If we only beat Ireland by that much we’re not going to win the cup.
Heh, here’s hoping!
The South African injury list (sadly, still not containing John Smit) is going to make this an even more interesting game - only one full-blown lock in the starting lineup and him carrying an injury (Bakkies Botha), a fullback playing inside centre, a flyhalf playing fullback, and the two best players from last week’s game sitting on the bench…
I still think that SA will take the game, but that it will be closer than lisate predicts.
Grim
The All Black - Japan game was spectacular.
It was so unevenly matched that when the Japanese number 11 pelted down the paddock with the ball, I completely expected John Cleese to step onto the field and trip him up, a la the rugby scene from Meaning of Life.
One playback showed a Japanese player sprinting down the field with a look of absolute terror on his face before he was engulfed by three ABs, any one of which was twice his size.
The kid couldn’t work out why I was cheering both sides and laughing hysterically for the entire second half.
Good on the Brave Blossoms for fighting on to the end.
Well, South Africa doing better than I’d hoped in the first half, but with the wind behind them, so we’ll see how the rest of the game goes. They have impressed me with their willingness to match the Fijjians in running the ball, and managing to do it well.
Six tries to none rather suggests they bossed the game effectively. Fiji’s best chance was for half of both sides to leave the field in the first minute - no other nation in the world has such a yawning gulf between their prowess in the 15-a-side game and Sevens.
It was a hell of a first half but South Africa ended up destroying the Fijians in an ominous way (for us non-South African fans). In the end my prediction was blown out of the water by more than 20 points by the South Africans.
Roll on Ireland and Australia!
Ja, the Boks owned them in the end - I was really quite nervous for the first 20 min or so, as our tactic seemed to be to let them run at us, gain territory and hope that they would make a mistake while doing so. The Fijians obliged, and we settled enough to run out comfortable winners.
Grim
Australia are doing it tough against Ireland. 6 all at half time.
This Ireland result really puts the cat amongst the pigeons. If all plays out as expected, it puts the Tri Nations all in one side of the draw and Ireland in with supposedly France, England and Wales in the other. All four of the 6N sides that go through have a serious chance of the final, as all are capable of beating each other. The Tri Nations equally are all capable of beating each other. It really opens the tournament up.
Argentina thumped Romania, after giving England a tough time. Arg-Sco could be the one to watch in that group. (Never underestimate Scottish determination and ability to piss on the English bonfire but I don’t remember them ever doing it in a WC.)
It makes the critical match New Zealand v France. The loser of that match gets the weaker side of the draw (avoiding Australia/South Africa till the final) but hits England in the quarters, the winner gets an easy quarter (Argentina or Scotland), but a tough semi. Do the ABs want to meet England in the quarters, or South Africa in the semis. France have the same choice. Both teams could prefer to lose the match. Hmmm.
Si
What a game. That really opens things up now. Why can’t we (Ireland) play like that more often? I may have screamed when Tommy Bowe intercepted that pass and ran the length of the pitch.
Around 1991 I was holidaying in a small fishing village called Yamba. Australia played Ireland late at night (our time) and Irelane hit the lead not long before full time. In disgust I turned off the television. On Sunday no papers were delivered so it wasn’t until the Monday I found out that Australia had scored an actually won the match.
Fast forward to 1999 and I was holidaying in Castlebar in Mayo. Now, even most Irish folk would not pretend Castlebar had much ambience. On Sunday I went into a local hotel for a few beers- I had no idea they still had sessions on a Sunday. Despite this everyone was in the pub drinking grog. Except Australia was playing Ireland at Rugby (it may have been a provincial side but anyway Australia were winning). I tried a different accent and pretended I was American or a Kiwi.
And people wonder why I don’t enjoy Australia playing ireland.
England raised enough steam to beat Georgia by plenty, but not without being given some hard times initially. I like to think we have not peaked yet. :dubious:
Well what a weekend. Ireland’s victory has certainly reshaped the whole tournament, with a Northern hemisphere-Southern hemisphere split to the draw now emerging. Samoa couldn’t do it against Wales yesterday in another great game which I had predicted incorrectly above. I got the other 5 games right right though…
We’re now half way through the pool games so lets have a look at the pool standings wkipedia page here:
**Pool A:**New Zealand and France both sit on 10 points and look certain to go through, with their final placings to be determined by their pool game this Saturday.
Pool B: England and Scotland sit on 9 points with Argentina still in touch with 6. I’m still hoping for Scotland to beat England and set up a three way tie just to make things interesting, but have to think that England are in the box seat, with Argentina to go through in second if they can beat the Scots on Sunday.
Pool C Ireland have 8 points, with Australia on 5 and the USA on 4. Having beaten Australia Ireland need only to beat Italy and Russia to go through as top qualifier from the group. If the USA could stage an enormous upset on Friday night and beat Australia they could qualify.
Pool D Wales (now on 5 points) held off a big challenge from Samoa (6 points) and look likely to go through in second spot (as they have yet to collect their near certain 5 points from a bonus point win over whipping boys Namibia). South Africa’s (9 points) demolition of Fiji (5 points) make it look highly unlikely that Samoa will upset them and the Springboks will go through in first place. The battle for second will come down to Fiji v Wales, the final game in this pool.
If you want to be clinical about it, if Australia can’t beat Ireland, they aren’t going to win the World Cup (and that is not being disrespectful to the Irish Team). I can’t see USA beating Australia however and the Italy versus Ireland match- who knows which Italy will turn up?
Well the good news for Australia is they don’t have to face Ireland again till the final I guess…
I’m not counting on Australia getting that far 
(And I think it would be great if Ireland or Scotland could actually win the Cup.)
Scotland - All Black final, with the AB’s winning by a narrow (yet respectable) margin.