10 things we learned from the Rugby World Cup: from pesky refs to the woeful Wallabies
Six weeks gone and what do we make of the rugby, the crashlanding of the Wallabies, trends for the code, the invasive pest known as the TMO and much more? JIM TUCKER does the deep dive on a fascinating tournament.
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The winning gamble on staging the Rugby World Cup in Japan will have generated $670 million-plus in revenue when the last replica jersey is sold and the final beer is downed.
The economics of a tournament with sellouts for six weeks in top stadiums and armies of insatiable touring fans exploring a fresh rugby landscape quickly stacked up.
What to make of the rugby, the crashlanding of the Wallabies, trends for the code, the invasive pest known as the TMO and much more needs a deeper dig.
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Rugby writer JIM TUCKER delved into 10 quick takeaways from what we learnt from the first World Cup staged in Asia.
1 THE JAPANESE TRIUMPH
Some cities host the Olympics or major tournaments with little chance of a medal avalanche for the host nation and the event powers on in something of a bubble.
Whether Japan’s Brave Blossoms could succeed on the field was the greatest question mark of the tournament.
When they did to such a dizzying degree, the World Cup found its heart and soul because the upset wins over Ireland and Scotland were epic and galvanised the country.
More than 54 million people in Japan were watching on TV when Michael Leitch and his dynamos beat the Scots to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.
2 ZERO TOLERANCE ON HIGH TACKLES
World Rugby made a conscious decision to make a statement on reducing concussions with a hardline stance on anything resembling a reckless whack to the head.
Leading medico Martin Raftery said there had been a 35 per cent reduction in concussions at this tournament with the emphasis on getting the tackle height down.
“Lowering the tackle height protects the tackler most of all and it was music to our ears for some top coaches to talk about changing techniques,” Raftery said.
Everyone is on board with reducing concussion but the punishment system is flawed when 20 of the 37 pool matches had their flow affected by red and yellow cards.
3 WOBBLY WALLABIES
Sigh. The kindest thing you can say is that the Wallabies played to the form of their ranking as No.6 in the world. They were beaten this year by all four semi-finalists.
The stats show the Wallabies did plenty of good things but the number of turnovers and blindly ignoring variety to their running game were not two of them.
Marika Koroibete, rookie Jordan Petaia and Tolu Latu were three positives for next season’s rebuild.
4 WHERE THE WALLABIES DID IMPROVE
After the lineout dramas of last year with poor throwing and juggling of hookers, the huge improvement in this area via Latu, Izack Rodda and Rory Arnold must be applauded.
The Wallabies scored 15 of their 21 tries at the Cup with the lineout as the trigger.
5 PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
No Wallaby in sight with World Rugby’s Player of the Year gong to go to Pieter-Steph du Toit, Ardie Savea, Alun Wyn Jones, Cheslin Kolbe or Tom Curry.
You can add South African halfback Faf de Klerk and England lock Maro Itoje if it’s a Player of the Tournament discussion.
6 FAST FOOTY
Didn’t it make a difference to the spectacle of the rugby with games played largely on dry, fast fields or made so under the roof of a domed stadium.
There were more than 280 tries scored and whoever backed Welsh winger Josh Adams (seven) as top try-scorer won a lot of money.
7 CURE THE OFF-SIDE CURSE
The terms “rush defence” and “line-speed” are everywhere. Call it off-side defence instead.
Referees just don’t police defenders to stay behind the last feet at the ruck and the result is that attacking teams are constantly blanketed with bare metres to operate.
Blow the whistle here refs.
8 TMO...TELEVISION MATCH OGRES
Some try decisions and judgments, via officials operating the TV replays on big moments, stopped play for two or three minutes. Some TMOs were just overzealous and it ruined the flow of games.
9 SEMI RADRADRA
The Fijian winger is mentioned by name because his 546 running metres were some of the most dynamic of any World Cup. It’s really to highlight that some big thinking has to be done to make sure the Pacific Islands teams stay nourished. Neither Fiji, Tonga or Samoa made the quarter-finals.
10 And a final thanks to some wonderful performers who we have seen on the Test stage for the final time.
FAREWELL XV
Ben Smith (NZ), Vereniki Goneva (Fiji), Siale Piutau (Tonga), Sonny Bill Williams (NZ), DTH van der Merwe (Canada), Tusi Pisi (Samoa), Will Genia (Australia), Kieran Read (NZ), Sergio Parisse (Italy), David Pocock (Australia), Luke Thompson (NZ), Juan Manuel Leguizamon (Argentina), Campese Ma’afu (Tonga), Rory Best (Ireland), Sekope Kepu (Australia).
Coach: Steve Hansen (NZ)
Originally published as 10 things we learned from the Rugby World Cup: from pesky refs to the woeful Wallabies