Canada's center DTH Van Der Merwe runs with the ball during the 2011 Rugby World Cup pool A match between Tonga and Canada at the Northland Events Centre in Whangarei, on September 14, 2011. Canada won 25-20. Getty Images/ GABRIEL BOUYSGABRIEL BOUYS/Getty Images
Rugby's investment in second and third tier nations is already reaping World Cup dividends and should ensure what happened to Romania at the end of the last century will not be repeated, International Rugby Board (IRB) secretary general Mike Miller has told Reuters.
The competitiveness of the so called "minnows" has been one of the more welcome features of the first two weeks of the eighth World Cup in a sport where a handful of heavyweights have for so long dominated.
With the exception of the 13-try demolition of Japan by hosts New Zealand, the pool games have been more closely fought than at previous World Cups where mis-matches threatened to devalue rugby's showpiece tournament.
"It's great, we're very, very happy with what's going both on and off the field," Miller told Reuters in an interview.
"If you look at the Pacific islands and Russia and U.S.A, Canada and Romania, we've invested millions of dollars in them to give them the same sort of competitive structure, the same sort of strength and conditioning and match analysis as the top 10 countries.
"They don't tire in the last 20 minutes like they used to now that they're stronger and fitter and they are more sophisticated in the way that they play."
The investment by the IRB in both the top nations and second and third tier countries had being going for some six years now and, if anything, was producing results ahead of schedule, the Irishman said.
"We really didn't expect to see this great an improvement because really we're looking 20 to 30 years down the line.
"They've been a bit stronger than we'd have hoped but at the same time we've seen the commitment they have, we've seen how hard they've worked.
"They've put a lot of effort in over the last year to prepare for the World Cup. You're always anxious beforehand, of course, but I'm not totally surprised, more pleased."
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Romania threatened to break into the cartel of top nations when it started producing teams capable of beating the likes of Wales, Scotland and France.
The collapse of the country's Communist regime in 1989, however, signalled the end of domestic investment in the sport which precipitated a rapid decline in rugby in the Eastern European nation.
"Romania were very strong at the tail-end of the amateur era," Miller said. "At the time, world rugby did not grasp the opportunity that was presented to it.
"(Romania) declined for a combination of reasons, the collapse of the system in Eastern Europe and also because if you don't strike when the iron's hot, you tend to miss an opportunity."
The most recent example of a nation breaking into the elite echelons of the game came at the 2007 World Cup when an impressive Argentina team finished third.
FUNDING BOOSTS
The IRB's reaction to that breakthrough had been more proactive, Miller said, and had helped secure the Pumas regular high-level international competition from next year.
"Rugby's learned from (Romania), and that's why we've spent a lot of time and a lot of effort, and frankly, a lot of money as well, to get Argentina into the Tri-Nations to make it the Four Nations," he added.
"We recognised this is a similar case, this time we're not going to miss the boat. Hopefully, that will work well."
A large part of the IRB's revenue comes from the World Cup, although they are hoping for funding boosts for the game around the world from the burgeoning international sevens series and the admission of the shorter version of the game to the Olympics from 2016.
"We're expecting about 85-million pounds ($134-million) as surplus from this World Cup, it was 125-million from France in 2007 so we're 30 percent down but that's okay, we expected and budgeted for it," he said.
"And we're dipping into our reserves to try keep the strategic investment going because the growth of the game is so important."
Miller said it was sometimes tough to deal with the expectations people in the game had of the IRB and the speed at which results could be achieved in areas like development.
"People expect everything, yesterday, that's just the way it is," he said.
"But I would prefer people had heightened expectations rather than low expectations. And, if we have issues, I'd rather we had issues associated with growth, which is what we have, rather than decline."