Rugby World Cup troubles

The 2007 Rugby World Cup opened in a blaze of glory in Paris on Friday night with a display of national fervour and record television audiences.

But the dream quickly turned to a nightmare as the French rugby team was beaten by Argentina in the opening match.

Bernard Lapasset, the President of the French Rugby Union has spoken of treason and of being abandoned.

He had been relying on the French team being a front-runner in the competition so that the great interest that had built up in France would continue.

The French defeat has meant the national team could be eliminated before the quarter-finals and not participate in the last three weeks of the tournament.

That could have a catastrophic effect on the World Cup event itself.

In the previous World Cup in Australia in 2003, the Wallabies also played Argentina in the opening match but went on to play England in the final.

The chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union, John O'Neill, had the same role as Lapasset at that tournament and he feels for his French counterpart.

"I sat there in Paris at the opening ceremony and opening game, and saw the host nation beaten."

"I cast my mind back four years and it would have been one of my worst nightmares.

"When we hosted the 2003 World Cup we said to ourselves: as good as the tournament's going to be, it'll be regarded as a failure if we don't make it through to the final and getting off to a good start against Argentina in 2003 was a must.

"We only just got there in 2003, and ironically France is now in that pool of Argentina themselves and Ireland and that's where we were.

"It shows you that pool has the second, fourth, and sixth-rated teams in the world.

"It's a good one to avoid and I'm glad we're not there.

The French media have been scathing in their criticism of the team with headlines such as "Catastrophic Scenario", "The Disillusion" and "Five Questions on a Fiasco".

And as if the criticism of the French team hasn't hurt the image of the World Cup enough, a media dispute led to some news agencies refusing to cover it.

And now the coach of Japan, All Black legend John Kirwan, has lashed out at suggestions that countries like Japan, who were beaten 91-3 by Australia on the weekend might not have a place in the competition in the future.

"I think it's very important that if we are going to change the structure of the World Cup that we don't forget that rugby is a great game," he said.

"It's played all over the world and I think that is the responsibility of all of us to grow it around the world ... otherwise we'll have world champions like baseball."

It's going to need a big turn-around in form by the French team and some smoothing of the waters in other troubled areas if this competition is going to fulfil the promise it showed prior to the opening night.