Much as we at rucked.com love our rugby, sometimes it can be, well, just a little bit rubbish… 
WHAT’S RUBBISH ABOUT RUGBY? - No.3 World Cups
Absolutely nothing to do with the ineptitude of the home nations, but World Cups are just a waste of time aren’t they? Yes, yes, they separate the wheat from the chaff and produce genuine world champions. And yes, yes they display everything that’s good about the game, blah blah blah. But, really, they’ve been a bit naff ever since 2003. I mean, back then, the World Cup was held in one country. Whereas these days anyone willing to offer a couple of trays of sarnies after the match and maybe a jug or two of beer to go with the fines, is given a few matches to host. Hey ‘Wales, fancy a few matches?’ asked the French. ‘Yeah, why not, we’ve got a few barrels of Brains to get rid of,’ came the reply. ‘We’ll have a couple too,’ chip in the Scots. ‘So will we,’ say the Irish, before deciding they didn’t fancy the hassle a bit later. ‘No worries,’ says the French. ‘Anyone else, want a game? Except the English of course.’
It makes us go all misty-eyed to think back to the heady days of 2003, a time the Millennium was still in its formative years, when things were so much better. Not only was it all neatly situated in a small country – merely 7,617,930km2 in case you were interested – but we actually didn’t know who was going to win it. Back then, it could realistically have been any one of four nations that went on to pick up the famous trophy. Best of all the split between the four was two each in terms of the northern and southern halves of this great globe. It’s true, for those with very short memories (goldfish, footballers, Big Brother contestants), the nations from the Northern Hemisphere actually had a hope in hell of capturing the title. And the inventors of the game – that’s the English in case you were wondering – were favourites! How mental is that? Can you imagine a universe in which a side, that today has barely played together, seems bereft of any tactical nous and desperately lacking in any kind of quality, once actually had a chance of winning the World Cup? I know, it’s hard to believe isn’t it? They even went on to win it, we seem to recall.
Back then, the Irish could play a bit too, as could the Scots and the Welsh had a fire in their belly and the players even appeared to agree with the coach’s tactics. Them were the days.
Also, with the ex-Bath fly-half not covering games, there was no risk of Barnesy Overload – or BO as we like to call it – whereas this time, he’s filling the airwaves with his wisdom thanks to his loan deal with ITV.
In case you still need convincing, a few other things that are rubbish about the World Cup: it’s only every four years, meaning that you can be the best side for three of those years and miss out; the semi-finals will so much worse for not having either of the home nations or Portugal in them; the Count von Count from Sesame Street is scaring us with his presenting; as is Will Greenwood’s inability to blink; and, um, none of our countries can win it (did mention that one before?)!
End the madness now, the World Cup has to go. Oh, and Portugal’s Tomaz Moriaz for the England job!
