Bienvenue sur le fil de la coupe du monde de rugby!

Big weekend ahead.....


POOL A – New Zealand, France, Italy, Uruguay, Namibia
No fixtures this weekend

POOL B – South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Romania, Tonga

Sat 23 Sept South Africa v Ireland (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)

Sun 24 Sept Scotland v Tonga (4.45pm, Stade de Nice, Nice)



POOL C – Wales, Australia, Fiji, Georgia, Portugal

Sat 23 Sept Georgia v Portugal (1pm, Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse)

Sun 24 Sept Wales v Australia (8pm, Parc OL, Lyon)



POOL D – England, Japan, Argentina, Samoa, Chile

Fri 22 Sept Argentina v Samoa (4.45pm, Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Étienne)

Sat 23 Sept England v Chile (4.45pm, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)


My nominations it Bold for winner this weekend.

Where to start - other than France loosing Dupont yesterday, which I hope isn't a long termer as he's a brilliant player.

Ireland I think have the minerals for South Africa - tbh this feels like the World Cup final match, so its a pity its in a pool game but hey ho. I fancy Ireland to win - if they lose its hard to see anyone stopping South Africa in this World Cup, especially if France have lost Dupont.

Next big one is Wales v Australia - on paper, Aus have lost 6 of their last 7 - but you can never discount them. Wales seem to have a mental block with Southern Hemisphere teams, the likes of England and France would see Australia as easy picking. Wales had far better control over Fiji than Australia got near - but I don't think we'll keep all those control players on the pitch. Its going to be squiffy bum time for Wales.

England take on Chile - if England keep kicking possession and position away as they did against Tonga I can see them losing a lot of fans - they have some fantastic players and I think we all want to see them play with verve. So Borthwich chooses Farrell at 10 and Smith at fullback.......I assume he's playing a dual pivot, so as long as Smith is the side of Arundle it could be exciting.

 

Yes. Hope Dupont is able to return. Really looking forward to Ireland v Springboks this weekend. Am working so will have to watch on catch up.

 

Looked like they were having fun out there. Albeit this was against much weaker opposition than they’ll meet later…. Is it Samoa next? Looking forward to Ireland match though. For some reason thought it was tomorrow, so, bonus

 

What a game so far!!!

 

Stunning

 

South Africa look well within themselves…that’s not to take anything from Ireland, they’ve been magnificent.

South Africa replacement hooker looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

 

Fair play Ireland, what a game!!


Still think SA have more in the tank….and some great players to come back in. Only weakness I think they have is replacement hooker isn’t in the same league as Malcolm Marx.

However not sure I’d bet against Ireland, they aren’t an emotional only team, but expended a lot in that game.

 

What a fantastic game! Edge of seat stuff. How many kicks did Faf and Libbock miss though!

 

So much more to come I think.
Excellent game all the same. De kleerk is good but squirmy.

 

The noise the Irish fans made was off the scale fantastic. @Barry Haynes is half Irish isn’t he?

 

I’m half Irish and wish them well….they aren’t ‘my’ team though.

 

Yep. Looking forward to your game tomorrow too

 

Bit embarrassed, after match saying the hooker wasn’t one, apparently they’d said that before the game….I genuinely hadn’t seen that, else I’d not have posted the obvious!!

 

It’s going to be mega.

Can an at times fragile Wales beat what is for them a weak Aussie team?

If we can control it like we did Fiji for the first 70 we should be fine. But as mentioned earlier NO Welsh team in history simply dominates Southern Hemisphere opposition like say the 2003 England…..so it’s back to squiffy bum time.

 

Best match I've seen for years , well done Ireland but they were a trifle lucky with the SA kicking but taking nothing away both teams played like champions.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

Pretty clean too. And a proper battle.

 

Well that surpassed my wildest dreams….finally a ruthless Wales put a southern hemisphere team away.

Most exciting thing is how young a team we have, a lot of very young guys in that squad.