Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: Malcolm Mackenzie / ProSportsImages / DPPI via AFP
During the group stages of this 2023 World Cup, teams will be able to earn offensive or defensive bonus points, just like in the Top 14 or during the Six Nations Tournament. This rule, which differs according to the competitions, can thus offer two points to a team despite the loss of the match. Explanations.
It is a specificity of the oval ball that some have sometimes thought of introducing into other sports, without much conviction. The famous offensive or defensive bonus points, very specific to rugby, will indeed be part of this 2023 World Cup organized in France.
This rule applies to all international rugby union but may vary between competitions. In all cases, the principle remains the same since it is a question of rewarding a team with an additional point for its offensive performance. Conversely, it allows a team beaten on the wire to scratch a defensive bonus point.
Opportunity to win two bonuses
In the World Cup, to win the offensive bonus, you must register at least four tries. A pattern identical to those of the Six Nations Tournament and the European Cup. As for the defensive bonus, it is obtained by losing by less than seven points. Thus, during a particularly prolific encounter offensively, the loser can accumulate two bonuses and thus glean two points despite the defeat. This was the case of Montpellier last season, beaten by the Ospreys in the European Cup with a score of 35-29. Note that a simple victory, without bonus, earns four points.
In Top 14, on the other hand, the system is different since it is necessary to register at least three tries more than the adversary to obtain the offensive bonus points. And the defeat must not exceed five points difference to hang the defensive bonus. Whatever the rules used, these bonuses aim to promote offensive and spectacular play and reduce to the detriment of closed matches where each team is content with the union minimum.
Bonuses saved France in 2011
They also make it possible to significantly improve the ranking of a team at the end of the season or at the end of a group stage. In 2011, they had thus avoided the XV of France an elimination in the first round of the World Cup. Beaten by New Zealand and Tonga, the Blues had obtained the defensive bonus against the islanders and had gleaned two additional points of offensive bonus during their success against Canada and Japan. Without these three additional points, it is the Tongans who would have faced England in the quarter-finals.