This business of England's World Cup having eight tests in Wales needs to be addressed. It's not right, as Fiji and Uruguay must surely be thinking.
World Cups in these parts have a curious history of being scattered to the winds. There is a nominal host who then divvies out games to the other home nations in return for their vote at the hosting rights ballot. Horse trades saw England, Ireland, France and Scotland win test allocations at Wales' World Cup in 1999. It was the same in France, 2007, when both Scotland and Wales were rewarded for not giving their hosting vote to England.
But this tournament is supposed to be different. England are the sole hosts and did not barter for votes. And yet despite England being sole hosts, there are eight games in Wales, which is definitely not in England.
Where this has become a nonsense - a major problem in fact - is that Wales have been allocated two tests in Cardiff. It's a problem because that creates the unfair scenario of the Welsh having two games at their home ground yet not being hosts.
That privilege should be England's and England's alone. This is their tournament and while being hosts has all sorts of associated pressures, it does also have the significant upside of home ground familiarity and all that comes with it.
