Who will be the semi-finalists and the finalists?
Who are your tip for dark horses and why?
2007-07-09 07:33:33 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Sports ➔ Rugby
Come on chaps, stick your necks out.
2007-07-09 20:54:39 · update #1
OK here's how it goes. I'll admit that my picks are pretty conservative, however, they're sound.
From the pool stages you have this:
South Africa wins Pool A and England comes in 2nd
Australia wins Pool B and Wales comes in 2nd
NZ wins Pool C and Scotland comes in 2nd
Ireland wins Pool D and either France or Argentina comes in 2nd.
Pool D is the pool of death with 3 great teams all competing together. I think Ireland are definitely better than both Argentina and France, however, the French love that damned "Le Flair!" which means they can be totally erratic. However, they do have homefield advantage. Argentina has shown some good form lately and are the 2nd best scrummagers in the game so you could look at them to take 2nd in the pool stage.
Now comes the quater finals:
Australia vs. England
(Winner of B vs. Runner up of A)
NZ. vs France/Argentina
(Winner of C vs. Runner up of D)
South Africa vs. Wales
(Winner of A vs. Runner up of B)
Ireland vs. Scotland
(Winner of D vs. Runner up of C)
England is looking good, especially with Wilko coming back and a decent set of forwards in front of him. They should beat Australia (looking pitiful despite wins against the Back up Boks and NZ). NZ will beat their opponents (my explanation of NZ will come later). South Africa will beat Wales in a close match, but Francois Steyn will kick them through at the 50m line. Ireland will thump Scotland because to be honest Scotland is pretty weak. This leads up to the semis!
England vs. NZ
Ireland vs. South Africa
NZ will beat England, who will have trawled every retirement home in the country in order to field a complete side. Ireland will beat South Africa because SA doesn't really have a great fly-half, or center pairing. They'll play the same boring big forward rugby and let the backs have the day off.
This leads to the final number:
Ireland vs. NZ
New Zealand will beat Ireland. It'll be a razor thin match somewhere in the mid 20s with a penalty separating the two. Ireland played NZ last year in June and nearly won. They have good forwards the best centers, and the remaining backs aren't too shabby either. However, NZ is a juggernaut. Woodcock-Oliver-Hayman is the best front row combination on earth. The locks are a bit shaky, especially with the big redhead Paulie O'Connell, but NZ will tap dance around that weakness. The loose-forwards led by Richie McCaw are the best in the business, with Rodney So'oialo being the best 8 man and Jerry Collins having recently evolved from being just a hard tackler into a good runner with ball in hand as well. The half-backs are the 2nd and 3rd best respectively (behind Fourie du Preez). In the 10 jumper is King Carter himself, who despite having some recent poor form is still the best fly-half in the game. The centers should be in form by then with Mauger-Toeva the most likely pairing (although a McAlister and Smith should be mixed in as well.) Plus if worse comes to worse, Mils Muliaina plays a nice center. The wings are solid and depth abounds here with the Fijian cousins being the best pair in the game, and Doug Howlett recently raising his hand to play means plenty to be seen from him. And at full black Leon McDonald is on form, although some would argue that Muliaina is better (i personally agree). The bench is chock full of talent which when coupled with the reconditioning they went through really showed in the recent game in Durban the power of the Kiwis. There has been some niggling issues about injury, however, as word on the rugby street has been , the best team in the world is the Kiwi 22 and the 2nd best team is the guys who couldn't make the 22 because you can't take 44. Rotation has paid off in spades and will show come fall when the All Blacks win in France.
2007-07-12 17:07:12 · answer #1 · answered by ozzmastergeneral 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I think the winner of the Tri Nations will feature in the World Cup semi finals ....I would go further and say that the semi finals will feature the 3 Tri Nations teams ..
This is the way I see the World Cup panning out ..
Quater Finals ..
Aussie V England
NZ V France
Sth Africa V Wales
Ireland V Scotland
Semi Finals
Aussie V New Zealand
Sth Africa V Ireland
Final .. New Zealand V South Africa
That is the way I see things .. Pick your own winner ..
