World Rugby need to overhaul their tier two system

Governing body World Rugby seriously need an overhaul of their tier two system if they want to improve the quality of rugby around the globe, while growing the sport and making sure that the top tier nations don’t get further away.

This year’s World Cup in France has shown just how big of a gap has grown between the best teams in the world and the rest of the chasing bunch.

ALSO READ: Boks keep French guessing about team for World Cup quarterfinal

Even at the top of the rankings Ireland, France, the Springboks and All Blacks have pulled away from the next six teams on the world chart and if World Rugby aren’t careful that gap will continue to grow.

Fiji have been the surprise package of the World Cup so far as they became the only tier two nation to progress to the competition quarter-finals, although they could be considered lucky to have progressed so far.

While they played superbly against tier one teams in just going down to Wales and then beating Australia, they struggled against their fellow tier two sides as they had to come back from a 9-0 halftime deficit to beat Georgia 17-12 and then lost 24-23 to Portugal.

So, in the end they had to rely on the head to head rule to progress to the knockouts ahead of Australia after both ended on the same points.

Find of the World Cup

Portugal have arguably been the find of the tier two teams at this World Cup, after they edged into the competition when Spain were booted out for fielding an ineligible player.

They clinched their first ever win against Fiji, missed a penalty after the hooter to draw against Georgia and put in solid showings against Wales and Australia.

Japan, Samoa and Uruguay also produced decent performances over the pool stage, while teams like Romania, Namibia and Chile were brushed aside completely in their matches.

However, any gains made by tier two nations will count for nothing if they are not exposed to top level rugby and nurtured during the four-year gap between World Cups.

World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont has pledged to improve the fortunes of the tier two nations and claims that by the 2031 World Cup in America they will be much stronger.

“We must, and will, do everything we can to provide greater certainty and opportunity of regular high-level competition for these teams,” said Beaumont about the tier two sides.

Let’s hope World Rugby stick to their word this time because we’ve heard talk of this nature many times before. It is now time that they gave the tier two nations their full attention.