World cup schedule for each team

Some very interesting reading in this...



Thanks to EWT Spoons for the graphic

To understand who has the worst you need to look at who they are playing after short or long turn arounds.

England, Ireland and Italy have the best though.

My sympathy for Japan is less when I see they are playing Samoa and USA with plenty rest between the two games.

Australia have been shafted a bit with only 6 days before both England and Wales.

I'm fine with that

Have to say having an 'average' on that graphic is meaningless as all it does is represent the length of the group campaign for each team.

Japan only got 4 days to prepare against Scotland which massively benefitted Scotland.

It's not like England are facing a Welsh or Australian side that only have 4 days to prepare for example.

RDW Scotland 6 days is much better than 4. Japan might have a higher on average rest period than Scotland but it didn't help them yesterday.

Also how do you measure a schedule?

Is it getting a tough game up first or an easy one which is better?

beshocked wrote:Japan only got 4 days to prepare against Scotland which massively benefitted Scotland.

It's not like England are facing a Welsh or Australian side that only have 4 days to prepare for example.

RDW Scotland 6 days is much better than 4. Japan might have a higher on average rest period than Scotland but it didn't help them yesterday.

Also how do you measure a schedule?

Is it getting a tough game up first or an easy one which is better?

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that Japan shouldn't get sympathy for their first two games, but given that their last two games have significantly more time they certainly aren't the worst off.

Of course there are many factors to consider with this, and the purpose of this thread isn't to actually determine who has the worst schedule, but the graphic is quite interesting and does show that some teams have very good schedules and others don't..

So you can all stop being so damn pedantic!

Thanks for the credit RDW, but I had nothing to do with the table other than finding it online. Someone else pulled it together, I just happened to be able to use google.

Also I agree I don't think it was designed to show who has the worst schedule just that it's an interesting breakdown of the time between each nations games.

Looking at the capabilities of the squads vs the ability of the opposition paints a different picture. Although Australia, SA or France play close games they can rotate an entire squad and still should be able to perform.

Not so for the likes of Fiji, Japan, Romania and Georgia et al

The tournament hosts seem to be getting quite a good deal in comparison to other tier 1 teams. Surely no rats to be smelled there? 

It's Fiji that I feel the most sorry for. What a terrific team and they're practically out of the tournament already.

It would be interesting to know how much input the Itv had in the scheduling of the games.

George Carlin wrote:The tournament hosts seem to be getting quite a good deal in comparison to other tier 1 teams. Surely no rats to be smelled there? 

It's Fiji that I feel the most sorry for. What a terrific team and they're practically out of the tournament already.

Well at least now they can play a less conservative game, as they have nothing to lose...oh wait.

George Carlin wrote:The tournament hosts seem to be getting quite a good deal in comparison to other tier 1 teams. Surely no rats to be smelled there? 

It's Fiji that I feel the most sorry for. What a terrific team and they're practically out of the tournament already.

Not that surprising when Fiji had to face two of the strongest teams in the whole competition in their first two games.

It's not a start that anyone would want, not even NZ.

The guide is useful but you really need to know the depth of the squad and who the team is playing. England and Ireland certainly seem to have the easiest draw. Anything less than 6 days is not ideal.

The spread of fixtures could have been done better but then the tournament organisers have to pander to tv. If the tournament expands to 24 teams in 2023 and they have six groups of four, you may get a fairer spread of fixtures.

Ireland have pretty much the perfect schedule. Karma will dictate that we get Wayne Barnes in the quarters if we get out of our group. Mark my words it will happen.

Ireland and England have certainly got very good schedules. It IS important though to see who teams are playing after a short turnaround. For instance, France and NZ both have 4 day turnarounds between their first two matches, but are playing (or have played in France's case) Romania and Namibia, so no real threat there, whereas Fiji's short turnaround was between two very tough opponents (same of course for Japan).

GunsGerms wrote:Ireland have pretty much the perfect schedule. Karma will dictate that we get Wayne Barnes in the quarters if we get out of our group. Mark my words it will happen.

If you play to the rules, then Wayne Barnes's reffing should not even come into it.

GunsGerms wrote:Ireland have pretty much the perfect schedule. Karma will dictate that we get Wayne Barnes in the quarters if we get out of our group. Mark my words it will happen.

Good luck with that.
It could be worse though, you could get an Irish ref!

GunsGerms wrote:Ireland have pretty much the perfect schedule. Karma will dictate that we get Wayne Barnes in the quarters if we get out of our group. Mark my words it will happen.

Well that will be interesting as he hates the Pumas almost as much as Ireland.

Pumas to win via penalty try in the 109th minute, but not before Barnes has red-carded their entire pack to ensure they miss the semi's.

With 10 days rest between canada and ireland, france might have to play a mid week game to keep some momentum . I fear some players might be undercooked prior the QFs.

Seriously though having extremes like going from 4 to 10 days rest is just not acceptable really.

Wales play England on Saturday night, then we have to play Fiji on the following Thursday afternoon.Madness.

It's a pity the World Cup can't be expanded to 4 teams in 8 pools (at the moment it's 5 teams in 4 pools), and instead of having 4 pool games, you'd now have 3, and have a second round before the quarter finals like in football.

Based off rankings alone these 12 teams would be the ones included:
Spain
Russia
Chile
Hong Kong
Korea
Belgium
Zimbabwe
Kenya
Portugal
Germany
Ukraine
Moldova

A few of those countries have already been in World Cups, and Germany always seems to have a boost in rugby after the world cup but Germans who notice the tournament always wonder why Germany isn't in it.

Seems to be some renewed interest in this from another poster...here is the original discussion for those who want to discuss it further...