RWC 2019 - Match schedules

I see that Scotland play their last two pool matches on Wednesday 9th October (v. Europe 1) followed by Japan on Sunday 13th. Conspiracy theorists will see the hosts as ensuring that they have tired opponents for a key game.

Thoughts?

Romania and Japan. Brutal...

Depends - would you rather have an easy pool or less recovery time?

Countries with less strength in depth will worry more about recovery time but personally I'd rather take the easier pool.


I agree Japan are giving themselves the best chance of doing well, can't say I blame them. Most sides do it.

Look at England in the last RWC, look at Wales with their deal to get home games in almost every RWC in the 6 nations.


In the end, England's lovely scheduling didn't make up for a very tough pool.



Pool of Death much worse than tough scheduling.

Curious that the opening game is going to be Japan v Europe 1.

I was expecting the opening game to be Japan v Ireland but then I remembered France getting beat in the opening game of 2007. Maybe not a good start for Japan to get the public on-side if they start with a loss.

demosthenes wrote:I see that Scotland play their last two pool matches on Wednesday 9th October (v. Europe 1) followed by Japan on Sunday 13th.  Conspiracy theorists will see the hosts as ensuring that they have tired opponents for a key game.

Thoughts?

One way to look at it would be as poetic justice for Japan having to play Scotland only 4 days after they played South Africa in RWC2015...

But, nerd that I am, I've plotted the whole schedule out on a spreadsheet to look at the gaps between games. It looks like a much fairer schedule than in previous RWCs. Nearly everyone has a 4 or 5 day turnaround at some point, and only Japan have at least 7 days between each game. The toughest schedule among Tier 1 nations is probably Ireland, who have only 6 days between Scotland and Japan. Everyone else has at least a week between playing big teams - though most teams will have to gamble on fielding a weaker side versus a second tier nation in order to have their players fully rested for the big games.

Another interesting quirk is that several teams have long waits between their Tier 1 games - 3 weeks for Scotland, New Zealand and France, 2 weeks for Japan, South Africa and Argentina. Only in Pool D do all the teams have a relatively even schedule.

That could go either way - England have only a week between Argentina and France, but France will have had the option to rest players against the USA and Tonga. That works for France if England pick up injuries, but for England if they can use the intensity of the Argentina game to come in battle-hardened against France.

The other quirk to note is that there are two decisive games on the final weekend. Scotland/Japan will decide at least one quarterfinalist, unless Ireland lose to both of them. England/France is interesting in that if both sides come in unbeaten they might have in the back of their minds that the winner gets the prize of a semi final against NZ...

Some nice comments Poorfour. Interesting one on the England France shootout.

As a Welshman, I cannot complain. A testing opening fixture against Georgia, but one we should get through, then a weeks break before we play the Aussies, we then play Fiji a week later, after which I reckon the group would have been sorted, and we will play Americas 2 four days later, with that being our shortest turnaround.

LordDowlais wrote:As a Welshman, I cannot complain. A testing opening fixture against Georgia, but one we should get through, then a weeks break before we play the Aussies, we then play Fiji a week later, after which I reckon the group would have been sorted, and we will play Americas 2 four days later, with that being our shortest turnaround.

You must be happy that you don't have to play Australia nor NZ in the quarters either, the two teams that Wales cant seem to beat.

Collapse2005 wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:As a Welshman, I cannot complain. A testing opening fixture against Georgia, but one we should get through, then a weeks break before we play the Aussies, we then play Fiji a week later, after which I reckon the group would have been sorted, and we will play Americas 2 four days later, with that being our shortest turnaround.

You must be happy that you don't have to play Australia nor NZ in the quarters either, the two teams that Wales cant seem to beat.

Ireland have beaten New Zealand once in about a billion years and all of a sudden, you've cracked it. We all need to worry about playing the SH teams, not just Wales.

It's OK though, we might get Ireland in the quarters again like in 2011, erm, remind me what happened that day ?

Not particularly fond of being grouped with the Aussies though as we play them very often and always lose. Pretty good for Wales this time around though, as in the last world cup that short turnaround almost killed us. Playing an Americas team last up then I think we can afford at least 10 changes.

LordDowlais wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:As a Welshman, I cannot complain. A testing opening fixture against Georgia, but one we should get through, then a weeks break before we play the Aussies, we then play Fiji a week later, after which I reckon the group would have been sorted, and we will play Americas 2 four days later, with that being our shortest turnaround.

You must be happy that you don't have to play Australia nor NZ in the quarters either, the two teams that Wales cant seem to beat.

Ireland have beaten New Zealand once in about a billion years and all of a sudden, you've cracked it. We all need to worry about playing the SH teams, not just Wales.

