Translated material
The third will be
The World Cup starts tomorrow in France
The Rugby World Cup is considered the third most important in the ranking of the largest sporting competitions on the planet, second only to the Summer Olympic Games and the Football World Cup in terms of popularity. This much-hyped tournament kicks off in France next Friday.Alas, the Russian team for the second cycle in a row was very close to making it to the forum of the strongest oval ball masters, but did not do so. Four years ago, the team was disqualified at a crucial stage of qualifying because documents were not properly processed for three naturalized South African players whose grandparents had Russian roots. In the 2007 World Cup qualifying round, our team, led by South African Blikis Grunewald, stopped participating after a disappointing away defeat (23:26) to Portugal, although the Russians were in the lead for most of the match. True, the Portuguese were then unable to get tickets to France, losing on aggregate to Georgia.
86 teams took part in the selection for the World Cup, and eight teams received the right to play in France as quarter-finalists of the previous tournament. This is the elite of world rugby - the current trophy holder England, the finalist of the four-year-old tournament on the Green Continent Australia, the bronze medalist New Zealand, the losers of the match for third place France, the losers in the playoffs South Africa, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
This year the tournament of the strongest rugby teams is only 20 years old. Until 1987, there was no single world competition. The best teams of the Old World competed among themselves in the “Five Nations Tournament” with the participation of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France (since 2000, expanded to six teams due to the invitation of Italy), representatives of the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) competed for the Tri Nations Cup trophy.
The winner of the first World Cup was one of the two host countries, New Zealand, which hosted the tournament jointly with Australia. The team from the Green Continent won the main prize in 1991 and 1999, and both times this success came to the Wallabies (Kangaroos) in Foggy Albion - in England and Wales. South Africa was the only home World Cup winner in the 1995 season.
The final match of 2003 between England and Australia was recognized by experts as the best game in the history of rugby. Perhaps this was done out of emotion, because in terms of drama the meeting really had no equal. With the score 17:17, the English won the game 30 seconds before the end of extra time through a drop goal (kicking the ball after bouncing off the ground) by Jonny Wilkinson. After that phenomenal success, which made him a celebrity with the prefix “super”, Johnny, due to numerous injuries, did not play for England for 1169 days and returned to the team on February 3 this year at the Six Nations Match with Scotland. Wilkinson's return turned out to be triumphant - he brought his team 27 points, the British defeated their principal opponents with a score of 42:20.
Whether Wilkinson is destined to become a hero at the World Cup starting on September 7, time will tell. Two dozen teams at the preliminary stage are divided into five groups: “A” - England, South Africa, Samoa, Tonga, USA; "B" - Australia, Wales, Canada, Fiji, Japan; “C” - New Zealand, Scotland, Italy, Portugal, Romania; "D" - France, Ireland, Argentina, Georgia, Namibia. Six matches will take place in the British Isles - four games will take place in the main city of Wales, Cardiff, and two more in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The two best teams each advance to the quarterfinals, which will be held according to the scheme 1B--2A, 1C--2D, 1A--2B, 1D--2C. The final will take place on October 20 at the Stade de France in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis. That is, the duration of the final tournament of the Rugby World Cup is significantly longer than the month-long marathon of the football world cup.
The scoring system at the preliminary stage was first adopted at the 2003 World Cup, and its inventors are functionaries of the New Zealand NPC league. A win is awarded four points, a draw two, and a loss zero. If the winning team makes four or more tries in a match (carrying an oval ball into the opponent's goal zone), then they are awarded one bonus point. An opponent who loses by seven points or less is also awarded.