Today saw the last of 3 rugby away matches for the Northern Hemisphere teams playing in the Southern Hemisphere and the next matches will see the Southern Hemisphere head north in November. The finals will be played in London with 6 games over 3 days once those matches have been completed. The question is who will watch the first 2 matches because the teams involved will have nothing to play for and they are the weak ones.
The Nations Championship is serving three purposes besides the obvious being a big money spinner for World Rugby and all the countries involved. The other two reasons are not so obvious with one being the aligning of the international season with the end goal having Northern and Southern Hemisphere seasons on the go at the same time. How that happens I do not know but creating international windows that align is a start. The other reason is to block any rebel leagues starting up which would now be virtually impossible to sign any international players.
Hard to read too much into the tables considering two of the Southern Hemisphere teams are guaranteed wins for the Northern Hemisphere with Japan and Fiji regarded as cannon fodder. Italy and Wales are also weak, but are much stronger as Wales beat Fiji in round one by 39-24.
This morning saw New Zealand remain unbeaten dismissing Ireland comfortably by 40-21 and Australia steam rolling Italy 57-10. Scotland beat Fiji 33-17 and South Africa dismissed Wales 43 nil and I never watched the second half as it was that one sided and boring. The Tour de France was far more appealing than a game riddled with mistakes and the Welsh captain stating his side was improving even though they got smashed. England beat Argentina 31-24 and this was always going to be a fiery encounter especially so close after their World Cup football match the other day and there were no fewer than 7 yellow cards.
The way the tables are shaping up is we should see South Africa and New Zealand in the finals with France and Scotland. England may be in the mix as well, but they have to play New Zealand and Australia. Ireland should win two of their remaining three and so should France with both teams having Fiji and Japan at home.
There is a high possibility both New Zealand and South Africa will go through to the finals unbeaten which kind of makes a mockery of this tournament. The Northern Hemisphere will have a second bite at the cherry with the number one ranked Northern Hemisphere team will play the number one ranked Southern Hemisphere team so this rules out a semi final with the possibility of two Southern Hemisphere teams playing against each other. Surely the fans would prefer the top two teams battling it out not caring on their hemisphere.
I can already call the final and it will be France versus either South Africa or New Zealand and it is that obvious already. France are head and shoulders above all the other Northern Hemisphere teams and their run in has only one tough match being South Africa.
With this being a new tournament having to have 5 teams in each pool the quality and standards are just not there and depending on which teams you play at home or away with the advantage of playing the weaker teams away. I would rather see a top 4 playing each other both home and away which would be fairer for all teams plus an extra 2 matches for extra revenue. The top 4 would be selected on world rankings.
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