She provided that attacking bonus that nearly sent them into the quarter-finals. Almost, but not yet mathematically. Big winners against Tonga on Sunday night (49-18) with seven tries scored at the Vélodrome in Marseille, South Africa temporarily topped Group B, now on 15 points ahead of Ireland and Scotland. And with the two sides, on 14 and 10 points respectively, set to face each other on Saturday 7 October at the Stade de France, the Springboks have a very good chance of securing one of the two tickets to the Cup quarter-finals. peace.
But in the extremely unlikely scenario, the title holders will be eliminated from the tournament next weekend. The Scots would have to win with an offensive bonus, i.e. scoring at least four tries, and the Irish would have to lose with the same bonus point. The trio finished with 15 points, leading to a triangle qualifying. In theory, the first rule is to consider the winner of a direct confrontation.
The problem with this scenario is that everyone will have a win and a loss. The South Africans dominated the Scots (18-3) on the opening weekend of the World Cup in France, and the Irish beat them (13-8) on 23 September. In this case, World Rugby rules specify that average points must be used to determine the group winner. And if the XV du Chardon wins by more than 25 points at the Stade de France on Saturday, it will perform better than its other two rivals and finish first.
“We call it match fixing and I don’t believe in it.”
Are you still following? A choice will then need to be made between Ireland and the Springboks. And in this case, the first criterion of direct confrontation will have priority, which will give the Irish second place. And would destroy the South Africans. Is it enough to imagine an agreement between two European countries to arrive at this completely improbable scenario? The question was asked to Jacques Nienaber, who had to repeat it to make sure he understood correctly.
“Do I think they could settle for a certain points gap and beat South Africa? I hope not. They call it match fixing and I don’t believe it. Rugby is pure, we wore these shirts (warm-up jerseys were distributed to teams to protect World Rugby’s anti-doping program). That would be very disappointing, wouldn’t it? »
“Anything is possible,” said Springbok scrum-half Kobus Reinach. But we, for our part, did what we had to do. “And frankly, that should be more than enough to give them a quarter-final, probably against the Blues, on October 15th.
Source: Le Parisien
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a keen interest in sports and have written for many different publications. I am currently working as an author at 24 News Recorder. I cover mostly sports news but also write about other topics such as current affairs and politics. I have a strong interest in social media and how it can be used to engage with audiences.
