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Tri Nations 2009-2011
Springboks A Different Team At Home
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<blockquote data-quote="TRF_Ezequiel" data-source="post: 332539" data-attributes="member: 42683"><p>That might be true, that those competitions are major events but it's definitely not true that the World Cup is less important to football fans than to rugby fans. I think the Football World Cup actually has more status because of the whole history (Started in 1930) and has been a major event where all continents are represented. In the Rugby World Cup there's a rule where all quarter-finalists automatically qualify for the next tournament. In football the only countries who are qualified automatically is the host nation and the current champions. That's why you sometimes see a semi-finalist missing the next World Cup (England in 94, Sweden in 98, Holland in 02, Turkey in 06 to name a few). There's much more competition in the qualification already. </p><p></p><p>With Rugby it's actually a contest between the Tri-Nations and Six-Nations with only lately Argentina playing a role. Countries like Samoa and Fiji are also present but are never serious contenders for the ***le and hardly manage to survive the group stage which results in basically the same 8 out of 9 possible quarter-finalists every tournament (England, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, France, Ireland and Wales).</p><p></p><p>Canada (once), Samoa and Fiji (Both twice) are the only teams besides the big 9 that made it to the quarter finales in the 20 years of Rugby World Cup.</p><p></p><p>In Football in the last 20 years we've had the following countries in de semi's:Argentina, Brazil, Germany, England, Italy, Bulgaria, Sweden, Holland, Croatia, South Korea, Turkey, Portugal, France, Uruguay and Spain. And that's only the semi finals since 1990. In the quarter-finals we've had Cameroon, Denmark, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, Yugoslavia, USA, Senegal, Ukraine, Ghana and Paraguay. </p><p></p><p>That's 15 semi-finalists in 20 years and another 11 quarter-finalists in the same era. That's a total of 31 teams, compared to the 11 rugby teams to make it to the quarter-finals in 20 years. </p><p></p><p>I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it explains why rugby fans might think the FIFA World Cup is less prestigious to the fans. In fact, it makes it so much more important. A country like Holland played it's 3rd World Cup final but hasn't won any. We were devastaded when we lost against Spain. Countries like Sweden, Uruguay, Bulgaria, Turkey, Korea and Croatia are relative small countries but made it to the semi-finals the last 20 years. That's what makes the FIFA World Cup so thrilling! Any country can get far in the tournament if they had a good day. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Anyway, my point is that I understand why some rugby fans might see the RWC are a more prestigious price compared to the FIFA World Cup but that's not the case. It's just more of a challenge in Football to get through to the last 8. In rugby the big countries always get through to advance from the groupstage which keeps morale in those countries high.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TRF_Ezequiel, post: 332539, member: 42683"] That might be true, that those competitions are major events but it's definitely not true that the World Cup is less important to football fans than to rugby fans. I think the Football World Cup actually has more status because of the whole history (Started in 1930) and has been a major event where all continents are represented. In the Rugby World Cup there's a rule where all quarter-finalists automatically qualify for the next tournament. In football the only countries who are qualified automatically is the host nation and the current champions. That's why you sometimes see a semi-finalist missing the next World Cup (England in 94, Sweden in 98, Holland in 02, Turkey in 06 to name a few). There's much more competition in the qualification already. With Rugby it's actually a contest between the Tri-Nations and Six-Nations with only lately Argentina playing a role. Countries like Samoa and Fiji are also present but are never serious contenders for the ***le and hardly manage to survive the group stage which results in basically the same 8 out of 9 possible quarter-finalists every tournament (England, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, France, Ireland and Wales). Canada (once), Samoa and Fiji (Both twice) are the only teams besides the big 9 that made it to the quarter finales in the 20 years of Rugby World Cup. In Football in the last 20 years we've had the following countries in de semi's:Argentina, Brazil, Germany, England, Italy, Bulgaria, Sweden, Holland, Croatia, South Korea, Turkey, Portugal, France, Uruguay and Spain. And that's only the semi finals since 1990. In the quarter-finals we've had Cameroon, Denmark, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, Yugoslavia, USA, Senegal, Ukraine, Ghana and Paraguay. That's 15 semi-finalists in 20 years and another 11 quarter-finalists in the same era. That's a total of 31 teams, compared to the 11 rugby teams to make it to the quarter-finals in 20 years. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it explains why rugby fans might think the FIFA World Cup is less prestigious to the fans. In fact, it makes it so much more important. A country like Holland played it's 3rd World Cup final but hasn't won any. We were devastaded when we lost against Spain. Countries like Sweden, Uruguay, Bulgaria, Turkey, Korea and Croatia are relative small countries but made it to the semi-finals the last 20 years. That's what makes the FIFA World Cup so thrilling! Any country can get far in the tournament if they had a good day. Anyway, my point is that I understand why some rugby fans might see the RWC are a more prestigious price compared to the FIFA World Cup but that's not the case. It's just more of a challenge in Football to get through to the last 8. In rugby the big countries always get through to advance from the groupstage which keeps morale in those countries high. [/QUOTE]
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