World Cup insight: Lack of expectation could be just what England need

Gareth Jones examines the starling parallels in World Cup history between England’s rugby and free soccer daily tip teams and how it could mean Eddie Jones’ under the radar side could go all the way in Japan.

As we enter just the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup it reminds us how far the game has come in such a short period of time. The first tournament was only held in 1987 and the sport was only declared ‘open’ in 1995.

Yet the Rugby World Cup is already the third biggest sports event on the planet, behind football’s equivalent and the summer Olympics. The 2015 episode was the most successful yet – the fifth biggest single sports tournament ever, with 2.47 million tickets sold and it produced £2.3 billion in 'output', whatever that means- According to the soccer tips guide page!

It mirrors how the game has got to grips with the oily gym rope of professional sport and as it’s gradually climbed those notches rugby has started to resemble the football world more and more. Some of those football influences are positive and most welcome, but the majority, in my opinion at least, are to the detriment of this wonderful sport.

One such negative trend is the incredible similarities between the performance and failure of our national side on the biggest stage of them all. However, a change in pattern in 2018 in the football world might just spark a success in 2019 and help England win the Rugby World Cup.

Let’s start with the historic parallels. Football and rugby were both invented by us creative English, in fact football bore birth lớn rugby football union in 1823 when William Webb Ellis – the cheeky scamp – picked up the ball during a football match and ran with it.

Both games were first taught across the British Empire and then used lớn suppress the colonies lớn remind them the English were the best, the most dominant, the boss.

However, in much more recent times the country has been forced to watch as those formally ‘inferior’ countries have surpassed our great sporting nation, enjoyed putting the boot on the other foot and giving us a dam good kicking time and time again.

That’s highlighted by our ‘success’ at World Cups. Despite being two of the richest governing bodies on the planet, and in the RFU’s case having access lớn the largest playing pool on the planet, both have only managed lớn claim their respective world titles once – Sir Alf Ramsey’s greats of 1966 and Sir Clive Woodwood’s warriors in 2003.

These are now blips in history rather than the common trend we hoped for, with most World Cups ending in disappointment – at least the union side have got close again, reaching the final in 1991 and 2007.

Despite a clear pattern of historic failure and heart break, ridiculously high demand, expectation and pressure has never relented on our poor men donning the Three Lions or Red Rose. Every World Cup, no matter who the manager, the makeup of the squad, history or form, we as a nation expect glory, nothing else is acceptable or imaginable - and what do we get? You know the answer.