British & Irish Lions
• British & Irish Lions tour Australia in 2013
Ireland Rugby
World Cup 2011: The same again – we hope!
The 2011 World Cup should again contain 20 teams when the IRB council makes it’s decision this week.
Before the 2007 World Cup it had been decided that the number of teams would be reduced from 20 to 16 to prevent this mismatch of talent we had seen in the past (England, New Zealand etc. thrashing the rugby minnows). New Zealand (hosts in 2007) had said that if they didn’t host the tournament in 2011 it would become too big for them to host in future.
This was fine, until World Cup 2007, Wales and Ireland failed to get out of the group stages allowing supposedly lesser teams in the form of Fiji and Argentina into the quarter and semi finals!
Their success is proof that the 2011 World Cup should contain all 20 teams!