5 Biggest Disappointments at the 2015 Rugby World Cup

For the rousing success that the 2015 Rugby World Cup unquestionably was, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

There were a few clouds hanging over the tournament; some produced by players, others by the organisers.

Collectively, we must label the northern hemisphere's big guns a disappointment. We'll get to England in a moment, but France were abysmal, Italy worse.

Wales failed to reach the heights of 2011, and Ireland did what Ireland always do. Scotland were unfortunate. But, ultimately, the sum of those six parts was failure.

We shall get a little more specific for our list of five, however, dealing with things that were just plain wrong.

1. England

David Rogers/Getty Images

A forest of newspaper opinion has already been sacrificed in the post-mortem on England’s World Cup, but it was perhaps best summed up by 2003 World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio in the Sunday Times: “Disillusioned, incensed, baffled."

England were poor, light years away from the serious contenders in every department. Perhaps even more disappointing than the bad selection decisions in the backs was the way the Red Rose scrum seemed to have been neutered.

Against both Wales and Australia, the English pack went backwards far too often.

The tournament didn’t suffer immeasurably from their exit because, frankly, they stunk the place out, but a competition is always richer for a host nation managing to stay the course a little longer than two weeks.

2. Craig Joubert

The criticism of his decision was justified, but the way Craig Joubert's employers publicly blamed him was appalling.

Neither the fact he made the wrong call, or the fact that he was thrown under the bus by World Rugby can hold a candle to the way he hared off the field at the end of Scotland’s agonising defeat to Australia.

Joubert should have honoured tradition, taken the verbals from the Scottish camp and left the field with his fellow officials.

We all make mistakes, and we all have to live with them.

3. Tuilagi’s Ban

There were some glaring inconsistencies in the punishments handed down to players found guilty of dangerous play, and no sanction sparked greater criticism than that given to Samoa’s Alesana Tuilagi.

The former Leicester man was banned for five weeks for raising his knee into the face of an opponent during Samoa’s defeat to Japan, per BBC Sport.

The video of the incident perhaps shows that he may have lead with the thigh at worst. Intent? Not a whiff of it.

A fellow member of the wingers’ union, Australian legend David Campese was outraged at the outcome, and highlighted a potential disparity in the way players from the smaller nations were being dealt with by the judiciary in his column for the Daily Telegraph.

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There have been accusations of bias where tier-two nations are concerned and I can understand why.

How else can you explain a five-week ban for Tuilagi and just a warning for Sam Burgess for a dangerously high tackle on Michael Hooper last Saturday?

I am not saying Burgess deserved to be banned. I am just asking how is it possible that their punishments differ so hugely? It is a joke.

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4. The Fixture Schedule

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

World Rugby has still not addressed the issue of the unfair fixture list.

Fiji were forced to play England and Australia with three days’ rest between games, while South Africa got a full week between facing Japan and Samoa.

Japan stood fat chance of beating a second Tier One nation on the bounce with just three days off between South Africa and Scotland. After 50 minutes of a game in which a little more composure would have seen them into a healthy lead, the Japanese were blown out of the back door by the fresh-legged Scots, who were making their first appearance.

Wales, who picked up injuries the way a bin man picks up black sacks, also suffered with four days between England and Fiji.

The improvements made by the minnows at this tournament were borne out by results.

Fewer hammerings, smaller margins of defeat, one glorious shock. But for that pattern to continue to improve, they must have equal rest. And it is not impossible to arrange, as Robert Kitson explained in the Guardian.

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To formulate a schedule which is not just equitable but allows everyone at least six days between games is relatively easy.

It simply means scheduling no fixtures on the first three days of any given week.

Instead the pool matches would all take place between Thursday and Sunday: two apiece on Thursday and Friday, four on Saturday and two more on Sunday.

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5. Minnows Gone Too Soon

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The introduction of a second-tier knockout tournament to run alongside the main event has been championed by this columnist in a previous piece, and it would be a welcome innovation.

We were thrilled by Japan, fell in love with Georgia and saw Canada’s DTH van der Merwe rip teams to pieces almost every time he touched the ball.

We needed to see more of them, and so did the paying public, who either didn’t get or couldn’t afford the tickets for the big games.

What would be wrong with using the overlooked rugby grounds like Welford Road, Franklin’s Gardens, the AJ Bell Stadium and Kingston Park for a midweek plate tournament between the third- and fourth-placed teams?