Ka-pi96 said:
think-man said:
Ka-pi96 said:
Actually they'd auto qualify as hosts already so finishing third won't give them anything that they didn't already have, other than satisfaction at being the most successful Japanese team to ever play at a world cup of course.
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Oh really? Thats not fair to have auto qualification though as its meant to always be the best 20 teams in the world. I think next world cup is going to be intense. These small teams have really stepped up. I expect the 2023 world cup will bump the total teams up because competition will be fearsome. Georgia and Japan i expect to be decent teams by next worldcup. Teams like Fiji have already reached there limits as the sport is as popular as it can ever be there so only better couching could make them a stronger nation.
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Well looking at past hosts you can't really say any of them were ever outside the best 20 in the world. Besides even if Japan weren't qualifying as hosts/finishing 3rd they're practically guaranteed the Asian spot anyways. Also it would be kind of strange for a country to host a world cup but not actually have a team in it, so hosts qualifying automatically is definitely a good idea in that way.
Not sure the sport is ready for the total number of teams to be increased though. Some of the teams that are in it now are already so far behind the others (Uruguay and Namibia as examples) so unless some other countries can get to at least the Georgia/Fiji/Japan etc then I don't think it would really be worth including more.
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There's a few teams that play 7s that are quite good. Kenya and spain spring to mind. The 7s is helping increase rugby popularity and most players play both. I think by next worldcup Namibia and Uruguay will be up near Japan levels and i expect Japan to be a top ten team by next wc. Namibia has a few players playing in the top league, Uruguay may struggle though as there aren't many teams to play near them that are any good aside from Argentina. Personally id taken Japan out of the pacific nation cup and put them in with Arg, nz, sa, aus championship and then slot Uruguay in the pacific cup to play with Fiji,Samoa, tonga, USA and Canada. With Japan joining super rugby next year their national team will be better than ever.
