Tier Two nations proving their worth
As the game starts to gain global traction and tier two nations undergo their qualification for the 2019 World Cup, it would seem that their involvement in the showpiece even overshadows tier one nations.
Watch the discussion from the 26th minute!
While not much attention has been paid to the qualifying process of the smaller nations, they have grabbed the headlines over recent weeks, following Spain's dissatisfaction around them being denied an automatic qualifying spot.
The details of their grievances have been much publicised since the conclusion of their match against Belgium, which has denied them the chance to play at the 2019 World up for the first time since 1999.
"Spain has been fighting to qualify and play in the World Cup for nearly 20 years.
"The game is growing massively in Spain and that's thanks to the fact that we qualified for the [2016] Olympics and now we have something like 60 000 people playing the game in the country," former Spanish international Guillermo Barcena said.
Former Stade Francais lock Anton van Zyl shared his thoughts on the Spanish side.
"There is a clip where the Spaniard oke [hypes up his team] - I get goosebumps - it puts Braveheart to shame. He is pulling it from everywhere and the guys are getting amped. There is nothing in it for them other than the chance to represent their country and play the game that they love,"
The Late Tackle team feels that Tier Two nations' participation at the showpiece event and the potential of causing a major upset or two could perhaps be bigger and better for the game, instead of the big nations claiming multiple World titles.
"The best moment of the 2015 World Cup was Japan defeating the Springboks. What does that [result] do for the game? Can you imagine Spain getting to the World Cup?" Van Zyl added.
"The reality is, that [Spain qualifying for the World Cup] for me, is almost to a large degree bigger than the professional side of the game - which is so small," Morgan Newman said.
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Latest Comments
What’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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