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Surely there could be no expectation of travel cost compensation for a natural disaster? Of all the things I might pin on world rugby, that's not one of them... But yeah, your main point, the contingency plans look to have been ridiculous. Which is inexcusable. Especially when the tournament looked to have been getting so many things right and really building momentum!
owl-
Surely there could be no expectation of travel cost compensation for a natural disaster?
If world rugby had demonstrably come up with and enacted robust contingency planning that was actually robust and the matches still had to be called off then I would imagine the answer would be no. However I would strongly argue that they have failed to come up with any contingency for a known potential issue and hoped to get by on a wing and a prayer and have therefore fundamentally failed in their role as tournament organisers. People have spent large sums of money traveling to and staying in Japan in the expectation that the event they are attending is professionally run and organised, it clearly is not therefore world rugby has failed in its duty of care to fans.
Look I know that as I Scotland fan I can be accused of being biased in this case but in all honesty in terms of my opinion of world rugby management this is the straw that broke the camel's back. If I were an England or France fan I would be almost as pissed off as I currently am. The litany of complaints is as follows:
- Constant fiddling with the laws of the game without ever actually succeeding in making it more of a spectacle or safer.
- Refusal to streamline the laws making understanding them and the sport I love very hard for all but the most committed of people. There is so much dead wood in the laws that you can still be pinged for it's a wonder any matches are played.
- Allowing top flight refs to become over reliant on the tmo. IMO this is having a massively detrimental effect on refereeing at grass routes level as aspiring refs can no longer see how a top flight ref polices a match.
- Not telling refs to ping hobby little shites like Dan Biggar off the park. Its a disgrace.
- Not providing the Pacific island nations with the support they deserve. It really is a fucking disgrace and subsequently these nations are in danger of becoming a talent pool for tier 1 nations. How many academies do French top 14 sides have in the Pacific Islands now? I think it's at least 3.
- The whole debacle with the world League.
- Typhoon
- Constant fiddling with the laws of the game without ever actually succeeding in making it more of a spectacle or safer.
Bobbo
guardian article
It gets better. Apparently robust contingency planning means moving a match effected by a typhoon 14 miles down the road and world rugby thinks there is nothing wrong with this. Oh and if you've payed to travel to Japan to watch a single game that is cancelled, don't worry, you will have your match ticket refunded. Travel costs errrr no partial compensation errr no.
Bunch of fucking stuffed blazers.