“We are the clowns and the owners of the circus”: the justifications for Pablo Lemoine’s virulent attacks against World Rugby

Pablo Lemoine is worried. The Cóndores head coach has fired again after his team’s collapse at the Rugby World Cup. He points his darts at World Rugby, whom he describes as “the owners of the circus” emphasizing that they have their “clowns”, which would be the emerging teams.

“The truth is that it disgusts me a little to continue talking about the same thing,” added the strategist, just after the 71-0 defeat that England inflicted on the national team. In the national delegation, they knew that the difference with their group opponents was big. For this reason, they sought to have a preparation that would allow them to face rivals of corresponding size. But it couldn’t be given mainly due to the organization chart of World Rugby, which lets the Tier 1 (strongest nations on the planet) play only among themselves.

“The players give what they can and put all the energy they have into it. . Ultimately that’s part of it, trying to make the show work, but it’s very unfair because they don’t know the speed of the attack, how executive the other teams are and here we are in the middle, trying to look like something but we are something else “, he added after the tough defeat.

The Uruguayan strategist looked dazed, with perceptible gestures of annoyance, and assured that the absence of this type of friction had harmful consequences: “For years we have been asking the same thing, to live these experiences before playing in a World Cup. “, he indicated.

This Saturday, Chile faced Team Rosa for the first time, the founding country of this sport and which also participates in the Six Nations Tournament. In the words of Rodrigo Fernández, it was a defeat “against a candidate” to win the World Cup in France. In that sense, it was a historic and unprecedented match against a Tier 1 team, the highest level of competition in the sport.

The difference between the two castings was horrendous. The Cóndors managed to maintain the pace for 20 minutes, but physical and tactical supremacy, as well as experience, eventually won out. ORA severe result reflected this. “He played us at a pace we’re not used to; but at this level, it is not enough,” added Yoyo.

And World Rugby’s current schedule directly separates the powerhouses from the rest. For example, Chilean rugby this World Cup year had Super Rugby Americas in the first part of the year (franchise tournament where Selknam is) and friendly matches against Namibia, Uruguay and Argentina XV. Among these three teams, the first two correspond to Tier 2 teams and the second was made up of seven “Pumas” and promising players from the neighboring country. England, meanwhile, faced Scotland, Italy, Wales, France and Ireland in the Six Nations, then faced Fiji in the international windows and repeated duels against the Country of Wales and Ireland. All nations in the top 11 positions in the world rankings.

This is further proof of the differences generated by a calendar which includes two major events per year, in which only the ten best teams on the planet participate. On one side the Six Nations (England, France, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Italy) and on the other the Rugby Championship (New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and South Africa). There are also other competitions, where they are also focused on geographic locations and level. The Pacific Nations Cup (Fiji, Japan, Samoa and Tonga) appears for the four Tier 2 of the Pacific Islands, while in Europe there are two tournaments allowing the smaller teams to compete, without the possibility of promotion : Rugby Europe Championship (Germany, Belgium, Spain, Georgia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Romania) and the Rugby Europe Trophy (Croatia, Lithuania, Sweden, Sweden and Ukraine).

Cristian Rudloff pointed out the same thing. The president of the Federation explained Lemoine’s anger. The manager also directs his criticism at World Rugby for not promoting friendlies between powerhouses and lower teams. He referred to the fact that developing teams, by not playing alongside superior teams, will not be able to approach this type of performance before participating in a world event.

“They don’t allow us to have competitions at this level all the time. But we are working for this,” he said in a dialogue with Sporty . Rudloff also highlighted the incredible growth of the national rugby team.

“We built this together, with a great commitment to high performance. We are doing something that has not been done in Chile. We need more powers to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Four years ago we lost by this score against Canada in the United States. On Saturday we play England in the World Cup. “We are overcoming the obstacles and challenges that await us,” he said.

In this sense, the president of the federation highlighted the need to add clashes of this type with the aim of improving development and gave Lemoine a boost: “Pablo is leading this wonderful project. His words simply convey the helplessness of not being able to go any faster, but we know that this is what we must do.

In 2022, World Rugby announced that it was working on a new tournament in which Chile could appear, but nothing has been confirmed yet. It is Americas-Pacific-Asia Championship , an event that would bring together the best nations from these three parts of the world. These teams were to be Chile, Canada, USA, Uruguay, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, playing in a format of two groups of four. This was reported by Alan Gilpin, CEO of World Rugby, in an interview with the Guardian, stressing that negotiations were advanced.

In the months leading up to the global tournament, the team played friendly matches and they all ended in defeat. The first two occurred as part of a European tour. They lost to Romania (23-30), Tonga (10-39) and Leinster (3-40), the multi-champion Irish team and base of that country’s national team.

Shortly after the start of the World Cup, the duels against Uruguay and Namibia arrived, which also ended in defeats. Of course, this time it’s much tighter. 25-26 and 26-28, respectively. These were matches that they could have perfectly won. but the lack of consistency and the ability to close the result did not allow this.

In addition, the Cóndors played two matches against the Argentine XV, the alternative team of the trans-Andean team that participates in the global competition. Against the Jaguares, the results were 13-40, in Antofagasta, and 26-28, in Temuco.

The preparatory duels were used to shoot and settle scores. The players and tactics have been tested and the roster has been defined for the competition which takes place on French territory. However, that wasn’t enough to keep pace with the powerhouses or second-rate teams like Japan and Samoa, who won the World Cup by 12-42 and 10-43. Against England, it was the most striking blow: 71-0.

The team knows, however, that the difference was big. After the match against the British, for example, they took advantage of the meeting with the rugby players from the rival team. Furthermore, Cristian Rudloff assures that Chile Rugby has negotiated higher level friendly matches, with the desire not to move away from this type of body.

“We want to confront the powers that be. To do this we must demonstrate that we have sufficient infrastructure (…) Now they see us with different eyes, they want to help us and they open the doors for us. “This is the first time that we are faced with this level of competition,” he emphasizes.

“For the first time we had the opportunity to sit at the same table as the powers that be. We can request matches with countries of this level. We have already done this with those who have been our rivals and we have also had very positive meetings with the federations of New Zealand and South Africa. The future looks promising. No one will do the work for us. We must find our space and ask to confront them. If we sit and wait, nothing will happen. But we know the way,” he adds.