In the end . Quality of real depth will tell .. New Zealand and South Africa at this stage appear to be the best prepared and also have the more quality depth in overall positions ..
2007-07-10 21:53:35 · answer #2 · answered by icedraw 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I hope it will be the All Blacks and I hope we will the World Cup. Notice I'm saying I hope. I really don't care about the Tri nations in comparison to the Rugby World Cup because we've won before, I don't know how many Tri Nations Cups yet the World Cup has been elusive. So fingers crossed. It would be good to win the Tri Nations simply because its a competition and any mayor tournament is something to treasure but first things first its a World Cup year and we have to win that.
2007-07-13 02:42:30 · answer #3 · answered by Bru 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Okay, I will stick my neck out. Here are my predictions for the Rugby World Cup:
WINNERS - New Zealand
RUNNERS UP - France (never underestimate the hosts)
DARK HORSE - Argentina, if Todischini is on form.
ENGLAND - Quarter final exit to Australia, after being battered by South Africa in the group game! Sorry folks!
SHOCKS - Argentina edge out Ireland in the group stage (Ireland seem to lose their bottle in certain crunch games. Look at the past couple of Six Nations competitions, and they also have France in their group).
Australia might also beat New Zealand in the semis (but, this is only the possibility of a shock)
Let's see if I get it right........
2007-07-11 06:38:36 · answer #4 · answered by The Global Geezer 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If the winner of the tri-nations is New Zealand, then the winner of the tri-nations will win the world cup. The semi-finalist will most likely be New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and France. The finalists will be New Zealand vs France, if you look at the pools and the most likely winners and runner ups. Pool A winner RSA and England runner up. Pool B winner Australia and Wales runner up. Pool C New Zealand winner and Scotland runner up. Pool D winner France and Ireland runner up. The quarter finals will then be Aus vs Eng, NZ vs Ire, RSA vs Wales and France vs Scotland. Aus to play NZ and RSA to play France in the semis. NZ to play France in the final. This is all just speculation and going on current performance. Dark horses? Samoa, their strength; Canada and USA, their recent increase in interest in the sport.
2007-07-10 00:13:40 · answer #5 · answered by RodericV 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
For some reason the Tri Nation champs usually makes a mess of the World Cup. So I don't think they will necessrily win the WC too.
Anybody with decent enough knowledge on rugby will put their money on All Blacks but the way those guys choke up some time makes you wanna back maybe the Wallabies and the Springboks too.
Think it'd be southern hemisphere champ once again this time as per the current form.
2007-07-09 12:51:25 · answer #6 · answered by MCX 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I'll answer the question that was asked............
No, the winner of the Tri Nations won't necessarily win the World Cup, in fact history has shown the opposite.
Semi finalists will be:
NZ - Australia 1st semi (It better be, I bought my ticket this week!!!)
Sth Africa - France 2nd semi, (with Ireland a dark horse to make this game ahead of Sth Africa, they'll need to finish top of their group though)
Final will be Australia - Sth Africa IMO............ NZ will choke yet again LOL
2007-07-10 02:31:22 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
If New Zealand win the 3N, they will win the world cup. If the Saffa's or the Skips win the 3N, New Zealand will STILL win the world cup. Maybe I'm not being clear enough.
New Zealand are going to win the RWC for sure, no 2 ways about it. All this talk about "chokers" is blog fodder, it don't mean sh*t. So all you northern Europeans with your head in fantasy land, stop getting your hopes up, it ain't going to happen. Dark horse... well NZ are going to win BUT if they didn't, I'd definitely tip Argentina.
2007-07-11 18:42:05 · answer #8 · answered by red dog 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
New Zealand are favourites but Australia showed them up 2 weeks ago and England will be keen to defend the title a dark horse France or South Africa
Winners: New Zealand they can't choke again
2007-07-09 23:45:43 · answer #9 · answered by SociallyAwkwardPenguin 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Possibly! However, until recently i would have said New Zealand were dead certs for both....perhaps they've peaked too early!
If so its wide open.
Semis, Australia, France, New Zealand and Argentina.
Dark horses, Argentina, they're on the up...and seem to have an impressive record playing in france, only against the french admittedly.
2007-07-10 13:02:19 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