24 Oct 2011

No more short turnarounds for minnows at England 2015

5:51 pm on 24 October 2011

The International Rugby Board chairman is promising a fairer match schedule for the so-called minnows at the next World Cup.

There's been intense criticism of the schedule at the tournament here, with second tier nations such as Samoa and Japan forced to play some games with just four days recovery while the top nations such as New Zealand had at least a week off between matches.

IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset says both tier one and two nations will have midweek games and he's committed to a review of the structure of the tournament.

Lapasset says they want to be fair to all teams, though he wouldn't commit to a definitive six-day gap between all matches, though the time zones in the next tournament in England will be more suitable for more midweek games, just like at the football World Cup.