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this is a shitty situation - in addition many world class players from places like fiji cant afford to loose pay from their western clubs if they elect to play in this tournament. many more are poached by the likes of australia and NZ and givin citizinship if they take up nationality and play for em. <br> <br> <br> Rugby chiefs vow to act over World Cup poverty gap <br>SYDNEY, Oct 13 (AFP) - Rugby's global governing body promised to help strengthen the sport's poor relations here Monday after a series of huge mismatches marred the Rugby World Cup.<br><br>Fiji, Italy, Georgia and Uruguay all received brutal beatings as the tournament's opening weekend confirmed fears that the chasm between rugby's haves and have-nots was widening.<br><br>The series of lopsided contests dominated newspaper coverage in Australia on Monday, with the problem facing the sport being analysed in depth. <br><br>"One-sided group stages set to be long month of boredom," was the headline in Sydney's Daily Telegraph, while The Australian said simply: "World in disunion."<br><br>The problems faced by rugby's poorer teams had dominated the build-up to the tournament, with many countries saying their best players were unable to get released from lucrative professional contracts.<br><br>The International Rugby Board (IRB) ruled out paying players compensation in lost wages for the tournament last week, even though the showpiece is expected to net record profits in excess of 50 million pounds (83 million dollars).<br><br>But the IRB's chief executive Mike Miller promised Monday that the Dublin-based body was determined to act to help broaden the number of teams who could be competitive at the highest level.<br><br>Second-tier countries like Argentina, Italy, Japan and Canada would be targeted for fast-track assistance, Miller said.<br><br>"Over the past four years or so what we've been doing is trying to get more nations playing rugby," Miller said. "We've done that as we now have 96 members of the IRB.<br><br>"Over the next four to eight years we have to go with a slightly different approach -- we need to begin to target our money more strategically.<br><br>"We need to bring the next five or six nations to a similar standard to the top five or six. If we can do that we won't see as many of these lop-sided scores."<br><br>Rugby is dominated by a big five of England, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and France, with the likes of Ireland, Wales and Scotland just behind.<br><br>But the teams in the tier below, such as the Pacific islanders and the likes of Canada, USA, Argentina and Italy are struggling to be competitive -- and are now going to be targeted for special help by the IRB.<br><br>Miller warned however there was no quick-fix.<br><br>"It's going to take time. Soccer took 40 or 50 years to get the position it's at now where the World Cup is more competitive," Miller said.<br><br>"We've been professional only eight years but we would like to get to the point where 10 to 12 teams could win the Rugby World Cup - I think we can get there in time."<br><br>Miller said the key to the sport's development was professional leagues.<br><br>"If you look at the way soccer has developed, you've got the big leagues in Europe where all the money is and you've got players coming in from all over the world.<br><br>"If you look at the improvement of the smaller sides in soccer over the past four or five years it's because they now have players in the (English) premier league, Italy or France.<br><br>"Some nations are talent exporters and some are talent importers." <br><br>Miller insisted the IRB was not too concerned about the scorelines that had disfigured the weekend's games.<br><br>"There have always been big scores in the Rugby World Cup - you'd like there to be more competitive scorelines but if you look at the matches themselves they were very competitive and if you asked the big teams, they knew they'd been in a match."<br><br>The eight games over the first weekend were won by Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa from the southern hemisphere, with France, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland all posting wins.<br><br>Even though none of the beatings were on the scale of the all-time record -- New Zealand's 145-17 victory over Japan in 1995 - New Zealand, France, England and South Africa all racked up more than 60 points.<br> <br> mungo
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Drink..............it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance
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<br><br> Here it is..
<br><br>Australia 24 Argentina 8<br><br><br>A bit scratchy to start, but will improve.
