“Below the banana-skin teams there are the real no-hopers”

OBJECTIVELY, VIEWED against the background of the wider sporting world, every single team in this World Cup is a minnow. Despite having manufactured this relatively big global event for itself, rugby remains a minority sport.

Of all the nations competing, only one can definitively claim that rugby is its national game. Though judging by the crowds in New Zealand for even the biggest Super Rugby matches, they