2019 Rugby World Cup
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@Rapido said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
9 strong teams. Is a good place for rugby to be. I'll try to remember this silver lining if we have a horror tournament .....
9 strong teams suggests there won't be a dud quarter final match-up for the first time. Essentially all four games could go either way.
... unless a Fiji/Japan/Georgia cause an upset in pool play and are pitted against a powerhouse in the quarters.
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@Wurzel said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
@Rapido said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
9 strong teams. Is a good place for rugby to be. I'll try to remember this silver lining if we have a horror tournament .....
9 strong teams suggests there won't be a dud quarter final match-up for the first time. Essentially all four games could go either way.
... unless a Fiji/Japan/Georgia cause an upset in pool play and are pitted against a powerhouse in the quarters.
I actually think that happened for the first time in 2015. But, I refused to believe France were as weak as they actually were. Maybe Scotland v Australia was seen as a dud gong into the match?
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@KiwiMurph said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
@taniwharugby Therein lies the issue - it doesn't look like the 2019 RWC AB forward pack will be in the same class as the 2011 or 2015 ABs RWC forward packs.
We might need some dry, dew free evenings, so that we can play to our strengths of slick handling to counter the rush defences.
Forward arm wrestles with lots of territorial kicking and penalty kicking might sink us.
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@Wurzel said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
9 strong teams suggests there won't be a dud quarter final match-up for the first time. Essentially all four games could go either way.
Hell yeah, I love me some quarterfinal weekend.
One other thing about rugby, is that a group of strong, conditioned and committed people will always always have a starters chance. We really struggled to beat SA in QF2015, despite them losing to Japan a few weeks before. They fronted up and dominated us physically.
What's good is that there is probably no really easy path to the final. 2007 South Africa had to play knock out games against Fiji, Argentina and then England. All Blacks would lick their lips at that. And - even so - England damn near beat SA, despite losing 36-0 to them earlier in the tourney.
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@KiwiMurph said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
@taniwharugby Therein lies the issue - it doesn't look like the 2019 RWC AB forward pack will be in the same class as the 2011 or 2015 ABs RWC forward packs.
Thankfully we aren't playing either of those packs in this tournament!
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@nzzp said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
What's good is that there is probably no really easy path to the final. 2007 South Africa had to play knock out games against Fiji, Argentina and then England. All Blacks would lick their lips at that. And - even so - England damn near beat SA, despite losing 36-0 to them earlier in the tourney.
The tournament could open up for the winner of NZ/SA. They get a QF with one of Scotland, Japan or Samoa. Then the runner-up Wales/Australia vs winner of England/France/Argentina. If England drop a pool game and all else goes to seedings they avoid any of the other big 4 teams entirely until the final.
The secret to a potentially easy draw seems to be getting drawn with another contender (or eventual finalist). The easier the pool, the harder the knock-out draw - sorry Ireland!
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@rotated said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
The secret to a potentially easy draw seems to be getting drawn with another contender (or eventual finalist). The easier the pool, the harder the knock-out draw - sorry Ireland!
Not gonna lie, I'm going to quietly smile if Ireland get a tough QF that they drop. Never won a knockout game at the tourney - will be interesting to see how the pressure goes.
I used to enjoy watching Ireland play, but a few wins and their fans have gone full feral one eye ranters. Sustained success is really really hard; when you're top dog, all the big teams target you.
also, this is a RWC win for southern hemisphere coaching. Of the 5 contenders, SANZAAR represent 5/5. NZ: NZ Ire, Wales, Fast Eddy and whoever coaches SA these days. Not lying, I had to google it to find out it was Rassie Erasmus.
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Not 2019RWC but think it might be interesting to a few of our TSF family
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@Chris-B said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
Much more interesting episode of The Breakdown tonight. Especially because they had Sir Ted on. A few things he said:
Downloaded and watched on your reccomendation @Chris-B .
I have to admit Ted lost me at "who is that boy from Canterbury, what is his name?"
Mo'unga.
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Sitting here in Australia watching the SR coverage and the interview with
Scott Johnson Australian coaching director
What a complete Knob WC is all about England , France and Australia AB’s not rated
We are going to smash Australia off the park and this idiot doesn’t even realise it -
@Chris Nah you've got it wrong, he's talking about those 3 cos there is a small chance Ozzie beat them. No point talking about ABs cos they are always going to lose that game. So concentrate on winnable games, and hope someone else knocks out the ABs!
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@Machpants said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:
They look like rabbits in the headlights!