The great rugby World Cup group hug

The top tries of the group stage have been listed. The ‘group stage XV’ has been announced.

The crowds through the turnstiles of the group stage have been tremendous. The countries who failed at the group stage have gone home – or stayed home, in one particularly mirthsome case.

So with the knock-out phase upon us, the question remains, has the group stage served the Rugby World Cup well?

Let’s face it, no matter how the organisers of any tournament might dish it up otherwise, the purpose of the group stage of a tournament is to ensure the best eight teams make it through to the quarter finals.

Simultaneously, the group stages must be seen to be generously inclusive of the fringe nations, who otherwise serve as speed bumps for the ‘post-group’ teams. Of course were it actually that simple, the whole thing would be a predictable bore – which is why a tournament such as the Rugby World Cup 2015 needs a Japan to beat a South Africa. And so it goes.

On one hand, the group stage of the tournament has served rugby marvelously well this year, as it generally does. Notwithstanding the fact that in all world cups since the inaugural edition in 1987 there has been a grand total of twelve teams ever make the final eight, the potential excitement caused by an array of ‘possibles’ has kept the early part of the tournament alive and of interest.

It also provides the rare opportunity for fans to barrack for ‘the game’ when minnow takes on minnow, which is a luxury your average rugby fan is rarely afforded in a calendar full of the mights and powers of the game playing one another. Hence the welcome atmosphere of bonhomie surrounding many of the otherwise irrelevant matches.

On the other hand, the group stage has also failed rugby badly. For what it has done – again – is highlight that, for all the bleatings from World Rugby about it being a world game, it quite frankly isn’t.

It exposes the fact that there is around eight teams that play a world class version of the sport, and the rest are well meaning amateurs.

It has the same global reach as cricket, and no-one’s under any illusions about the global reach of that great game. Cricket could, like rugby has, have a world cup of twenty teams, but having cricket played in the Netherlands is no more an indicator of a world game than rugby played in Georgia.

The group stages of the Rugby World Cup have shown rugby for what it is – a game only really played properly by the colonies, the home countries and one particularly close neighbour (there was only one of any of the above in Group C, Argentina going through largely because someone had to).

They have also given life to the tournament, by allowing us to revel in the desire and endeavour of the underdog, and exposed some players in second string nations to a healthy dose of experience.

That can never be a bad thing for the game.

And so while the group stages may just be a curtain raiser to the real tournament, long may the theatre of the opening stages of the Rugby World Cup continue. And now, let the real world cup begin.

Paul Roach is the host of ABC Grandstand Digital’s More Than Just A Game, a monthly show about the issues in sport off the field of play. You can find their latest podcast here, and you can follow them on Twitter: @MTJAGgrandstand.