It's OK though, we might get Ireland in the quarters again like in 2011, erm, remind me what happened that day ?

Ireland can face NZ in the quarters so we don't have as good a draw post pool games as Wales.

demosthenes wrote:I see that Scotland play their last two pool matches on Wednesday 9th October (v. Europe 1) followed by Japan on Sunday 13th.  Conspiracy theorists will see the hosts as ensuring that they have tired opponents for a key game.

Thoughts?

conspiracy theories usually relate to teams with a snowball's chance of winning the tourney....I know the SRU stated their aim was to win RWC 2015...did they revise that to 2019?

So if I'm reading this right, we're playing Argentina, France and either Oz or Wales in the quarter finals, on consecutive weekends, before we even get to the semi and final?

Wow!

So basically we'll have the hardest route to the final of any T1 team? I guess on the flip side we'll be hardened for the bigger games!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Iq2fnL8DQE

Not quite. Both Argentina and France have it harder than us .

cascough wrote:Not quite. Both Argentina and France have it harder than us .

That's the spirit.

kingelderfield wrote:So if I'm reading this right, we're playing Argentina, France and either Oz or Wales in the quarter finals, on consecutive weekends, before we even get to the semi and final?

Wow!

So basically we'll have the hardest route to the final of any T1 team? I guess on the flip side we'll be hardened for the bigger games!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Iq2fnL8DQE

The team finishing 2nd in the Ireland group have the hardest route - they play NZ in the Quarter Finals

Don't finish second then? Tonga probably have the hardest route.

geoff999rugby wrote:

kingelderfield wrote:So if I'm reading this right, we're playing Argentina, France and either Oz or Wales in the quarter finals, on consecutive weekends, before we even get to the semi and final?

Wow!

So basically we'll have the hardest route to the final of any T1 team? I guess on the flip side we'll be hardened for the bigger games!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Iq2fnL8DQE

The team finishing 2nd in the Ireland group have the hardest route - they play NZ in the Quarter Finals

Im starting to worry for Ireland, looking at Scotlands squad they are developing some real depth across all positions

Yeah Scotland are getting better, they recently won in Oz and beat us in the 6 nations so that all you really need to know right there.

The worry for me is that we have them first game up which is when we tend to struggle against them in the 6 nations anyway.

My guess it that we either hockey them or they sneak a very narrow win. That seems to be how the games have gone in recent history anyway.

Ireland having to play Scotland and then Japan on consecutive weeks isn't good for Ireland. They're are not known for winning big games on the trot. But if they do win them both at least they would have two weeks to go before their quarter-final.

MichaelT wrote:Ireland having to play Scotland and then Japan on consecutive weeks isn't good for Ireland. They're are not known for winning big games on the trot. But if they do win them both at least they would have two weeks to go before their quarter-final.

Ireland beat France and Italy in consecutive games in 2015 and I don't see Japan as being on par with Italy

I'd much rather face Italy than Japan at this WC.

marty2086 wrote:

MichaelT wrote:Ireland having to play Scotland and then Japan on consecutive weeks isn't good for Ireland. They're are not known for winning big games on the trot. But if they do win them both at least they would have two weeks to go before their quarter-final.

Ireland beat France and Italy in consecutive games in 2015 and I don't see Japan as being on par with Italy

I wouldn't count Italy as a big game. NZ, SA, Aus, Eng, Ire, FR, Wales over the last ten years have been the big teams. Argentina during World Cup but not really outside of it. Based on recent performances you could put Scotland in the list now, but most people would have counted Scotland and Italy as the easier teams in the Six Nations until this year.

I think you have to go back to 2006 for Ireland victories against two of those teams (SA and Aus) on consecutive weeks.

MichaelT wrote:

marty2086 wrote:

MichaelT wrote:Ireland having to play Scotland and then Japan on consecutive weeks isn't good for Ireland. They're are not known for winning big games on the trot. But if they do win them both at least they would have two weeks to go before their quarter-final.

Ireland beat France and Italy in consecutive games in 2015 and I don't see Japan as being on par with Italy

I wouldn't count Italy as a big game. NZ, SA, Aus, Eng, Ire, FR, Wales over the last ten years have been the big teams. Argentina during World Cup but not really outside of it. Based on recent performances you could put Scotland in the list now, but most people would have counted Scotland and Italy as the easier teams in the Six Nations until this year.

I think you have to go back to 2006 for Ireland victories against two of those teams (SA and Aus) on consecutive weeks.

If Japan are considered a big game then surely a Tier 1 nation like Italy are a big game?

Not to mention Irelands 2nd/3rd string just visited Japan on tour and had an easy enough time of it

Japan are considered a big game in a world cup in Japan.

I don't think the excitement around the game has been the issue in the past