England boss Eddie Jones is reported to be contemplating fielding a weakened team against France to avoid a tougher route in the knockout stages of the World Rugby Championship in Japan.
Both teams have qualified for the quarter-finals and the outcome of the top of the pool match between the two on Saturday would be crucial on their title hopes.
With the winner expected to take on Australia in the quarter-finals and favourites New Zealand in a possible semi-finals, it may be prudent to finish second in the pool. And if the team does get past the two Oceanic giants, their likely opponent in the final would be South Africa.
Finishing second would see the team coming up against Wales in the last eight and avoid the All Blacks until the final. They would prefer to see either Ireland, Japan or the South Africans in the semi-finals.
While sports purist see any move to purposely lose a match for a future benefit, it is not something new.
At the 2012 Olympics women’s football tournament, Japan intentionally played out a to a draw with a weak South African side. The result ensured that the Japanese side avoided a 300 miles trip from Cardiff to Glasgow for their knockout match.
It was the same when the Gareth Southgate decided to make eight changes for their final group match against Belgium at the World Cup in Russia. The results of that match saw them finishing second in the table and avoid Brazil, France and Argentina in the knockout stages.
On both occasion, it was within the sports rules and no action was taken against the “offenders”.
However, that was not the case with the badminton competition at the London Olympics. Four women’s doubles pairs – two from South Korea, one each from China and Indonesia, were disqualified from the tournament.
All four pairs attempted to throw away their group matches to ensure a smoother path in the knockout stages.
It was reminiscent to the 1992 Thomas Cup Finals in Malaysia when both Indonesia and China opted to field weakened teams for their top of the table clash to avoid meeting the hosts in the semi-finals. They even fielded their doubles players in the singles and vice-versa, turning their match into a farce.
While there were no rules to sanction the players in 1992, something the governing body managed to rectify for the sake of the sports.
At the 1982 FIFA World Cup, West Germany and Austria made mockery of their final group match after Germany took an early lead. Neither team made any attempt to play the game as the result would ensure both qualified for the next stage. A second German goal would have seen Algeria qualifying for the next round instead of the Austrians.
However, the debacle prompted FIFA to change their rules. All future tournaments were required the final games in a round robin competition to be played at the same time.
Still, it did not stop future abuses. The 1998 Tiger Cup football tournament in Vietnam, saw Thailand and Indonesia looking for a defeat to avoid travelling from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi for their semi-finals.
During stoppage time, Indonesian defender Mursyid Effendi scored an own goal with the Thai front line turning into defenders trying to stop him from scoring. Both teams were fined USD40,000 for their indiscretion while Mursyid was given a lifetime suspension.
Such practice has happened at the top level in various sports and if Jones takes the same path this Saturday, it would certainly be a blemish on the sport of rugby.
The ruffian’s game played by gentlemen’ does not need to take this path.