RWC Draw
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Great opportunity for some countries to participate in the RWC, but we've only one tough opponent in our pool. Seems like a shit preparation for the finals. The game against Italy will still have value for our prep, but geezus, Canada is weak and Namibia has already been smashed by Russia and Spain in the past two weeks. Nothing more than opposed training runs with pathetic scorelines.
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So using the current WR rankings:
Pool A has Ireland (2), Scotland (7), Japan (11), Samoa (16), Russia (19)
Pool B has NZ (1), South Africa (5), Italy (14), Canada (21), Namibia (23)
Pool C has England (4), France (8), Argentina (9), Tonga (12), USA (13)
Pool D has Wales (3), Australia (6), Fiji (10), Georgia (15), Uruguay (18)There will likely be some changes in rankings by Sept next year.
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I think its been covered before, but we have by far the best draw. South Africa first up, then a couple of opposed training runs against Namibia and Canada, then finish with a slightly tougher game against Italy.
Top our pool and then two of our big rivals SA and Ire knock each other out in the QF. Also on that side of the draw go Australia and France. Our route to the final is a Scotland QF then probably the winner of Eng Wales. Ireland to win the world cup would have to beat Sa then Aus then us on consecutive weekends....
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I think its been covered before, but we have by far the best draw. South Africa first up, then a couple of opposed training runs against Namibia and Canada, then finish with a slightly tougher game against Italy.
Top our pool and then two of our big rivals SA and Ire knock each other out in the QF. Also on that side of the draw go Australia and France. Our route to the final is a Scotland QF then probably the winner of Eng Wales. Ireland to win the world cup would have to beat Sa then Aus then us on consecutive weekends....
If we beat South Africa.
The winner of our pool has a good draw.
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So using the current WR rankings:
Pool A has Ireland (2), Scotland (7), Japan (11), Samoa (16), Russia (19)
Pool B has NZ (1), South Africa (5), Italy (14), Canada (21), Namibia (23)
Pool C has England (4), France (8), Argentina (9), Tonga (12), USA (13)
Pool D has Wales (3), Australia (6), Fiji (10), Georgia (15), Uruguay (18)There will likely be some changes in rankings by Sept next year.
Based on rankings that's not a bad result looking at the top two seeds in each pool: still one in each from top four ranked, plus one in each from teams 5-8.
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Based on rankings that's not a bad result looking at the top two seeds in each pool: still one in each from top four ranked, plus one in each from teams 5-8.
That is due to the bands used for the draw in determining the pools (in May 2017), even if some of the rankings have changed, i.e., Aust and Wales have swapped bands but fortunately ended up in the same pool.
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Based on rankings that's not a bad result looking at the top two seeds in each pool: still one in each from top four ranked, plus one in each from teams 5-8.
That is due to the bands used for the draw in determining the pools (in May 2017), even if some of the rankings have changed, i.e., Aust and Wales have swapped bands but fortunately ended up in the same pool.
Yeah realise the bands. It was kind of my point.
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@booboo I think it has been good luck rather than good management. If SA moves up one place then our group would have 2 teams ranked 1-4 and another pool have 2 teams ranked 5-8. That could happen by Sep next year. WR still insists on allocating pools so far out from the start of the RWC. FIFA doesn't.
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So using the current WR rankings:
Pool A has Ireland (2), Scotland (7), Japan (11), Samoa (16), Russia (19)
Pool B has NZ (1), South Africa (5), Italy (14), Canada (21), Namibia (23)
Pool C has England (4), France (8), Argentina (9), Tonga (12), USA (13)
Pool D has Wales (3), Australia (6), Fiji (10), Georgia (15), Uruguay (18)There will likely be some changes in rankings by Sept next year.
Based on rankings that's not a bad result looking at the top two seeds in each pool: still one in each from top four ranked, plus one in each from teams 5-8.
totally meaningless, but....
Pool A total rank = 55 (ave 11)
Pool B total rank = 64 (ave 12.8)
Pool C total rank = 46 (ave 9.2)
Pool D total rank = 52 (ave 10.4) -
@taniwharugby Ha. I did that as well.
Having either SA in our pool is based on them being at 5, which is bollocks.
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I must say, it is almost refreshing not to go into a RWC year with NZ as clear favourite, having beaten all and sundry and scooped every award on offer at the annual World Rugby awards.
Because we don't play any NH teams before the RWC, no-one will take too much notice of victories over SA, Aust and Argentina. Nor Tonga.
Ireland has just bought themselves a whole new level of pressure to cope with: favourites, world's best side, never reached semi-final, Schmidt due to move on etc...
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@billy-tell said in RWC Draw:
I must say, it is almost refreshing not to go into a RWC year with NZ as clear favourite, having beaten all and sundry and scooped every award on offer at the annual World Rugby awards.
Because we don't play any NH teams before the RWC, no-one will take too much notice of victories over SA, Aust and Argentina. Nor Tonga.
Ireland has just bought themselves a whole new level of pressure to cope with: favourites, world's best side, never reached semi-final, Schmidt due to move on etc...
Assuming we win all our pool games, where would we meet Ireland if they also won all their pool games?
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@hooroo if both teams win, we would meet in the final, if we drop a game to SA we play them in the 1/4 (assuming SA dont drop a game to anyone else in our pool)
Was listening to something yesterday and they were saying outside of NZ, there is no player still playing who has won a RWC before, which is understandable given it could only be a SA form the 2007 squad.
