Well the Rugby World Cup nears quarter final time and we are still waiting for the tournament's first upset. But then again, are we surprised at all? The IRB have a wonderful mission statement about making the game "global" but have failed to do achieve anything like that, at least based on the evidence of this World Cup.

The Pacific Island nations, Tonga, Fiji and Samoa have produced many wonderful players over the years, but all of them have failed to reach the quarter final stage of the tournament. And why? Firstly the draw has been against them, while "big" unions like New Zealand have had 23 days to play their 4 pool games, Tonga had only 16. Secondly, "big" unions have shafted them by not releasing their top players for the World Cup, the most notible example being Waikato's refusal to release Loki Crichton. Although that could be being a bit hard on Waikato, as this seems to have been built into Crichton's contract with the NZRFU.

The NZRFU have a history of taking some of the best talent from these nations and putting them in the All Blacks, but also seem to be quite happy to give them the shaft as long as it suits them. Let's not forget that Jonah Lomu is Tongan, as is Doug Howlett, and Joe Rokocoko is Fijian.

So what is the solution? The mothballed Pacific Rim tournament? It's a good start, but the IRB needs to stop looking after the "big" unions and even the playing field for all nations.

As for the quarterfinals, I'm not expecting any upsets, I fully expect New Zealand to play Australia in one semi, and England to play France in the other. Hopefully at that point the tournament might begin to resemble a true competition.