What would have happened had apartheid ended earlier and South Africa had been able to participate in the inaugural Rugby World Cup?
All things being even, they would have met New Zealand in the final. I have nominated a Springbok team based on the actual selections during the decade and matched them up head-to-head with their All Black equivalents. The results make for intriguing speculation…
15 Johan Heunis vs. John Gallagher: ADV NZ. Heunis was an outstanding fullback, but Gallagher was in a class of his own in ‘87. Incidentally, both would make for handy backup goal kickers.
14 Jaco Reinach vs. John Kirwan: ADV NZ. Reinach was all over the Cavaliers the previous year, but Kirwan was one of the greatest ABs of all time and in the form of his career in ‘87.
13 Danie Gerber vs. Joe Stanley: ADV SA. With the possible exception of Phillipe Sella, Gerber was the dominant center of world rugby throughout the 1980s.
12 Michael du Plessis vs. Warwick Taylor: ADV SA. Again, a world class AB matched up against the best in the world. Shutting down the 10-12-13 axis would be the greatest area of concern for NZ in strategizing this match.
11 Carel du Plessis vs. Craig Green: ADV SA. Green was a solid finisher but du Plessis had the edge in pace.
10 Naas Botha vs. Grant Fox: ADV SA. Evenly matched with the boot, Botha offered infinitely more options with the ball in hand.
9 Garth Wright vs. David Kirk: EVEN. Both reliable halfbacks with solid passing, kicking and running games.
8 Jannie Breedt vs. Wayne Shelford: EVEN. South Africa’s player of the year in ‘86, and a viable lineout option, matched up against the raw power of his shorter opponent.
7 Gert Smal vs. Michael Jones: ADV NZ. No offense, but no contest. ‘87 was the ascendancy of the Ice Man.
6 Burger Geldenhuys vs. Alan Whetton: EVEN. Despite (because of?) his inability to keep his fists to himself, Geldenhuys embodied the no-prisoners style South Africa. Whetton was in the form of his career in ‘87, scoring a try in every World Cup match leading up to the final.
5 Schalk Burger vs. Gary Whetton: ADV NZ. Both were prominent in general play; Whetton had the edge in height and weight.
4 Adolf Malan vs. Murray Pierce: ADV SA. Pierce with the edge in the engine room, Malan in the lineout and more active in general play.
3 Piet Kruger vs. John Drake: EVEN. Don’t expect to hear either of these names mentioned during the match; buried in the tight, each would cancel the other out.
2 Uli Schmidt vs. S
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Would you like to see the World Cup go from 20 to 24 teams? (For 2027WC) (Extra European, Asia/Pacific, Americas and playoff)
[Current teams in those qualifying positions Portugal 🇵🇹 (19th), Hong Kong 🇭🇰(22nd), Canada 🇨🇦(21st)and either Chile 🇨🇱 (23rd), Russia 🇷🇺(25th), South Korea 🇰🇷(31st) and Zimbabwe 🇿🇼(33rd)]
I think it’s very unlikely that any changes would be made to the six nations and it just wouldn’t be the same with other teams involved.
To help develop these emerging European nations instead world rugby should consider hosting a European knockout competition during lions years.
You could host a 12 team tournament consisting of the 6 nations teams plus the next 6 highest ranking European nations, Georgia, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Netherlands. You would then have 3 pools of 4 teams and then go straight to semis.
The home nations teams would be depleted thanks to the lions tours, so would give the smaller teams a little more of a chance to compete. France will probably half arse it as well knowing them.
Would be a good opportunity for the emerging nations to develop, while giving the the bigger teams a good opportunity to blood players. Maybe even place a cap limit on the 6 nations teams to close the gap a bit further.
It probably wouldn’t be taken too seriously initially and be seen mostly as a development tournament, but could start as the foundation for what becomes a proper tournament in the future if the other nations are able to develop.
Don’t think any body really cares about the internationals that go on then anyway as the lions usually takes most of the attention.
Ireland might also win their first knockout match as there would be no quarter finals to lose.
Obviously this is a huge topic on the sub right now, and rightfully so. I think everyone rightly recognizes that this will have an effect on international rugby in at least the short term. However, even though I think most of us have the big names who could potentially switch, I wanted to put this together in order to have a more comprehensive picture of who could be an option for the Pacific Island Nations
A couple notes on the list
- This only covers Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. So while there are a couple of players eligible for other island nations (most notably the Cook Islands), they are not mentioned here
- This list is for players who will be eligible in time for the start of the 2023 World Cup only (September 8). So there is no Ngani Laumape, Vunipola brothers, Peter Umaga-Jensen, etc. It is also simply every active player I could identify that could make the switch from teams above Samoa/Tonga/Fiji in the world rankings, making no judgement as to whether those players would actually be wanted by their Island
- These players were taken from ESPN's lists of capped players for each national team (ordered by date of cap by original team), which I have linked. For players who will able to apply to switch the date the rule comes into effect (Jan. 1, 2022), I have listed them as eligible. For players able to switch after that date, I have the date listed they will be able to provided they are not capped again by that date. And because I'm a complete amateur when it comes to capture rules I've just stuck to official caps
- For players who qualify for an island through heritage (this mainly applies to Wallabies and All Blacks), I've tried to find and link a source other than Wikipedia with some reference to that heritage. Players who were actually born on the island they can qualify for I have generally contented myself with their Wikipedia page
- The age of each player is what is today, not what it will be during the world cup. The positions are almost certainly not authoritative as well, but I felt it useful to give a general indication of where the players could be filling in should they join their island
- I am absolutely certain I've made a ton of mistakes. I browsed through to 2007 (other than players I know are still around like Afoa/Nonu) in order to hopefully find absolutely everyone who could be affected so I'm sure I've missed players. In particular, if the name doesn't jump out as notably Pacific Island in origin I'm very likely to miss
..France 2023 wanted 24 teams and I think World Rugby made a big mistake of sticking to the traditional 20..would be such a shame if chile and portugal don't make it to france 2023..increasing world cup numbers will certainly help rugby flourish in new markets..good article on the roar this morning on this issue, attached below..
