Post by notpropaganda on Aug 31, 2015 16:58:43 GMT
So the squads are being announced, unbelievably late considering this is a summer tournament that was going to contribute to the forum's PPD (@djed...), and I fully expect to be chatting to myself in this thread for the most part but hey.
Pool A
Australia
England
Wales
Fiji
Uruguay
Definitely the toughest pool out there but I fully expect it to be Australia and England going through to the knock-outs. Gatland has a knack for getting his players up for the big occasion, they did come out of nowhere in 2011 to get to the semis and probably should have gotten to the final if not for the red for Warburton. But just all the news coming out of the Welsh camp and the journalists, with their training regime and now with their squad announcement today, I just can't see them bringing enough quality to beat either England or Australia which obviously they'll need to do in order to qualify in second place.
Australia are my tip for the tournament, even though they had a nightmare in the Bledisoe Cup game the week before showed what they're capable of and I think Cheika will learn a lot from his baffling team selection the last day. England have had a shaky enough warm up session but they've probably been the best team in the Northern Hemisphere in terms of talent and rugby played the last couple of years so I think they'll have enough to get by Wales at the least.
Fiji might cause someone a shock but that's about that.
Pool B
South Africa
Samoa
Japan
Scotland
USA
South Africa to qualify in their sleep as long as they're allowed to play. Scotland v Samoa for 2nd place and the Scots have come on leaps and bounds with Vern Cotter as head coach so I think they're a shoe-in for second tbh. Could be a cracker of a game considering the back play from the Scots and then Samoa being Samoa, a team who don't understand "kicking for territory" because why kick it when you can run it?
Pool C
New Zealand
Argentina
Tonga
Georgia
Namibia
The most shocking thing that will happen in this group is Ritchie McCaw might get pinged for offside. All Blacks all day long, Argentina in second.
Pool D
France
Ireland
Italy
Canada
Romania
It's all gonna come down to France v Ireland on October 11. I was worried about Italy but they look in total disarray atm so fully expect both us and France to beat them quite comfortably. We've never beaten France in a World Cup and they always raise their game for us. I would fully expect it to be a one score game and at the moment, with hardly any rugby played, I'm leaning towards France to nick it which will set us up with a 1/4 final against the All Blacks. Yayyy
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From an Irish POV, looks like Andrew Trimble is going to miss out which is disappointing because it looks like it's solely down to the amount of rugby he's had in the past year. He's probably our best winger when fully fit so I would've hoped Schmidt would give him more game time in the warm ups but hey. After the weekend it looks like Henderson has made himself a must starter which is exciting, but harsh on Toner who has never really done anything wrong - he's just not as good as Henderson.
I'm getting excited for the tournament, obviously as Ireland are in great shape going into the tournament as back-to-back 6 Nations champions and the best coach we've ever had. It's hard to keep a lid on the hype!
Pool A
Australia
England
Wales
Fiji
Uruguay
Definitely the toughest pool out there but I fully expect it to be Australia and England going through to the knock-outs. Gatland has a knack for getting his players up for the big occasion, they did come out of nowhere in 2011 to get to the semis and probably should have gotten to the final if not for the red for Warburton. But just all the news coming out of the Welsh camp and the journalists, with their training regime and now with their squad announcement today, I just can't see them bringing enough quality to beat either England or Australia which obviously they'll need to do in order to qualify in second place.
Australia are my tip for the tournament, even though they had a nightmare in the Bledisoe Cup game the week before showed what they're capable of and I think Cheika will learn a lot from his baffling team selection the last day. England have had a shaky enough warm up session but they've probably been the best team in the Northern Hemisphere in terms of talent and rugby played the last couple of years so I think they'll have enough to get by Wales at the least.
Fiji might cause someone a shock but that's about that.
Pool B
South Africa
Samoa
Japan
Scotland
USA
South Africa to qualify in their sleep as long as they're allowed to play. Scotland v Samoa for 2nd place and the Scots have come on leaps and bounds with Vern Cotter as head coach so I think they're a shoe-in for second tbh. Could be a cracker of a game considering the back play from the Scots and then Samoa being Samoa, a team who don't understand "kicking for territory" because why kick it when you can run it?
Pool C
New Zealand
Argentina
Tonga
Georgia
Namibia
The most shocking thing that will happen in this group is Ritchie McCaw might get pinged for offside. All Blacks all day long, Argentina in second.
Pool D
France
Ireland
Italy
Canada
Romania
It's all gonna come down to France v Ireland on October 11. I was worried about Italy but they look in total disarray atm so fully expect both us and France to beat them quite comfortably. We've never beaten France in a World Cup and they always raise their game for us. I would fully expect it to be a one score game and at the moment, with hardly any rugby played, I'm leaning towards France to nick it which will set us up with a 1/4 final against the All Blacks. Yayyy
---
From an Irish POV, looks like Andrew Trimble is going to miss out which is disappointing because it looks like it's solely down to the amount of rugby he's had in the past year. He's probably our best winger when fully fit so I would've hoped Schmidt would give him more game time in the warm ups but hey. After the weekend it looks like Henderson has made himself a must starter which is exciting, but harsh on Toner who has never really done anything wrong - he's just not as good as Henderson.
I'm getting excited for the tournament, obviously as Ireland are in great shape going into the tournament as back-to-back 6 Nations champions and the best coach we've ever had. It's hard to keep a lid on the hype!