Anna Caplice on rugby: Ireland look well placed but Pacific Islanders ready to upset the odds
Cork's Jack Crowley will have a part to play in France at the World Cup. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
IN just over a week the 2023 Rugby World Cup will kick off in Paris and, lads, we are in for a treat!
It will be the 10th edition of the tournament and one speculates as to whether it will be the best one yet. Of course, World Cups improve in standard as the years go by, but the preparation for this tournament in particular has left pundits scratching their heads as to who they believe will be the likely winner.
The results and performances from the warm-up games have blown expectations for the tournament wide open. Before last weekend New Zealand were the favourites to take home the William Webb Ellis for the fourth time and then went on to lose to South Africa in Twickenham on Saturday in their worst-ever defeat. Other favourites to win are Ireland, who were put right to the sword by number 12-ranked Samoa in a nervy showing in Bayonne at the weekend.
Yes, the World Cup warm-up games have thrown plenty of spanners in the works with many surprising results. Fiji took their opportunity against an English side that’s been crumbling before our eyes and recorded their first-ever victory against the Red Roses. A fantastic victory for the Flying Fijians who have been banging on tier one’s door for a while.
But what is the right formula for approaching these warm-up games? Usually, squads will try various combinations of match-ups and potential formulas, practice moves and try to gain some sort of momentum before the real deal. How do you do all that without showing too many cards for your upcoming opposition to read? Attempting to achieve all that while trying to avoid injuries and red cards and subsequent bans? It’s a difficult balance to strike.
Are you better off losing massively so you’re shocked into a big reaction? Losing narrowly so you have a chip on your shoulder? Winning narrowly so any complacency dwindles? Or winning massively to forge confidence and hit the ground running?
Many countries are claiming to be the sleeping giants of world rugby. But who will really deliver? Honestly, given the marker laid down last weekend, I think the Pacific Islanders have good reason to be feared as sleeping giants.
Fiji have ambitiously warmed up against tier-one opponents, signifying where they want to be. Up with the big dogs. It’s safe to say they have given the rugby world and the teams in their group good reason not to treat their fixture as a given W.
The recent changes in World Rugby laws allow players who have not been capped for their country in three years, be released to play for the country of their heritage. This has been especially effective for Pacific island players who very often come into school systems as young boys in Australia and New Zealand mostly. Many players with island heritage have represented new countries of residence all over the world, but now with this new rule are heading back to their origins to represent the country that they, their parents or grandparents were born in.
Senior players who may have believed that their days of international rugby were behind them. Prop, Charlie Faumuina, has 50 caps for New Zealand as well as winning the World Cup in 2015. He will join Samoa on their RWC 2023 campaign along with two other former All-Blacks and a former Wallaby.
Irish fans may have been a bit shocked by the narrowness of their win on Saturday, but Samoa has the experience of players, who are often standout, from some of the best clubs in the world across Super Rugby, Top 14, Gallagher Premiership and the Champions Cup.
Ireland wouldn’t want to take their approach second game of the tournament too lightly as they face Tonga in Nantes. Munster fans will find a familiar face in their former centre and All Black Malakai Fekitoa.
I’m sure the Tongans will be licking their lips after watching how their Pacific neighbours Samoa were able to get under Irish skin, disrupt their lineout, bundle players into touch, apply huge scrum pressure and find wins all over the pitch against apparently the best team in the world.
One beautiful detail they add to the announcement of the Tongan team is the writing of the village name next to the player. Because to represent your village means everything to these players. A small community feeling can often be stronger than anything else come a World Cup.
Saturday, September 9: v Romania, 2.30pm;
Saturday, September 16: v Tonga, 8pm;
Saturday, September 23: v South Africa, 8pm;
Saturday, October 7: v Scotland, 8pm.
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