RWC 2023
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@antipodean to be fair I said to the boys in my kiwi chat a couple of weeks ago that France are the best team to watch right now and they took the piss out of me.
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@bones said in RWC 2023 draw:
Who gives a shit who's favourite? I used to like Crowley. What a dick.
Suspect the person whose outdated here is Crowley. Does anybody not put France as favourites?
Although having said that, most on here are 40+ now ... It's fair to say that I probably fell into that trap a bit when I was in my early 20's.
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@majorrage said in RWC 2023 draw:
@bones said in RWC 2023 draw:
Who gives a shit who's favourite? I used to like Crowley. What a dick.
Suspect the person whose outdated here is Crowley. Does anybody not put France as favourites?
Although having said that, most on here are 40+ now ... It's fair to say that I probably fell into that trap a bit when I was in my early 20's.
Fuck no, I'd been living in the UK dealing with the ABs fucking up every RWC since 87, there is no way I was putting them as anything but an outside chance
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@machpants I think the worst was '99 - I remember walking outside into Manners Mall the next day and it was dead, everything seemed grey, it was like Welly had gone back in time ten years to when it was a horrible hole.
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@bones said in RWC 2023 draw:
@antipodean to be fair I said to the boys in my kiwi chat a couple of weeks ago that France are the best team to watch right now and they took the piss out of me.
Bloody ignorant Kiwis
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@taniwharugby nah. Top 4
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@booboo said in RWC 2023 draw:
@bones said in RWC 2023 draw:
@machpants ... gone back ... to when it was a horrible hole.
Umm ...
You stick to those whales champ
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A new twist in Spain's qualification.
Spain's place in the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France is in doubt while it is being investigated for fielding an ineligible player.
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@stargazer Or the player in question wasnt completely honest with the team about there whereabouts? I suspect its more about not doing all their homework though as you say. I feel for the team though if true..ouch
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@bayimports Sadly, Spain has a long record of issues in this area.
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@bayimports said in RWC 2023 draw:
@stargazer Or the player in question wasnt completely honest with the team about there whereabouts? I suspect its more about not doing all their homework though as you say. I feel for the team though if true..ouch
Yeah, if the player lied you'd be devastated. If the Union was administratively incompetent, well you'd be devastated I guess...
Shit all round, but a hard line needs to enabled to prevent these lower tier Unions from taking the piss.
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Fielding the guy wasn't to gain advantage. He was a second half replacement in walkover games. Bit different to helping win a playoff.
Guessing that the inquiry is to check who knew what and when. Deliberate breach by the union will mean disqualification. Him keeping quiet and them not asking through incompetence may be a smack on the hand.
Massively unfair on the rest of the team if they are kicked out through a genuine error
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@crucial I gree that it is a harsh penalty on the rest of the team, similar to a relay team getting disqualified because one of the tests positive for illegal steroids but breaking the law is still breaking the law whether intentionally or not. Just like getting a speeding ticket for exceeding 50pmph after turning into a 50 kmph zone from a 100kphm zone and there being no sign to indicate the change.
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@higgins said in RWC 2023 draw:
@crucial I gree that it is a harsh penalty on the rest of the team, similar to a relay team getting disqualified because one of the tests positive for illegal steroids but breaking the law is still breaking the law whether intentionally or not. Just like getting a speeding ticket for exceeding 50pmph after turning into a 50 kmph zone from a 100kphm zone and there being no sign to indicate the change.
Bit of a strange analogy. You are right that a broken law is a broken law but the penalty is not always the same. Circumstances are taken into account.
Does the punishment to the union need to go so far as to punish the innocent players?
If it was deliberate by the union then OK. They will benefit and may feel it was worth it. They will have to answer to the other players and likely heads will roll because of it.
For a genuine error it seems harsh. -
@crucial You may be a little naive in how you are considering this one. Romania was disqualified from RWC for a similar thing, when the Tongan RFU was allegedly in error regarding an eligibility request. I believe Spain had penalties and warnings given too at the time, and is alleged to have transgressed rules for a few players before and after. You may or may not enjoy several years of bitter debate on the topic. https://t2rugby.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2784&start=1525
Per Wikipedia: In March, Romania initially qualified to take the spot as Europe 1.[15] But after complaints from the Spanish into an investigation of ineligible players, it was deemed that Romania, Spain and Belgium all broke the eligibility rules and was deducted points which meant Russia qualified through to the World Cup while Germany headed to the play-off against Samoa.[16] In August, Namibia became the final team to qualify from the continental tournaments after defeating Kenya in the final round of the Rugby Africa Gold Cup.[17] The final spot was decided by a repechage tournament in Marseille in November 2018, which was won by Canada after winning all three of their games.[18]
The European politics are horrible. But World Rugby is in a bit of a spot based on the precedent they set. It will be interesting to see how this is resolved. They may cancel all points earned for matches Van den Berg was in the squad, and recalculate the finishing order for RWC qualification, like they did last time. The win over Netherlands was a bonus point victory I believe...
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