Tier 2 nations shine on rugby's biggest stage

The pool stages of Rugby World Cup 2011 may be drawing to a climax over the next five days with the race for quarter-final places dominating the headlines, but for other nations the prize for finishing third in their pool is just as important because it guarantees a place at England 2015.

With no need to negotiate the qualification process, they can already begin focusing on the long-term goal of being even more competitive come Rugby World Cup 2015 and perhaps being in the mix for that quarter-final themselves.

Rugby World Cup 2011 has already shown the gap is narrowing between the Game’s leading nations and the developing ones, with the likes of Georgia, Romania, Canada, USA, Japan and Samoa all causing more fancied teams a scare or two.

Romania were leading Scotland going into the final 10 minutes, Georgia also made life difficult for both Scotland and England, Canada and Japan were both within points of France going into the final quarter, USA bravely kept Ireland to 22-10 and Samoa gave Wales another RWC scare.

The often-called ‘minnows’ were determined to shine in their moment in the spotlight, delighting fans around the world with their spirit and commitment, and proving England manager Martin Johnson’s insistence that “you’re a fool to underestimate anyone” right about RWC 2011.

The statistics back up what has been seen in stadia across New Zealand with the opening week of matches between Tier 1 and Tier 2 nations having an average point differential of 21 points, significantly less than 45 at RWC 2003 and 41 four years in later in France.
There have still been high-scoring matches with Wales and South Africa both surpassing 80 points against Namibia, but for Mark Egan, the IRB Head of Performance and Development, the signs are promising and heading in the right direction.

Visible improvement

“I think what we are starting to see now is the IRB investment programmes and High Performance initiatives beginning to mature,” admitted Egan.

“We launched the first stage of the investment cycle in 2006, which was a £30 million three-year programme, and we are now in the second phase which is £45 million over four years, including next year. That money goes across 25 Unions, including the Tier 1 Unions.

“I think the rugby commentators and fans around the world are seeing a much better performance and that is down to a much better quality of player coming out of the Pacific Islands, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Canada, USA.

“They are all on very good strength and conditioning programmes now. We have put a lot of money into resourcing the teams with the right technical support to strength and conditioning, forwards coaches, skills coaches, sports science work and nutritional programmes.

“I think we are beginning to strengthen the programmes now. We still have a long way to go to keep the momentum going but all credit to the players and the coaches of those Tier 2 Unions who have performed with great credit.

“We knew this improved competitiveness was going to come, but I guess some teams have surprised us. Romania’s performance against Scotland in their opening game, to only lose by 10 points and at one stage to be ahead with only seven or eight minutes to go, that was a great performance and they were the last team to qualify for the Rugby World Cup.

“It just shows you that when you get the best players assembled from the Tier 2 countries and we give them the right preparation they can be very competitive.

Economic engine of the Game

“We need to get more players playing professional rugby in professional leagues around the world, not just in Europe. It would be great to see more Pacific Islands, USA, Canadian and even Georgian players play in the Super Rugby franchises if that was possible.

"The IRB reviews its investment programmes each year, but a major review also takes place after every Rugby World Cup cycle to ensure the Unions continue to receive the help and support they need on an individual basis.

“Finishing third obviously gives you automatic qualification for the 2015 World Cup and I suppose from an IRB programme perspective, the teams that come third and qualify will be prioritised within our investment programme because we know they are in the next World Cup so we need to work with them immediately.

“We don’t want to spread the butter too thin, we need to be very focused on our investment. We have a limited amount of funding, even though the Rugby World Cup is our main breadwinner, it’s the economic engine of the world Game.

“We generated £122 million from the Rugby World Cup in France, but we are actually spending £150 million over the four-year cycle up to 2012.

“We need to be very careful where we spend our money, we have 117 Member Unions who all require our support, and that is from our lowest development Union right up to the High Performance Unions.

“At the moment we are working with 25 Unions, and that includes the Tier 1 Unions as well. I think people tend to forget we also help Argentina significantly: we provide £1.25 million a year to totally fund their High Performance programmes, the five regional academies, the 200 players who go through those academies every year.

A lasting legacy

“We have got to look at what performance outcomes we can get and also at the Union structures, so it is a really holistic approach to how we can see the Union grow but we have to look at the Rugby World Cup performances because at the end of the day that drives the revenue for the world Game.”

The IRB has also helped fund a state-of-the-art National Academy in Georgia and a High Performance Facility in Samoa, which opened in time to help the squad prepare for RWC 2011, while also running tournaments such as the Pacific Rugby Cup, Pacific Nations Cup, Nations Cup and Americas Rugby Championship to provide a high level of competition for these emerging nations.

The likes of Georgia, Samoa, Tonga and Romania have all benefited from the IRB’s practice of placing experienced coaches within these nations, and not only at the elite level with the national team.

“For example, Aussie McLean and Tom Coventry with Samoa, John McKee with Tonga, Steve McDowall with Romania, Richie Dixon with Georgia. We actually fund those positions, either partially or wholly fund depending on the situation.

“When we agreed to do that part of the deal is that those coaches will work with the other coaches, the Under-20 coaches, the top club coaches and we also have our own programmes.

“Like the Talent Optimisation Programme for coaches, particularly for Tier 2 countries. This is based in Stellenbosch, in South Africa, every year and we run for 10 days. Nine of the coaches at RWC 2011 have been on that course, including Isitolo Maka and Sam Domoni, the head coaches of Tonga and Fiji.

“There needs to be a legacy for any foreign coach who goes in and works with one of the Tier 2 Unions, it is not just about the national team, it’s about leaving a legacy in the country with the other up and coming coaches.”