1 October (Nelson) At first glance it looks as though Australia has both competitions sewn up. The Wallabies are a force to be reckoned with on the field while the Russian Bears rank a lowly 19th in the World Cup pool. Russia is also bringing up the rear in the social equality and justice rankings at number 20 while Australia sits somewhere in the ...

25 September (Rotorua) For this match Level With Me takes to the road with a guest post from the youth group of St. Bernard’s Catholic parish, Brooklyn, Wellington. As Ireland has got wealthier, the gap between rich and poor seems to have increased. But if that sounds bad, just think of their cousins on the other side of Europe. Food in Russi ...

20 September (Nelson) The interesting thing about this match is their social equality rankings closely match their rugby rating among the 20 countries competing. Italy ranks at 12th on our social indicators, and 11th on the IRB list, while Russia comes in at 20th and 19th respectively. Russia is brought down on social equality by bottom-of-the-tabl ...

Thursday 15 September (New Plymouth) Russia and the USA are two of the lowest-ranked teams in this competition – both for equality and rugby skill – and the match will surely be worth watching, even if neither team really deserves to win by our standards. The two countries have more  in common than they would probably like to think, when it co ...

Sunday 11 September The teams in Pool C get their foot to the ball for the first time today, with Australia playing Italy in Albany, and the United States facing off against Ireland in New Plymouth. Ireland will be favoured to win over the US. They also outrank on our measures of social fairness – Ireland being at no 2 in our overall rankings ...