WELLINGTON: The International Rugby Board said yesterday it has revamped the 2015 World Cup match schedule to stop giving top nations an unfair advantage by allowing them a week’s rest between games.
IRB chief executive Brett Gosper also said he had moved to clamp down on clubs preventing players from smaller nations attending the tournament, although he admitted it was a difficult problem to solve.
Small nations complained bitterly during the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand that the timetable was skewed towards the game’s traditional superpowers because their matches were scheduled at the weekends to maximise television audiences.
This gave them six or seven days to recover, while the less high-profile sides often had to play midweek and weekend matches.
Gosper said the timetable for the 2015 tournament in England, had been altered to fix the problem.
“There’s very strong fairness in terms of rest periods and so on. It will be the same for all teams,” he told reporters. “It will be far more equal compared to the last World Cup.” AFP
