Rugby World Cup match scheduling

[beige]

Great to see Tonga pull off the upset against France today - especially in light of their loss to Canada earlier in the tournament. It was also a great indicator of how good the smaller teams can be when they're given decent recovery time between games like the bigger teams get.

The question is, do results like this encourage the IRB to finally produce a fairer draw for the next tournament or does it discourage them by making them scared of the bigger teams (and TV markets) leaving early? Or am I giving the IRB too much credit by thinking that they'll pay any attention at all?

[jargan83]

Or am I giving the IRB too much credit by thinking that they'll pay any attention at all?

That part is probably the most correct

The status quo will remain unchanged with the major nations having their pool games over 4 weeks while some of the minnow nation have to play 4 games inside a week or two

[Burgs]

It's not just the TV, logistically it is very expensive to cater for these ever expanding squads, beds, food, busses etc, so if the IRB can bundle the minnows through quickly then they are back to the last ten or so nations to cater for. Not especially fair, but the flip side is you have nations such as Samoa being forced to run a lottery to fund their team while NZ and Aus are complaining about the cost.