Advantage South Africa and Argentina

In the abbreviated RC this year, as in 2019, the home teams in the first week have a big advantage. Oz and NZ travel before both their matches….away for the first and back home for the second. Whereas the Bargies and Boks have a nice at home start. And then travel for the second. But even then, they play a team that is also traveling.

This stroke of scheduling fortune played a big part in the Boks draw with NZ in 2019, when some members of the  Bok A team travelled early to NZ and were clearly the fresher team towards the end of the test. NZ also rotated their team, showing the Erasmus two squad tactic wasn’t unique…..but many of their A team members made the trip to Bargentina.

If the ABs are smart they’ll send a B team to play the Bargies. And Oz which should easily beat the traveling Bargies the next week, should send their A team to South Africa.

But it’s also true that the RC is meaningless in these WC years, so teams may prioritize team building over results.

Games within games. The same advantage accrues to the Bargies in their 2 match mini series with the Boks. But of course the Boks, again, have a big overall advantage over NZ, playing the Bargies twice.

No doubt the Harrassmiss fans will miss all this, as they did in 2019

The Boks won in 2019 because if travel advantage. If of course the Boks lose because of travel disadvantage it's a non issue. 

The wee Abs also split their squad so Erasmus was not the only one.

Not so subtle atta cks on Erasmus. 

One of the main reason to hope for a Bok RWC win is to see ou Mozzzzquito try and explain it was because of an easy schedule, pure luck and so on. He is probably working on some arguments right now. Just like if we win this RC. 

Bwahahahahahahaha. 

So just let me get this straight. Are you saying playing the Bargies twice and having half the travel schedule before playing Oz and NZ is not an advantage. A simple yes or no will do.

I definitely think Argentina probably has the easiest draw, give that they play the All Blacks at home. If they travel east to west which I think they'll do to get to Australia. Then they will definitely be able to beat the Wobblies at home. 

Where as the Wobblies will have to travel home the same way the SA team is flying. So Wobbles will definitely be under cook. 

As for the Kiwis, yes, they have to travel, but they'll go home the same way as the Bargies so will be fresher. 

Trust me, I did that trip from UK to Japan, you mind and body is wrecked. For example, you fly at 9 am in the morning at arrive 9am the next day their time, so you lose a whole day. ie 12 hour flight - 8 hour time zone. 

By the time you get to the hotel, it is your midnight by their noon. 

So you don't know if you should just push through or what. You might be able to get a cat nap on the plane but you still won't be ready. 

Then, you only get over you jet lag 2 weeks later. 

So it makes sense to send a squad of players ahead. 

But yes, this whole thing stinks. Just think they should have invited the pacific Island teams along with Japan to come and play. 

Or even just invite Japan to join the comp. 

That way it would have been 2 games at home and 2 games away. One team would miss out. but that would be fine as teams can rotate and after 4/5 rounds all the teams would have played against each other. 

I would even as far as brining a two Pacific Island teams along or maybe all 3. 

1. SA
2. Arg
3. NZ
4. Aus
5. Jap
6. Tonga
7. Fija
8. Samoa 

I’d favor a 4 week tournament….between the old TN rivals, rotated between the 3 countries on a yearly basis. Now that would be something to anticipate.

Ja, but I also think that SA needs to play a few more lower tier games. NZ players Japan and the Island a lot. If you play in the 6 nations you have Italy and sometimes Scotland or and even France can be week. 

Where as with Aus and New Zealand, They use to be number 1 and 2. Which makes it really difficult to get your team to warm up and get an edge 

Fair comment…perhaps we could play some friendlies. Often the European tours in June serve that purpose, but not in a WC year.

I just think that our warm ups are going to be really tough. So you going to end up with a 50/50 win ratio leading up to the World Cup. Not sure how good it is for confidence. 

But if we played say Samoa or Japan like we did last time, clear out the cobwebs, settle on the team we want to use. 

But now we are playing 

Aus, NZ, Arg, Arg, Wales, NZ 

I don't like playing against Warren Gatlands Wales, or even the lions. They just choke you to death. New Zealand test you, especially the fact that you have to play more expansive and take risk, which plays into your hands. 

Boks can only beat them when they physical dominate them, but why do you want to show your hand so soon. Other teams will just study the boks and figure out how to front up. 

3 games against the lower tier teams would have been great

Good points again….while I think we have the best schedule for the RC, perhaps not a good preparation for the WC.