Waking up last Sunday morning, like most mornings during the Rugby World Cup, the first thing I did was check the overnight scores. In this instance was looking to tick off a gimmie on my multi with South Africa beating Japan by more than 20 points.
The next five minutes was a mixture of emotions, confusion on the score I saw, annoyance that the app had screwed up (clearly this score was for another match), denial that surely this wasn’t the case, and then amazement that it was.
Fourteenth ranked Japan had put on a performance of a lifetime to knock off two-time World Cup champions the Springboks with a try in the 84th minute. Spurning any thought of an honourable draw they rolled the dice and fought hammer and tong to pull off the greatest upset in rugby history.
Since the inception of the World Cup the first four weeks have been more about not who qualifies for the finals but in what order. The second half of the World Cup, with an exception here or there, has featured the teams from the British Isles (England, Wales, Scotland), Ireland, France, the southern hemisphere heavyweights (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) and Argentina, with one team being the unlucky one to not make the cut.
The rest, otherwise known as the minnows, were there to make up the numbers, bring exposure for rugby to other markets, practise for the bigger teams before they moved onto bigger rivals.
All in the solace that they may get a chance for one win when they come up against other minnows. As long as they knew their place and did not upset the natural order the traditional rugby nations were happy.
Going into the second week of the Rugby World Cup the minnows have clearly stated, no more. Aside from the massive upset of Japan versus South Africa, we have seen several other spirited performances.
Fiji, less a minnow but not a top tier nation, did anything but make life easy for England or Australia. They denied Australia a coveted bonus point and were within striking distance of England up until the last quarter of the match. With their pending match against Wales they have absolutely nothing to lose, which is when they play their best rugby.
The Welsh supporters will not be feeling total confidence heading into this game.
To say the scoreline flattered the French against Romania and the Welsh against Uruguay was an understatement, the Romanians and the Uruguayans played with a belief I never thought possible. Georgia’s upset of Tonga will definitely make Argentina uneasy despite their performance against New Zealand.
Following their initial shock, South Africa is a wounded beast but should be able to account for the rest of the teams in their pool. However Samoa, who have been the team breathing down the necks of the established nine more than any other, will be salivating at the opportunity to play them.
Samoa have wins against established top tier teams, including Australia and Wales, and will go into the game without fear or intimidation and relish the opportunity to claim arguably their biggest scalp to date.
With nearly 20 years of professional rugby under our belt and an increasing global player base, the established nine will find their path to the finals much more challenging at this World Cup and the ones to come. It will make for some great rugby.
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