The dust has almost settled in the aftermath of the Rugby World Cup, but for many months to come there will still be nations hurting and rueing exits that came earlier than expected.
With the pre-tournament number one and two sides exiting in the quarter-finals, a two-time champion being eliminated in the pool stage and so many big defeats inflicted on countries hoping to do better, who will be left most disappointed by the tournament as we reflect on the competition?
Online Editor Nick Powell picks the three sides he considers to be three biggest losers from the Rugby World Cup 2023.
France
Distinguishing between which of the two European powerhouses, Ireland and France, deserved to be in the list of losers after their quarter-final exits was ultimately decided by one factor: France hosting this year’s Rugby World Cup.
Despite the heartbreak of both sides’ losses after they each produced phenomenal pool stage performances, they will both return strongly in four years time with a substantial crop of players in both squads set to continue to the next World Cup, and strong junior set-ups that saw the pair meet in the U20s World Cup final earlier this year keeping the churn of world class players going.
France won that final, their second consecutive win in the junior competition after their triumph when the tournament was last staged in 2019, so perhaps they have even more to look forward to than the Emerald Isle.
But missing out on their first senior triumph at a tournament staged in their own country is perhaps the cruellest blow any team had to suffer, especially given the form they had shown in the lead up to their defeat in the last eight.
When France reflect on the three soft tries they conceded to keep South Africa in the contest by half-time, the number of chances they spurned in the first 20 minutes of the second half, and the basic errors that halted their charge for a late score in the final quarter, they really will think what might – and possibly should – have been.
Romania
Karmic retribution is often a pattern that people look for when trying to craft sporting stories. In the case of Romania this was displayed in horrific fashion as they suffered the second worst performance at a rugby world cup of all time, losing their games by an average margin of 72-8.
Romania were the team that provided the evidence that saw Spain‘s hopes of progressing to pool stage denied not by performance on the pitch, but by a registration error in two games against the Netherlands that the Spaniards were already winning comfortably when they brought on prop Gavin van der Berg.
Romania lodged a complaint submitted a photograph showing van der Berg still living in South Africa less than three years before the Dutch games, which displayed that he had not lived the requisite ten months a year in Spain in the three years leading up to him qualifying on residency grounds.
Spain had initially qualified with a dominant 38-21 win over the Eastern European nation, but despite clear evidence that van der Berg had tampered with his passport to give the Iberians a false impression of his eligibility, World Rugby ruled that for the second consecutive tournament, Spain were out due to a registration error.
Rather than humbly accepting the verdict with relief that a ninth World Cup pool stage appearance out of ten was secured, Romania doubled down saying “justice is done” after the technicality bagged them a spot, but the move ultimately backfired spectacularly.
Had Romania not filed the cynical, desperate complaint, they would have stood a good chance of winning the final qualification tournament that secured Portugal’s passage to the tournament as the third European qualifier. But by wrapping up their place early they faced a group with games against Ireland, South Africa, Scotland and Tonga, instead of Wales, Georgia, Australia and Fiji.
The result was that they were destroyed in each of the games they played, beaten 82-8, 76-0, 84-0 and 45-24 by those respective opponents. Had they lost by 17 more points to Tonga, they would have had the worst tournament of any team at the World Cup behind the 2003 Namibian side beaten 142-0 by Australia.
It was a dreadful performance from a team who will be nervously looking over their shoulder at their ever-improving Iberian rivals – both Portugal and Spain – and will do well to qualify for the next tournament.
Australia
Pool stage exits by the historic first eight tier one nations – South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and the initial Five Nations – are a rare event. Since 1995, when South Africa were first re-admitted into the competition after Apartheid, each of the Home Nations have suffered that fate once (except Scotland for who it has occurred three times) but Australia were the first among the Southern Hemisphere giants, or France, to be eliminated at such an early stage.
It’s hard to find a negative that hasn’t been used to describe the Wallabies performance, nor the decisions taken by Rugby Australia in the last 12 months, but it is evident that things couldn’t have gone much worse Down Under.
After removing Dave Rennie as coach – weeks after late scores had been the only thing stopping his side from beating both France and Ireland in their own backyard before they fought back from 34-13 down to beat Wales 39-34 – replacement Eddie Jones, labelled “the best coach in the world” in a Rugby Australia statement, won just two out of his nine games in 2023 with no victories against tier one nations.
Despite having seven months of lead up to his first game it was only after the second game of The Rugby Championship that Jones took his fateful decision to pick youth and abandon experience, which proved to be disastrous as they were left rattled by the Fijians before losing 40-6 to Wales, less than a year on from that thrilling fightback.
On the day of the latter game rumours emerged that Jones had been talking to Japan about taking on their coaching role after the World Cup, and this week it was confirmed he had indeed resigned from the Wallabies job.
It will be intriguing to see whether Jones does take the Brave Blossoms role now, but whatever happens few will forget his role in an Australian horror story any time soon.
Read yesterday’s piece about the biggest winners from the World Cup to see who headed home the happiest.
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