Rugby is a rugged, tough, elegant game. It may only be the national sport of Georgia, Madagascar, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga and Wales (and Fiji if you count the 7-a-side version), but it is played all over the world. Seventy-nine international teams took part in qualifying tournaments around the world, plus twelve that qualified automatically from last time round in 2015. Twenty take part in the finals in Japan, split into four pools of five teams each.
LINKS:
Official World Cup site
World Rugby Rankings
Squidge Rugby Youtube
Resetera Community Thread (usually rather quiet except during the Six Nations)
CeeCee is our resident qualified referee and as such is the final arbiter of stuff except when Scotland are playing.
QUICK GUIDE FOR AMERICANS (USA is playing in Pool C)
Rugby is a close cousin of gridiron, if you take a time machine back to about 1880. Here's a quick run-down of the main differences.
- 15 players a side instead of 11, but the playing field is a lot wider to make room for them
- No specialist teams to be brought on and off – all the talents are on the pitch the whole time. There's a limit of 8 substitutes per team and mostly substitutions are permanent.
- Play is more-or-less continuous except for a break at half time: no timeouts, no ad breaks, clock keeps going through set-pieces like scrums, kicks, lineouts. Minor injuries treated on the pitch while play continues.
- Ball is actually in play 30-45 minutes as opposed to about 11 minutes in NFL
- Line markings are kind of confusing. The 5-metre line is 5 metres from the side, the 10m line is 10m from the middle, the 15m line is 15m from the side, the 22m line is 22m from the goal line. Easiest to just ignore them because they don't mean what you think they do.
- NO BLOCKING. You can only tackle the player who has the ball
- NO FORWARD PASSING. Not ever. Well at least not by much so as the referee notices.
- NO DOWNS RULE. A team can keep the ball as long as they can keep the ball. Earlier this year Wales took 35 phases before scoring against England.
- NO HELMETS OR BODY ARMOUR
- A player in front of the ball carrier or kicker is OFFSIDE and can't take part in the game. That's why you will sometimes see players standing still with their arms in the air – they are signaling to the referee that they know they are offside and didn't do it on purpose. It's a bit more complicated than that in set pieces, but that's enough to be going on with.
- SCORING: a try is like a touchdown except you have to actually touch the ball down, that's 5 points. A conversion is like the extra point, but it must be kicked from opposite where the try was scored – so there's an advantage to scoring near the posts – 2 points. A drop goal is like a field goal from open play and worth three points, but it must be drop-kicked. A penalty goal is like a place-kicked field goal taken after an infringement by the other team – 3 points.
- SCRUM: following a minor infringement both sets of forwards pack down and a scrum-half puts the balls in to restart play. All sorts of terrible things happen in scrums but you mostly won't see them.
For each team here's the pre-tournament world ranking, pre-tournament odds and a link to Squidge Rugby's introductory video.
The top two teams from each pool go through to the quarter finals. Third place gets a free pass to the next World Cup in four years time in France.
POOL A
- Ireland (ranked 1 odds 10/1) – So what went on with Ireland?
- Scotland (ranked 7 odds 80/1) – So how good are Scotland?
- Japan (ranked 10 odds 275/1) – So can Japan cause another upset?
- Russia (ranked 20 odds 7500/1) – So what should we know about Russian Rugby?
- Samoa (ranked 16 odds 1500/1) – So what went on with Samoan Rugby?
A year ago, you'd probably have expected Ireland to walk away with this pool with Japan second. But with Ireland's poor Six Nations and Scotland's second-half resurgence against England it could be any two from the top three. The matches between the attack-minded Scotland, Japan and Russia might well provide the most entertaining rugby of the tournament.
POOL B- New Zealand (ranked 2 odds 11/8) – So are the All Blacks still favourites?
- South Africa (ranked 4 odds 9/2) – So are the Springboks back?
- Italy (ranked 14 odds 2000/1) – So are Italy actually improving?
- Namibia (ranked 23 odds 7500/1) – So what do Namibia bring to the World Cup?
- Canada (ranked 22 odds 7500/1) – So what went wrong with Canadian Rugby?
