monkey off there back winning a home world cup, and money to invest in Tier 2 nations. Welcome to the new age of purity in rugby, and fairness and no more match fixing bring it on can't wait for the Samoa VS Tonga world cup final at Twckenham, i hope so. If there is 5 minutes left and Samoa are playing England in a semi-final, "don't get all cheating on me IRB" and give a dodgy penalty , let Samoa into the world cup final, even if England may rate higher lol, go on do the right thing lol". And no more dodgy quarter finals like Australia VS South Africa, or the dodgy final AB'S VS France, or the dodgy Q/Final France VS NZ in 2007 that Grahame Henry suspected match fixing, or the dodgy pool game at world cup 1999 in France between France VS Fiji, when Fiji had France on the rack and the dodgy scrums re-sets, that paddy O'Brien admitted he stuffed up big time, funny that after the fact in his book. This new confession by the IRB that draw will be not marginally fair, but completely fair and equitable is a great day for rugby, no more match fixing. Funny the IRB have also set up an anti-corruption or match fixing unit, so good moves by the IRB and rugby. Bring on a fair Rugby world cup 2015, I can't wait I look forwad to it.
Matt
Guest
Let's be fair to the IRB here. Sure, they knew the schedule wasn't fair to the minnow nations and have now admitted this and changed it. But the reason for this setup was simply down to money. The old system of big games on weekends generated more money, which the IRB then used to fund the disadvantaged Tier 2 nations, the rise of Sevens and the Youth and Womens game. You can thank the unfair WC schedule for the all the money spent bringing 7's up to a truly global level and promoting it to the IOC for Olympic inclusion. You can thank the unfair schedule for the millions spent in the Pacfic Islands for high performance centres and for funding the Pacific Nations Cup. This money was also used to fund the Junior World Cup and Junion World Trophy, bringing through youngsters from many top tier nations to play each other and promote the game as a breeding ground of young talent. The Nations Cup, which has typically featured the like of Georgia/Romania etc is also IRB funded, thanks entirely to the World Cup. As has been the emerging Women's XV and 7's competitions. We're now fortunate that the IRB and the World Cup can generate enough revenue with a fair schedule to sustain the projected investment across the global game. I'm sure a large reason for this is that many Unions can now claim Olympic funding with Sevens. I believe the ARU, for example, are earning over $1Mpa from the Australian Sport's Council. So I'd say the Tier 2 nations should say thanks to the IRB. Firstly for funding their incredible growth over the past 10 years since the WC expanded and secondly for continuing that funding while giving them an equal crack at the WC. Now we look forward to the like of the USA, Samoa or Georgia upsetting some of the big nations and pushing through into the knock-out phases and beyond!
Kuruki
Roar Guru
About time. This is a positive step for Rugby. Winning the World cup after so long should have felt like the greatest achievement, but to me it didn't. It felt cheap, because we had such a huge advantage over other minnows and that took the gloss of it in my eyes.
AdamS
Roar Guru
Did any player in 2011 stick his hand up and say his club was holding him prisoner? I think they are all released, just incentivized to not want to go.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
You are right guru, it's almost impossible to allow equal time between games for everyone and I also understand the fact networks want big teams to play on w-e. What I didn't like was the fact it was really deliberate and they didn't even try or even think of trying being fair with everyone. Same with tests between PI nations and the big ones, Its a fairly new instalment I do like it a lot. I'd rather get a wallabies vs Samoa than an Oz v Scots or a 5th test v Wales. Things are changing for the better I think.
gurudoright
Guest
To be fair, it has only been the last 3 tournaments. Prior to that each group had 4 teams which allowed equal time between games for everyone. I can understand why the IRB scheduled the why they did with odd number of teams in each group and no matter how hard you try the scheduling won't be entirely fair. Although I agree with you, it shouldn't have taken 3 tournaments to sort out the problem
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
“It will be far more equal compared to the last World Cup.” Good. Why did we have to wait to 2015 to aim at fairness between all rugby nations? The fact they admit it wasnt a priority until now says it all.
mania
Guest
be good now that the euro clubs have been given the world to release their test players. suppose they have to for this tournament