Ireland and Scotland on collision course with World Cup showdown on horizon

W ith Ireland potentially able to clinch the Six Nations title and Scotland targeting the triple crown, there is enough riding on next weekend’s fixture at Murrayfield without the need to add to the narrative. Still, the subsequent meeting between the two sides on the horizon – in Pool B of the 2023 World Cup in October – is unmissable.

Given Scotland’s upward trajectory, Ireland’s unerring consistency and South Africa’s enduring pedigree, not to mention Tonga’s ability to ruffle feathers, that particular pool is increasingly looking shark-infested. As this Six Nations has worn on, there have been numerous suggestions that it is a problem, a terrible look to have such a competitive pool, with three of the world’s top-five ranked teams. The only sane response is: why?

Why is it a bad thing to have a pool so tightly contested? To have a pool in which predicting the two qualifiers is not straightforward?

To lament the draw is to hark back to the days when all quarter-final qualifiers were predictable, when you could put the house on who would make the last eight. There was a similar argument in 2015 but that tournament will be remembered for the incredible drama of a pool from which Australia and Wales advanced and England did not.

A place in the quarter-finals is not the birthright of the more established countries – the old Five and Tri Nations sides. It is not the preserve of the institution, those with more seats on executive committees. God knows it is hard enough for the so-called tier-two nations to upset the old order, even if World Rugby has mercifully moved to address the glaring disparity over in-tournament rest periods between established and developing countries.

Without the kind of jeopardy in Pool B, there