Predictions for the knockout stages.

[Fard]

I would be very surprised if Ireland beat argentina

Would you? I would be very surprised if Ireland didn't beat Argentina.

 

[RJAH777]

I guess one of us may be very surprised.. But first...Ireland will need to beat France or it's the all blacks for them

 

[The Jones Boy]

I think Ireland will beat France.
I hope so, because I want the Frogs at the Millennium with Wayne barnes.
Either cement the myth or expel it.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

I think Ireland will beat France.
I hope so, because I want the Frogs at the Millennium with Wayne barnes.
Either cement the myth or expel it.

It would most likely expel the myth, however there will be a lot of very nervous kiwis before the game.

 

[Kiwi_]

I think Ireland will beat France.
I hope so, because I want the Frogs at the Millennium with Wayne barnes.
Either cement the myth or expel it.

You'd be the only Kiwi to want that, lol.

 

[ABs2011]

I think Ireland will beat France.
I hope so, because I want the Frogs at the Millennium with Wayne barnes.
Either cement the myth or expel it.

I'm with you on that. It's both the match up I think will happen and the one I want too. I'm confident they will be up for that match and would have a greater chance of vicotry.

 

[profitius]

I have always wondered how teams like wales or Ireland would go if they competed in the RC. Before searching for this comment I thought that both those teams would fair similar to Argentina.

So to find out I am going to use the past two years of welsh and Irish results against RC teams (2013 and 2014 AIs and summer rugby tours) and compare them to argentinas last two years in RC (2015 and 2014). I

If Argentina are over rated the stats should show a noticeable difference in win/loss between the home nations And Argentina.

ARGENTINA
2015:
Loss to NZ away
Loss to AU home
Win to SA away.
Loss to SA home
= 1 win away
2014:
Loss to IRE home
Loss to IRE home
Loss to SA away
Loss to SA home
Loss to NZ away.
Loss to AU away
Loss to NZ home
Won to AU home
= 1 Win home

WALES
2014:
Loss to SA away.
Loss to SA away.
Loss to AU home
Loss to NZ home.
Win to SA home
= 1 win home.
2013:
Loss to SA home
Won to ARG home
Lost to AU home.
= 1 home win (to ARG)

IRELAND
2014:
Won to ARG away
Won to ARG away
Won to AUS home
Won to SA home
Win to SA home
=2 wins away
2 wins home
2013:
Loss to AU home
Loss to NZ home
=0 wins

So looking at those stats it would be fair to assume that both wales and Ireland would expect to see similar results to Argentina in the RC. Only Ireland's 2014 AI home results against the SH are distinguishable from the others.

So from that I would say that no Argentina are not overrated

Theres a big flaw in your argument. Using some basic maths to get the winning percentage.
Argentina 16.6%
Wales 25%
Ireland 57%

If you just take the last year
Argentina 25%
Wales 25%
Ireland 100%

 

[Rugby Jay]

I suppose Argentina are a bit overlooked in a world cup but have managed to be in the running quite consistently.

 

[petite]

i don´t uderstand why is everybody for ireland vs arg
first the are going to come from a very difficult game vs france, in the other hand arg is going to get there after playng vs nambia whith 12 changes..
they are going to meet a very well rested side (the same goes for france)
also do you remember our last 3 rw encounters? 1999 we lost by so little and then 2003 a 2007..
i think nh nations are generally over rated like england was going to win the hole thing.. ireland barely beat italy.. i want to see how scots are going to do vs samoa..

 

[jomjom]

Yes, a shoddy win over Italy, but the results of the past 2 years must say something. Back to back 6N champions, impressive wins over SA and Oz and although we so very narrowly lost to NZ in 2013, it was one of the best performances Ive ever seen an Irish team execute.

Im not here to say that Ireland are the best, I dont think were any better than Wales and before last weekend I wouldve said England... But Schmidt's Ireland has some credibility to it and Im definitely much more nervous about France and NZ than I would be Argentina!!!

Previous world cups count for nothing, people on this forum are obsessed with referencing history as an indicator to an upcoming match but as every sports fan knows, ANYTHING can happen, all that matters is the match there and then, not what happened years ago.

Anyways I have no idea what point Im trying to make but whatever it is its made (!)

And for the record Italy on a very good day (like Sunday) are a competent team... how close was the last match between Italy and Argentina, again!? Its a shame that they cant consistently play with such skill, the 6N and international rugby as a whole would be so much more interesting...

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Yes, a shoddy win over Italy, but the results of the past 2 years must say something. Back to back 6N champions, impressive wins over SA and Oz and although we so very narrowly lost to NZ in 2013, it was one of the best performances Ive ever seen an Irish team execute.

