Rugby World Cup 2015: Why a Plate Competition Would Enhance the World Cup

The last men standing will battle for the biggest prize in rugby on Saturday.

New Zealand and Australia meet at Twickenham in the World Cup final, with both looking for a third title and the All Blacks bidding to become the first back-to-back world champions.

The cut and thrust of the knockout stages has been enthralling; the best ever, many have said.

All of which makes those less nerve-shredding days of watching Canada and Italy trade blows, Japan making the whole world fall in love with their rugby team or Georgia defying Tonga at a sun-soaked, raucous Kingsholm, seem like a time long, long ago.

In truth, it feels like we have been watching two separate tournaments.

All things considered, we pretty much ended up with the last eight we knew we would get before a whistle had been blown.

And so perhaps we should be. Watching two different tournaments, that is.

Already, it’s a good idea—to avoid too many dead rubbers—to award guaranteed qualification for the next big bash to the team finishing in third. It’s what elevated Canada vs. Italy, Tonga vs. Georgia and Japan vs. Samoa to matches of such intensity.

But what if those eight sides who came third and fourth could hang around for another few weeks? What if, in the dead, midweek air between World Cup knockout rounds, we had Wednesday night Plate fixtures to keep the tournament atmosphere crackling?

A Plate tournament this year would have seen England, Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Georgia, Tonga, Italy and Romania play off for the prize.

Stadiums that missed out on World Cup fixtures like Welford Road, Franklin’s Gardens, the AJ Bell Stadium and The Stoop could have hosted games.

You can almost hear the Premiership clubs groaning at the prospect of another three weeks without their best players. Ignore them, they’ve got the RFU by enough of the throat as it is.

Let’s see this idea instituted for Japan 2019, when—let’s face it—the hosts are as likely as, well, this year’s hosts to go no further than the pool stages.

Their presence for at least one more week would keep the home crowd in a developing rugby nation engaged, and give many of the tier two nations further exposure to fixtures they usually have as much chance of securing as a snowball’s survival hopes in Hades’ back yard.

Show me a downside. More bums on seats: tick. Extra exposure for sponsors: tick. Fewer off days for the TV audience: tick. More merchandise flogged: tick.

There is no denying the wheels of rugby's administrative structures turn slowly. It took Argentina a whole World Cup cycle just to be admitted to the Rugby Championship, after all. But they should start cranking into gear to at least open up a discussion about how to further engage the nations below rugby's top table once the pool stages are over.

They have rightly ploughed fortunes into furthering the game in these countries, so we should get to see more of the fruits of all that investment on the grandest stage of all.

For a detailed plan of how it might all work, look no further than Brian Moore’s proposal in the Telegraph.

Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

The man they call the Pitbull has just about nailed it, and made his case like any good solicitor should.

He said: "The only thing standing in the way of this positive step forward is the attitude of some World Rugby members and the clubs that employ many tier two players. If they have the will, there is a way."

The former England hooker is any easy target to pick fights with—you only have to spend a few minutes on his Twitter feed for confirmation of that. But he should get no argument here. In fact, let's pack him off to World Rugby HQ to lead the lobbying group. Would you say no to him?

The Pitbull Plate. Nice ring to it.