sportsmadwilly:hi, please can you explain how South Africa is in the group its in? Round Robin Stage
- According to the rank obtained during the qualification stage, Nations Teams will be divided in 4 groups according to this table:
Group A: 1, 8, 9, 16
Group B: 2, 7, 10, 15
Group C: 3, 6, 11, 14
Group D: 4, 5, 12, 13
Well - this table works for 16 teams - but there were not 16 teams that signed up. There needs to be a multiple of 4 teams, as there are 4 teams in each group. We started with 14 teams - so the elimination stage needed to knock out 2 to get us back to a multiple of 4 teams.
Now the round robin stage has 12 teams instead of 16.
The table above has to be adapted to 12 teams divided into 3 groups.
The same logic is used - examining above -- Group 1 consists of the top team, the bottom team and the 2 middle teams. 1, 16, 8 & 9.
This same logic applied to 12 teams gives you 1, 12, 6 & 7.
The second group then works inwards in the top half and bottom half of the list. Second from top, second from bottom, second from middle in both halves --- for 16 teams that is 2, 15, 7 & 10. For 12 teams it is 2, 11, 5, & 8. Which is where South Africa finds itself being team 5 from the qualification round.
The remaining 4 teams make up group 3.
Group1 Group2 Group 3
1 United Kingdom
2 United States of America
3 Germany
4 Spain
5 South Africa
6 Australia
7 Rest of the World
8 Italy
9 Canada
10 North Atlantic Region
11 France
12 Ireland
I trust this is clear enough
Happy Hacking
Neil (The Hakman)