Aristides Posted September 11, 2023 Report Share Posted September 11, 2023 World Cup is on in France. Some good matches so far, Wales vs Fiji yesterday was awesome and went right down to the end. England vs Argentina and South Africa vs Scotland were also very good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dougie93 Posted September 11, 2023 Report Share Posted September 11, 2023 let's go, Bokke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankyMcFarland Posted September 13, 2023 Report Share Posted September 13, 2023 (edited) On 9/11/2023 at 8:10 PM, Aristides said: World Cup is on in France. Some good matches so far, Wales vs Fiji yesterday was awesome and went right down to the end. England vs Argentina and South Africa vs Scotland were also very good. Fiji were hard done by there. The Welsh were allowed to slow play down without being penalized sufficiently for it. Like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, Argentina don’t play together enough and that showed in their match against England when they kept on missing passes. Hopefully they’ll improve as the competition progresses. One unexpected controversy has been the anthems. They’ve been sung by recorded choirs and have been very unpopular. That seems about to change. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/sep/13/rugby-world-cup-officials-in-u-turn-as-disturbing-anthems-to-be-re-recorded Another has been getting to the matches. The French are doing a poor job there so far. The three favourites are France, NZ and RSA. France beat NZ the other day. It’s considered a fairly open competition this time with no team looking way better than the others. https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/07/rugby-world-cup-2023-odds-favourites-win-19463585/ Edited September 13, 2023 by SpankyMcFarland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aristides Posted September 14, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2023 Interesting considering Ireland and SA are ranked 1 and 2 in the world. France and NZ are 3 and 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankyMcFarland Posted September 15, 2023 Report Share Posted September 15, 2023 (edited) 6 hours ago, Aristides said: Interesting considering Ireland and SA are ranked 1 and 2 in the world. France and NZ are 3 and 4. It’s an unusually open competition this year. Three southern hemisphere teams have won all World Cups but one since its inception in 1987: NZ, SA and Australia, the other team being England in 2003. NZ and SA would be considered the two strongest teams for most of the years since 1900 if rankings had existed and Apartheid hadn’t intervened. Oz have had organizational problems and also strong competition for elite players, eyeballs and money from rugby league, Australian rules football and soccer (and cricket to a lesser extent). France have been in finals but have not won yet. The betting on them this time is largely because they are at home. Ireland are a special case. They have a small number of elite rugby players who mostly play for one team. This means they do well between world cups when rankings are being decided but have yet to get past the quarter finals in the WC since 1987 when all teams have their best players together. The draw this year actually favours England and Australia who are on one side. NZ are weaker than usual and England have been poor. If one combines rankings, recent performance and WC record, I think SA have a reasonable chance of retaining the cup this time. Edited September 15, 2023 by SpankyMcFarland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.thumb.jpg.9a49e1b2f22a6d34a345152c50044aa9.jpg)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.