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.
wardad
Guest
The title reminds me of the old Peter Sellers movie " the Mouse That Roared " wherein the tiny Duchy of Grand Fenwick beats the USA in a war without a shot being fired .All through circumstance and sheer luck .
Michael fom NZ
Guest
Really? The so called 2nd Tier teams are ripping it right up there Tier 1 rivals. Do you think the tier 1 have the foot off the gas playing the minnows. I doubt that very much as all the Tier 1 players are out to prove that they are worthy of playing in the bigger games. As for the Japan win - good on them for proving to the big boys, that if you disrespect us it can bit you in the bum. So the Japan win maybe a one off for this WC. But as the years roll on the Japan result will be the norm.
AndyS
Guest
It was inevitable that the gap would close as professionalism flowed down into the lower tier games. For all the various criticism it receives, it is realistically European rugby that can take pretty much all the credit for that - none of the players from other countries would be playing professionally if it weren't for them. But realistically that was relatively low hanging fruit, creating a big improvement for a relatively minor change. It will rapidly plateau and maybe even drop back a bit, unless another tranche of changes enable that progress to continue. In the main those include giving those lesser national teams more time with their full squads, playing in both more and more meaningful competitions against better opposition. That is not so easy...we'll see where WR and the tier 1 teams take it from here.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
The rugby world as I see it today: tier 1 (4 RC and 6N), tier 2 (P.I, Japan, USA, Romania, Georgia and Canada), tier 3 and so called minnows: namibia and uruguay (plus russia and others). I think the gap between 1 and 2 has narrowed, meaning 20 years ago tier 2 were where tier 3 are now but the main thing imo is that tier 2 is getting more dense. And the top tier 2 teams are very very close from bottom tier 1 teams. But lets not kid ourselves part of the reason romania, namibia and co didnt get hammered when they played big teams is because AB, France and others sided their b team and in particular areas (scrum for the french) there is a massive difference between their A and B pack. So in a way, the gap has essentialy reduced between tier 2/3 and tier 1 'B' sides which makes sense as all those guys play in tier 1 domestic comps. Before you had a 60-70 points gap between each group whereas today not only is it much more murky between bottom of each tier and top of the tier below but the gap has imo also come down to roughly 30-40 points between each group. No more 140 nil between tier 1 and tier 3, which is great. Which shows we should include those guys in our domestic comps if we want a competitive international game. Close the borders, send the islanders back to their islands, the georgians and romanians to eastern europe and you'll get the gap we had 20 years, even more pronounced imo as big nations are now fully professional.
Pat malone
Guest
No it hasn't, one win by team full of imported players. Loose eligibility rules are the only change
Harry Jones
Expert
Namibia has far more professionally contracted players than before and was able to score a real try against NZ, Japan beat South Africa, the US held Samoa to a respectable score, and Georgia has shown at times a formidable pack. I think the "worst" teams are better. The best teams are generally getting fitter, faster, stronger, too. But I think we are getting more countries who play good rugby.
There are always theories about gaps closing. Some teams have improved, others are still the same and some top tier nations have started slowly, and then there the the Boos who were crap, they made wrong decsions, missed tackles, didn't control the match and lost.
James
Guest
I dont think the gap is closing. We always get this 'narrowing the gap' statement in the first week at every world cup. Teams are fresh and spend so much time and energy preparing for thier first game. For minnow teams, they rarely get to play against higher ranked teams between WCs so they give everything in the first week to the point they got nothing left in the tank for the remainder of thier pool matches. Now watch these teams fall away as the tournament progresses.
James
Guest
blaming race and quota is a tiresome excuse for the boks and SA sports failure in general. When the Boks win, there's no mention of race, quota or politics in general. SA were just beaten by a better team. The boks like the ABs looked undercooked due to lack of warm up games whereas the WBs were able to get a warm up game and work on what needed to be improved by the time the first WC game came along. The difference in the performance was evident.
Nick
Guest
Really? I don't think so. Japan's win can be blamed on the turmoil in SA more than anything else, that union is anything but currently. SA is being run into the ground. Rest have been predictable results, especially for this part of the tournament. Teams just wanna get through unscathed and beating a minnow by 30-40 points is not an indication that the gap is making any substantial closure