[Brekkie]

Although understandable why it was extended (think the minimum between game period has been increased from 5 to 6 days in last few years) the extra week has made it feel much longer - and not really ideal from an ITV perspective that three of the four home unions had their week off the same weekend.

There are rumours it might be expanded to 24 teams so if and how they do that remains to be seen. Having 6 groups of 4 means the group stage would be done in 3 weekends rather than 5 then I guess they'd add a round of 16 so the tournament might reduce by a week again.

I'm not really a huge fan of the current Euros (and soon to be World Cup) format of having the top two then "best" third placed teams in each group progress, and probably tougher in rugby to distinguish the third placed teams fairly - I'd guess it would be done on points and then points difference.


Of course though cricket gives them a run for their money in terms of the length of the World Cup though coming in at 46 days compared to 51 days for the rugby equivalent, although with matches virtually everyday.