In front of the haka

When you are a rugby-lover, no matter where you come from, one of the things you'll love to witness is the All Blacks perfroming the haka in front of you.

Thus, RWC, and specially the 20-teams format is so important. If only once every four years a team like Portugal will have the chance to confront teams like Australia, South Africa, etc...

Could you imagine being in the shoes of one of the red ones in this picture?

I think there's only one thing greater: being in the shoes of one of the black ones.

Changes to the RWC seeding

Well, it seems that the meeting in New Zealand between the IRB, the NZRU, and the 2007 RWC organisers has made some progress.

Apparently, the most important thing about it all is the seedings, and it seems RWC 2011 will change them to ease the pool stage for the All Blacks. Instead of a seeding based on last RWC performance, the IRB rankings shall probably be used.

How nice. People not only will be able to say that the All Blacks only win the Webb Ellis Trophy if played at home, but also that the laws are changed to make things easier. As usual, some media in NZ are keen to remind us who is to be blamed after all.

According to the seeding method used for the last 20 years, top seeds would be SA, ENG, FRA and ARG. A terrible thing that NZ and Australia wouldn't become top seeds. A pool featuring South Africa, New Zealand and Wales could be, then, perfectly possible. I wonder what is wrong with it: the four 2007 World Cup semifinalists came from the arguably two toughest pools.

But let pride of being the top seed blind us all, let's make things change so the All Blacks are safe to pass through the pool as if it were a training and not real competition. Let the IRB rankings have the last word.

Just to make things clear; I am not against changing the way the seeding is done, I am just complaining at the moment we are doing it. Not at our RWC and not while we can be blamed of easing things for us.

Not this way.