Now assured of finishing in first place in its group, France is waiting to know its opponent. And fears of an agreement between Scotland and Ireland on Saturday to remove South Africa still provoke strong reactions.
The XV of France finished the job. The Blues indeed completed the group stage with a resounding success against Italy, thus validating their qualification for the quarter-finals as well as first place in group A. They must now wait this Saturday evening to find out the identity of their next opponent. Everything indicates that it will be South Africa. Unless Scotland performs well against invincible Ireland. A scenario could also allow the two British rivals to get their ticket to the quarterfinals and eliminate South Africa.
Indeed, if Scotland wins by at least 21 points with the offensive bonus and if Ireland also scores the offensive bonus point, the two teams would be in the quarter-finals to the detriment of South Africa. Enough to make some fear an arrangement between friends. “ If I understand correctly, you are saying that perhaps they can discuss among themselves and decide, said the South African coach, Jacques Nienaber, on this subject after the match won against Tonga. Could I believe in a scenario where they decide, ‘Okay, we want to get this number of points and then knock South Africa out?’ It would probably be a fixed match. I hope not. Rugby is clean. I hope that doesn’t happen, because that would be extremely disappointing, don’t you think? »
The Irish have honor
Being able to believe in such a scenario also made those interested react. ” It’s ridiculous. We hadn’t even thought about it. We were informed about it before this press conference, but before that I didn’t even know about it.”, confided Peter Horne, the Scottish assistant coach, in the week. And the tone is the same among the supporters of the two teams present en masse in the capital, ready to take over the Stade de France.
“It’s totally inconceivable to be able to believe that,” said an Irish fan in the columns of The Independent. We do not stay on 13 victories in a row to take a slap and prefer to face France at home rather than New Zealand. It wouldn’t make any sense. We beat the South Africans. So it doesn’t scare us to find them in the final if necessary. »
And for another of the 60,000 Irish who invaded the capital, these allusions to “a fixed match” are not surprising coming from the South Africans. “ This is known to be commonplace in South Africa when it comes to cricket and football may also be affected. They may think that this is the way of doing things in other countries. But rugby is a clean sport and the Irish have honour. They can be reassured”he said, referring in particular to the huge match-fixing scandal which hit the South African cricket team during a tour of India in the 2000s.
2023-10-07 04:55:00
#Matchfixing #World #Cup #heavy #accusations
