Pool D - General discussion

[mimic]

Whoever comes 2nd, I hope they're in top form. I'd like the All Blacks to get a good warm up for the semis against Australia

 

[shtove]

Whoever comes 2nd, I hope they're in top form. I'd like the All Blacks to get a good warm up for the semis against Australia
[/b]

Ah, so the ABs will get out of their group? Now there's a cocky NZer.

Winner of pool D wins RWC '07. No argument. Don't even try.

 

[mimic]

Not being cocky, just being realistic

 

[C A Iversen]

Yes, yes Shtove. The All Blacks CAN be beaten, that is true. On the other hand, get real mate.

They are clearly the best team in the world right now. Fact.

Things can change, yes. As they stand of now though.........they should win their pool.

The Irish are a great side too. All respect to them. Although where are the results they need to be outright favourites in this pool?

 

[FrozenInferno]

Check back in september for the results .

 

[shtove]

Yes, yes Shtove. The All Blacks CAN be beaten, that is true. On the other hand, get real mate.
[/b]

Look, November was a shock. The ABs looked a bit imbalanced against England, but their demolition of a French team with a strong set piece was jaw-dropping. And after seeing the Crusaders last weekend, and a few clips of Toeava, my jaw bounced off the floor and smacked me in the face. :wah:

Fact is, anyone criticising the ABs here is just picking at small imperfections and hoping that cup rugby works its magic when the tournament comes around.

Talking about the ABs as chokers is just hopeless and irrelevant. But then talking about SA's weak form away from home is as well.

 

[eoino]

Abs will win their group. But after that ANYTHING can happen. Im just back from a tourniment in Spain, played 5 matches within 2 weeks and im physicly f***ed. Im talking high intensity. We won the cup and I couldnt stand to hold the feckin trophy. But these guys are playing at an even higher level, so after the group stages, any team can flunk, lets just hope for the best..

 

[C A Iversen]

Teams that have been in a World Cup Final:

Australia (3), England (2), France (2), New Zealand (2), South Africa (1). 5 World Cups and only five teams have contested the final. So thats 10 available finals slots so far and only five teams to have got them.

We'll see after the cup, but there'll be huge odds available for any other team to get there this time too. One combination of these above five teams will be there.

Not that much has changed. Please rub this post in my face if I'm wrong.

After what I've said in this post, Irish fans will find it hard to believe that I like their side, but I do. Their a pretty good side now.

I'm just a realist when it comes to World Cup Finals though.

 

[wygy]

on current form id have the final contested between NZ, SA and Ireland...no one else

replace and for or

 

[stormmaster1]

I think Argentina have a good chance. Ireland have a good side, but imo haven't played to their potential yet except v England. France are strong but if taken on can have a real poor day. Argentina will always fight well, and have come closer to beating the all blacks than any NH side since 2003. They have a very very strong pack, and if they perform upfront they have the beating of just about any side. I wouldn't be surprised to see them in the semis. But then again i wouldn't be surprised to see them out at the pool stage either, if Ireland and France are really on form. What are the chances of Ireland failing to go through??

 

[shtove]

What sort of talk is that? :%#%#:

Mind you, the odds on Ireland getting dumped might be punter friendly, so ... worth a bet. Or maybe France getting dumped?

 

[mimic]

Argentina will always fight well, and have come closer to beating the all blacks than any NH side since 2003.
[/b]

All Blacks beat Argentina 25-19 ?

All Blacks won 23-19 against England in 2005. Although they had players binned for the last 20 minutes, England were still close to toppling the All Blacks.

All Backs won against Wales 26-25 in 2004. That was pretty close.

 

[stormmaster1]

<div class='quotemain'>
Argentina will always fight well, and have come closer to beating the all blacks than any NH side since 2003.
[/b]

All Blacks beat Argentina 25-19 ?

All Blacks won 23-19 against England in 2005. Although they had players binned for the last 20 minutes, England were still close to toppling the All Blacks.

All Backs won against Wales 26-25 in 2004. That was pretty close.
[/b][/quote]

I stand corrected.
Point remains though, the Pumas are pretty damn good and shouldn't be taken lightly.

 

[eoino]

So are Ireland and France...

 

[gaspar]

1 France
2 Argentina
3 Ireland
4 Georgia
5 Namibia

 

[jk1212]

ireland should finish top, all our big players are getting a rest now for the world cup and everyone should be fit and healthy for rwc. we shoudl get revenge on france as BOD will be back and we should be argetina comfotably with out strongest squad

 

[sousou]

For me, the match between Argentina and France is the most important in this pool. The winner take a big chance to be 1st or 2nd.
But Ireland is not die!!
Remember the 6 nations, France beat them by a try by the wing Vincent Clerc ( I love TOULOUSe lol) in the last seconds.

 

[jsp_clarke]

Ireland should beat Argentina (despite the morale boost we just handed them by playing so ineptly on Saturday). We can beat France and to be honest have to because reland won't beat the AB's and need to finish top of the group.

 

[stringer9]

Ya like the Irish Argentina game on Saturday you can't look at it and think that Argentina will have a morale boost from it, they played a 2nd/3rd string Irish team who were inexperinced, little disciple, and prone to errors..to inexperienced and they didn't really gell either as a team, if they'd been playing together longer then maybe they could of beaten Argentina. Like but if we do look at the game, we'd plenty of posestion, good posistion, we did most of the running and attacking but for some reason we opted to fight them upfront in the scrum instead of kicking for touch and we'd terible kicking aswell, which really probally had something to do with Staunton having no practice at all cause they weren't alowed use the stadium the day before the match and he went in cold. Now if that was the 1st string Irish team, the backs who on Saturday just couldn't find their way through and were prone to errors, couldn't really put pieces of attacks together, our actual backs though, I'd be pretty confident could break through that defence, they can live off of what 30% of possesion and win the match, like they have before with Leinster and Ireland. We've on of the best attacking and defending backlines in the world and our team as a whole is more disciplined and more experieced and they've played with eachother for years. As for the forwards who had a horrific time against Argentina on Saturday in the scrum, fine we don't have the best scrum but we've a good pack and when we get our maul moving it's pretty hard to stop. As for the kicking for touch thing, we'll probally use that alot and to our advantage.

I know they hadn't alot of their main players there either like but still you can't really look at the 2 tests and say who'll win or not. But we do have a better idea of how they'll play.

 

[DonBilly]

I know they hadn't alot of their main players there either like but still you can't really look at the 2 tests and say who'll win or not. But we do have a better idea of how they'll play.
[/b]

Why? You think they will keep the same game plan although they will have aboard then players such as Hernandez, Pichot, Bosch, Corleto, Hasan, Roncero, Ledesma, etc.