The 23 – 0 result of Sweden versus Spain raises an issue that the underwater rugby rules committees at the national and international level may wish to consider in the future. In the women’s group play scoring large numbers of goals against the weakest team has now and can in the future determine advancement rather than some clear victory or defeat among those at the top of the draw.
In this case Sweden and Denmark tied while both lost to Norway. This meant that Sweden and Denmark could only distinguish themselves a total goal differential. In practice this meant pumping goals in the basket of the hapless Spanish team—a contest to see who could dish out a worse drubbing to Spain. Good for the sport? Not really.
Although there are different ways to consider the fairness of this, one thing is certain, Spain was playing for pride alone. Though the Spaniards never quit fighting but clearly their ability to resist was degraded by fatigue while Sweden was uniformly motivated. And in a team sport that relies on pairs who relieve each other from duty on the bottom (apnea) the loss of motivation can send the team into a negative spiral as already tired players must cover for the mistakes of others.
There is talk of a change in the rules.