As England was the host nation for the tournament, they should have been the only country who gained any home advantage for matches in the tournament; however this was not the case. Thirteen stadiums were used throughout the tournament, twelve of which were in England itself and the other stadium was the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales; home of the Welsh rugby national team. The Cardiff Stadium hosted 8 matches throughout the Rugby World Cup with Wales allowed home advantage in two of their five matches. I believe the decision by the Rugby World Cup Committee to allow Wales’ home advantage showed a lack of respect to their opposing teams Uruguay and Fiji.
Both teams would be considered as the two weakest teams within the Welsh group. This in rugby terms is known as tier two nations. This shows that there is still a massive divide between the tier one nations and the tier two nations. The Rugby World Cup Committee has now made the divide between the two tiers even bigger by giving Wales’ home advantage during these two games. If the Rugby World Cup Committee were happy to give Wales’ home advantage against the undocumented tier two nations why not allow them play Australia and England in Cardiff too? It really does not make sense at all. Throughout the rest of this blog, I will investigate how much of an advantage is gained by host countries playing in their own stadiums by analysing data from previous seven World Cups prior to England 2015.
It is often said that the crowd supporting a game counts as the “sixteenth man” and during the World Cup games in both England and Wales; the power of home support was evident against the support of their opposition teams. e.g. the Millennium Stadium holds a capacity of 74,500 people and on their two home matches approximately 90-95% of the crowd were Welsh supporters which gave them a significant advantage in comparison to if they were playing in another English Stadium that supporters would have to travel. This definitely played a role in Wales comfortably beating Uruguay and Fiji by 45 and 10 points respectively.
Let’s introduce the comparison of Rugby with Soccer for a moment to further in still the point of home advantage for the host nation. FIFA & UEFA organisations view home advantage in soccer as an advantage while it is unclear if Rugby officials do or not. In soccer, major European competitions such as Champions League and Europa League; have legislated and implemented the away goal rule during two legged matches between same teams to attempt remove the stigma around home advantage. This gives more faith in the sport and allows visiting teams an advantage should they score any goals during the match. In my view perhaps this is something the Rugby World Cup Committee should look to introduce by giving the away team an extra point for each try scored. It would reduce the home advantage given to host nations and make the sport fairer to the visiting countries.
The biggest issue is not the costing but why Wales were given distinctive home advantage during their group matches and posing the question did the Welsh Rugby team cheat at the Rugby World Cup 2015? I understand that Wales only had home advantage on two matches and wasn’t an issue in the latter stage of the tournament as Wales’ knockout stage matches were played in Twickenham. However despite this it still gave them a distinct advantage when they bet both Fiji and Uruguay regardless if they were favourites to win or not. Unlike the matches with Australia and England, all Welsh matches should have been played in neutral venues. I do not believe that the Welsh cheated in this World Cup but it is my belief that the Rugby World Cup Committee were at fault. They knew that should either match not have been played in Wales the majority of Welsh fans would not have travelled up to the English stadiums to watch either game. The matches would not have been as attractive to fans as they would only be playing tier two nations.
Author: Darren Maher - 4th year BB (Hons) in Recreation and Sport Management student.