Weekend Wrap

After the first weekend of RWC, I wasn't prepared to write off the northern sides, but with the further evidence presented over the last 48 hours if the four semifinalists are not from the southern hemisphere I'll run naked down the street. Given Ireland's complete meltdown Argentina should qualify top of Group D giving them a QF against Scotland. Which means we'll probably get the Frogs - and that ain't necessarily a good thing. Ahhh well, a couple of interesting QF's to watch then.

But before I get back to packing boxes, I'd like to share with you an outstanding piece of NZ sporting journalism. Yes, I'm back on the sporting minnows crusade, and you have to laugh that the article was penned at about the same time Georgia nearly caused the upset of the century against Ireland. This plonker argues the RWC should be reduced to 16 teams using the mis-match of the ABs and Portugal as a reason. Which conveniently ignores the fact that in 1995 when the ABS murdered Japan the RWC was only 16 teams.

Mis-matches will occur whether you have 20, 16 or perhaps even only 12 teams. In fact, given the SAF-England scoreline there may be a case for suggesting a 4-nation RWC if you want to avoid one-sided affairs. With a 16-team RWC we may not have had the Fiji-Canada or Samoa-Tonga games which were both entertaining and deserved their place at the tournament.

Mind you, this journo shows his intelligence in another article with this astonishing fact:

"... and Kirwan is the only New Zealand coach, this time managing Japan."

Pardon? So Peter Thorburn must be the waterboy for the American Eagles then. And while Michael Jones is obviously proud of his Samoan heritage I seem to recall he played in a black shirt after being born in Auckland.

The amount of articles the NZ Herald are churning out over the RWC is mind-boggling. If their writers believe there are too many minnows at the RWC, perhaps they should practice what they preach and concentrate themselves on quality rather than quantity.