Im not here to say that Ireland are the best, I dont think were any better than Wales and before last weekend I wouldve said England... But Schmidt's Ireland has some credibility to it and Im definitely much more nervous about France and NZ than I would be Argentina!!!

Previous world cups count for nothing, people on this forum are obsessed with referencing history as an indicator to an upcoming match but as every sports fan knows, ANYTHING can happen, all that matters is the match there and then, not what happened years ago.

Anyways I have no idea what point Im trying to make but whatever it is its made (!)

And for the record Italy on a very good day (like Sunday) are a competent team... how close was the last match between Italy and Argentina, again!? Its a shame that they cant consistently play with such skill, the 6N and international rugby as a whole would be so much more interesting...

This, if we beat France we beat Argentina. We're a better team, with better players and a better coach. History counts for **** but the results between the two nations that make interesting reading is that that game in '07 was the last time we lost to Argentina.

 

[Pampas]

This, if we beat France we beat Argentina. We're a better team, with better players and a better coach. History counts for **** but the results between the two nations that make interesting reading is that that game in '07 was the last time we lost to Argentina.

I agree Ireland would be favourite against Arg. However, the results in the last years might be misguiding, because Arg played mostly against SA, OZ and NZ, and in June Windows we used alternative teams because of the incompability of the NH and SH calendar. And precisely the lack of depht is one of our main problems.

 

[marianodan]

I agree Ireland would be favourite against Arg. However, the results in the last years might be misguiding, because Arg played mostly against SA, OZ and NZ, and in June Windows we used alternative teams because of the incompability of the NH and SH calendar. And precisely the lack of depht is one of our main problems.

I personally only measure Argentina's performance in the last 3 years with the RC tests, the rest is all bull****... in June window we always play with C/D teams and in November we always have loads of injured as aftermath of RC. So all our tests vs NH nations for the last 3 years have been a joke for us (and even then we managed to pull some absurd results like beating Wales in Cardiff and France in Paris).

 

[KeyboardWorrier]

QF1: RSA Vs Wales - RSA WIN
QF2: NZ Vs France - NZ WIN
QF3: Ireland Vs Argentina - Argentina WIN
QF4: Australia Vs Scotland - Australia WIN

SF1: RSA Vs NZ - NZ WIN
SF2: Argentina Vs Australia - Argentina WIN

F: Argentina Vs NZ - NZ WIN.

 

[GoTheNaki]

QF1: RSA Vs Wales - RSA WIN
QF2: NZ Vs France - NZ WIN
QF3: Ireland Vs Argentina - Argentina WIN
QF4: Australia Vs Scotland - Australia WIN

SF1: RSA Vs NZ - NZ WIN
SF2: Argentina Vs Australia - Argentina WIN

F: Argentina Vs NZ - NZ WIN.

Gonna put money on this ?

 

[The80sDogCancer]

Theres a big flaw in your argument. Using some basic maths to get the winning percentage.
Argentina 16.6%
Wales 25%
Ireland 57%

If you just take the last year
Argentina 25%
Wales 25%
Ireland 100%

theres a big flaw in your response. the win/loss ratios for wales and ireland are heavily favoured with home matches compared to argentina and thats why i didnt use them

 

[Horacito]

It makes no sense to answer from an argentinian point of view: they will allways look down on us and it will allways play in our advantage.

I was born from 1991, and haven't watch a single world cup in which ireland didn't have their "best team ever", that being 99, 03, 07 or 11, and they allways fail and then forget what they said (we are going to smash 'em... like you did in 2007) and then time goes and other four years pass and there we go again.

I do think Argentina is overrated from some people and very underrated by some others, because in the case of the first ones is pure hype and no serious annalysis of rugby and the second is disrepect and arrogance like winning a six nations against Stuart Lancaster and Phillip St André is the same thing as crushing against Steve Hansen's ABs every year and being destroyed in every game only to hope Santiago Cordero doesn't get injuries too early in his career.

But anyway, we'll see. If the irish defeat france ( yet to see if they can) and then deafeat us, good luck for them and they were better. If they lose, I really hope they don't have the guts to face themselves and say they were wrong, I really do. After all, we are the ones with nothing to lose and we already demonstrated what we are made of by reaching semi finals of RWC.

Good luck then.

 

[KeyboardWorrier]

Gonna put money on this ?

Depends what it's paying I guess :lol: I wouldn't put much on it.

 

[TheOvalBall]

South Africa are in a superior position to many. They had to play knock out rugby from the 2nd game, so they have that advantage. Where as, the rest only switch to that mindset on monday.

 

[KeyboardWorrier]

South Africa are in a superior position to many. They had to play knock out rugby from the 2nd game, so they have that advantage. Where as, the rest only switch to that mindset on monday.

Is this the team that lost to Argentina (at home) and also lost to Japan?

No, I'm sure there's no holes a tier 1 rugby team could find in that lineup.