The big day is here. England will take on Fiji in Twickenham at 8 o'clock tonight and the waiting will be over. Ireland's clash with Canada may be what we're worried about but it's worth remembering that there's a few other decent games taking place during the group stages.
Owing to Ireland's perceived straightforward group, we haven't been talking too much about the intricacies of qualification over here. Beat Canada, Romania and Italy and then it's a straight fight with France to see who comes first and who comes second, that's how it's supposed to turn out.
But for those teams in more tightly grouped pools there's a few important intricacies that seem to be going under the radar somewhat.
This morning Clive Woodward was bemoaning the fact that no one was talking about the Rugby World Cup bonus points structure, something which could become crucial in Pool A in particular.
..the bonus point is absolutely massive, NOBODY has written about this, not about points difference it is all about getting the bonus point
— Sir Clive Woodward (@CliveWoodward) September 18, 2015
Thankfully, Clive was on hand to take a picture of his computer screen to lay out exactly what there was on offer.
So that's;
- 4 points for a win
- 2 points for a draw
- 0 points for a defeat
- 1 bonus point for 4+ tries
- 1 bonus point for losing by less than 7 points
Although you can never be certain, ultimately, we'd have to think that this may not be as crucial to Ireland as it is to Australia, Wales and England. In that pool you have to assume that everyone will get a bonus point against Uruguay but after that, running in four tries against Fiji could be the difference between making it through to the quarter finals and heading home.