Blimey, look at those odds! Almost certainly it'll be New Zealand and South Africa going through, but we can't tell in which order. Those lower matches promise to be quite a bit of fun though.
POOL C
- England (ranked 3 odds 5/1) – So can England win the Rugby World Cup?
- France (ranked 8 odds 40/1) – So which French team is going to turn up?
- Argentina (ranked 11 odds 50/1) – So what should we expect from Argentina?
- USA (ranked 13 odds 4000/1) – So can Rugby break the USA?
- Tonga (ranked 15 odds 2000/1) – So what will Tonga bring to the World Cup?
Easily the most open pool in this tournament, with all the top three teams showing recent vulnerabilities. You'd expect England to walk it, except that assuming that England are going to walk it hasn't been an awfully good betting strategy over the last few years. Especially for England.
POOL D
- Australia (ranked 6 odds 18/1) – So what was going on with the Wallabies?
- Wales (ranked 5 odds 10/1) – So what has Warren Gatland done for Wales?
- Georgia (ranked 12 odds 1500/1) – So how did Rugby crack Georgia?
- Fiji (ranked 9 odds 500/1) – So how did Fiji take flight?
- Uruguay (ranked 19 odds 7500/1) – So what is Rugby to Uruguay?
Probably Australia and Wales to go through in that order, but Fiji and Georgia might pull an upset or two.
WHERE TO WATCH
Live in Japan is best of course, followed by a bar full of Rugby fans. Failing that, it'll be on TV.
Here's the official list of broadcasters.
MATCH SCHEDULE
These are local dates and times in Japan.
It's kind of difficult to give times for games, since various daylight savings kick in and out during the course of the tournament. Very roughly, as the tournament is in Japan and games are played as early as 13:45 and end as late as 21:30 local time, they'll be on (give or take an hour) :
- In Europe – mornings from about 5am
- In North America (Eastern) daytime from about 10am
- In North America (Pacific) afternoons from about 1pm
20 Sep 19 19:45 - Pool A - Japan (30) v (10) Russia - After a nervous start Japan cut loose as Russia tired
21 Sep 19 13:45 - Pool D - Australia (39) v (21) Fiji - Aus reduced to scoring from rolling mauls after awesome Fiji first half
21 Sep 19 16:15 - Pool C - France (23) v (21) Argentina - Good France, Bad France, dropped goal and missed penalty. Tense!
21 Sep 19 18:45 - Pool B - New Zealand (23) v (13) South Africa - NZ took their opportunities as usual
22 Sep 19 14:15 - Pool B - Italy (47) v (22) Namibia - plucky underdogs lost to far better team
22 Sep 19 16:45 - Pool A - Ireland (27) v (3) Scotland - wet and slippery, Ireland's favourite conditions
22 Sep 19 19:15 - Pool C - England (35) v (3) Tonga - error-strewn victory, excellent ref, unlucky Tonga
23 Sep 19 19:15 - Pool D - Wales (43) v (14) Georgia - dominant Welsh start, but all square in second half
24 Sep 19 19:15 - Pool A - Russia (9) v (34) Samoa - Samoa kicked on after half-time after a sluggish start and two yellows
25 Sep 19 14:15 - Pool D - Fiji (27) v (30) Uruguay - What.A.Game! Fiji sloppy, Uruguay played their socks off.
26 Sep 19 16:45 - Pool B - Italy (48) v (7) Canada - bit of a steamrollering, this one.
26 Sep 19 19:45 - Pool C - England (45) v (7) USA - depleted (red card) USA scores (once, late) against the Imperial Power
28 Sep 19 13:45 - Pool C - Argentina (28) v (12) Tonga - (missed this one, I overslept)
28 Sep 19 16:15 - Pool A - Japan (19) v (12) Ireland - Phenomenal display by Japan. Shock of he tournament so far.
28 Sep 19 18:45 - Pool B - South Africa (57) v (3) Namibia - a traditional tonking
29 Sep 19 14:15 - Pool D - Georgia (33) v (7) Uruguay - dominant scrum dominates everything else
29 Sep 19 16:45 - Pool D - Australia (25) v (29) Wales - Super tussle. Mirrored the Aus v Fiji game but different outcome.
