Rugby soothsayers have been known to be wrong – precisely none of them foretold that Argentina would beat all three SANZAAR teams in this year’s southern hemisphere championship – but there is little danger of losing the shirt off your back if you bet against Costa Rica qualifying for a World Cup any time soon.
Their ambitions for the 2027 tournament died a thousand deaths in the Colombian city of Medellin, where the hosts had things just about wrapped up inside an hour.
A lot can happen in the final quarter of a Test match, but not quite enough for a team to turn around a 100-point deficit,...