30 Sep 19 19:15 - Pool A - Scotland (34) v (0) Samoa - handling errors galore, but bonus point for Scotland
02 Oct 19 16:45 - Pool C - France (33) v (9) USA - only 3 points in it with 15 mins to go, then erratic France broke free
02 Oct 19 19:15 - Pool B - New Zealand (63) v (0) Canada - Juggernaut, meet mouse
-- HALFWAY STAGE --
03 Oct 19 14:15 - Pool D - Georgia (10) v (45) Fiji - Fiji back to their magical selves, look out Wales ...
03 Oct 19 19:15 - Pool A - Ireland (35) v (0) Russia - Ireland did this the hard way, way off their peak
04 Oct 19 18:45 - Pool B - South Africa (49) v (3) Italy - uncontested scrums, spear tackle, red card, and some spectacular stuff
05 Oct 19 17:00 - Pool C - England (39) v (10) Argentina - Is 6 tries over 14 men good though?
05 Oct 19 14:15 - Pool D - Australia (45) v (10) Uruguay - big expected win, but two yellows
05 Oct 19 19:30 - Pool A - Japan (38) v (19) Samoa - valiant Samoan defence not valiant enough.
06 Oct 19 13:45 - Pool B - New Zealand (71) v (9) Namibia - that went about as expected
06 Oct 19 16:45 - Pool C - France (23) v (21) Tonga - the tightest of tight squeaks, another 10 mins and Tonga might have stolen it.
08 Oct 19 19:15 - Pool B - South Africa (66) v (7) Canada - Thumped
09 Oct 19 13:45 - Pool C - Argentina (47) v (17) USA - Argentina played like Argentina ...
09 Oct 19 16:15 - Pool A - Scotland (61) v (0) Russia - ... Scotland played like Scotland at last ...
09 Oct 19 18:45 - Pool D - Wales (29) v (17) Fiji - ... and Wales played like Wales, 0-10 down after ten minutes. Super game though.
11 Oct 19 19:15 - Pool D - Australia (27) v (8) Georgia - compellingly watchable game for 60 mins before Australia cut free
12 Oct 19 13:45 - Pool B - New Zealand v Italy - CANCELLED BY TYPHOON 0-0 draw recorded
12 Oct 19 17:15 - Pool C - England v France - CANCELLED BY TYPHOON 0-0 draw recorded
12 Oct 19 19:45 - Pool A - Ireland (47) v (5) Samoa - super-tense goalline defense for the most part
13 Oct 19 12:15 - Pool B - Namibia v Canada - CANCELLED BY TYPHOON 0-0 draw recorded
13 Oct 19 14:45 - Pool C - USA (19) v (31) Tonga - Tight game, 7 points in it with 3 mins to go
13 Oct 19 17:15 - Pool D - Wales (35) v (13) Uruguay - Uruguay splendid, nailbiter up to 70 mins
13 Oct 19 19:45 - Pool A - Japan (28) v (21) Scotland - What a game. I'm speechless.
19 Oct 19 16:15 - QF1 - England (40) v (16) Australia - Australia shot themselves and were outplayed
19 Oct 19 19:15 - QF2 - New Zealand (46) v (14) Ireland - All Blacks utterly dominant
20 Oct 19 16:15 - QF3 - Wales (20) v (19) France - the good France turned up, super-tense game
20 Oct 19 19:15 - QF4 - Japan (3) v (26) South Africa - power prevailed in the end
26 Oct 19 17:00 - SF1 - England (19) v (7) New Zealand - the expected dominant performance, by the unexpected team
27 Oct 19 18:00 - SF2 - Wales (16) v (19) South Africa - kicked rucked and mauled into submission
01 Nov 19 18:00 - PLAYOFF - New Zealand (40) v (17) Wales - enjoyable game, a great attack beats a good defence though
02 Nov 19 18:00 - FINAL - England (12) v (32) South Africa - crushed.
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