What do you expect realisticly from your country at the RWC?

[Larksea]

All Blacks doninate the world rankings and have done so for the majority of time they have been running. But being the best team in the world doesn't win you the world cup and Winning the world cup doesn't make you the best team in the world. But winning it is something all NZers want to see happen. Mostly because it's the only bit of silverware that the All Blacks havn't won with ease on a regular basis.

The reason for that is less to do with "choking" and more to do with luck and the simple fact that no team can garantee that they will win any particular game on any given day because of the nature of one game knock out footy. If the finals were best of 3 or 5 then it would be a different story.

I look at 2007 and almost everything that could go against the AB's did in the lead up to that horid game. And if you look at how SA's tournament played out pretty much everything fell directly into their lap.

I believe NZ will win this one simply because for them not to it would take even more bad luck than last time. And I find it very hard to imagine that it will get that bad again.

The one other factor is that any team playing the All Blacks goes in almost like they have nothing to lose. They are not expected to beat the AB's and that makes them dangerous. Teams and players will take risks to get any advantage they can and if the ref lets it happen or the team pulls it off then it was worth it. if it backfires then it's no great loss as they weren't expecting to win anyway. France in 1999 and Australia in 2003 are pefrect examples of that.

I also hope Samoa and Tonga do really well. Lots of NZ players/people in and around those teams as well.

 

[AfakasiAssasin]

I don't expect Samoa to beat south Africa, and make no mistake they will be strong underdogs vs Wales. To an extent many people see them as the underdogs Vs Fiji aswell..I expect at least 2 wins but 3 would be a great result. Quarter finals a possibility with any further highly unlikely, but hoping it can be done.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

I can see New Zealand running into a team with absolutely nothing to lose and crashing out in the semi's or something like that. There will a big deal made about it, New Zealand will go close to losing their world number one ranking and then re-establish it the next season.

As said above, knock-out tournaments are knock-out tournaments. The side that gets it right on the day can win any game down to about the 6th best side in the world.

I'd love New Zealand to win the world cup, but I'm not going to lose sleep if we don't. I'm sure if we don't it'll have plenty of people showing their class by giggling like little schoolgirls over it, but it won't change the way the world of rugby is.

It's a tournament with a big name that's worth winning, that's the extent of it.

 

[Sam Owen]

A quarter-final against Australia.

 

[kovana]

A quarter-final against Australia.

Lets HOPE!! We can Smash em at Scrum time!!!

 

[FlukeArtist]

I expect nothing less than an undefeated tournament from the ABs.

Nothing else is acceptable after all this time.

Should have learnt by our mistakes by now surely???!!!

 

[JJR]

Fact 1: a lot of players are struggling with medium/long term injuries (Fourie Du Preez, Brussow, Dewald Potgeiter, Juan Smith, Gurthro Steenkamp), others are back but not in their best form (JP Pietersen). Not a good sign at this moment, looking forward to the forthcoming WC...

Fact 2: PDV is likely going to call the same players used in the last 4 years (ore even more), with a few other names (Louw, Kankowski, Dewald Potgeiter, maybe Jantjes and Lambie because he found he has no 10s after Morné Steyn...).

I'm not saying he has to call up new faces NOW.
I'm saying he should do this 2 years ago, and sistematically use them, as Deans did with Australia!
There are 3-4 key players without some good back-ups

- John Smit first, because he's a great leader, but Matfield is far from him (I always said that vice-captain must be Juan Smith)
- Juan Smith; Frans Louw is on the right way, but he's not ready
- Fourie du Preez, there is no n.9 like him for this team;

I think poor SA we've seen in 2010 was due (also) to the absence of these last 2 guys, when Juan Smith returned, he changed the team (for the last 2 matches)

But he's going at the World Cup with Matfield (who's keep playing like a ghost), Spies (who doesn't tackle my 95yo grandma), Kirchner (who's NOT a test fullback), maybe Juan Smith (based on his injury, he should play with only one leg), and he's not even where John Smit has to play, or who's gonna be the 2 best options for the halves back-up!

In addition to this, what PDV is going to do with Frans Steyn and Joe Van Niekerk?
He can't go to the cup without the first, and the second deserves as well a couple of chances to show what he can still do!


As I said before: it's not matter of what he could do now, but what he should have done before!

HA Ha, F.Louw has no chance of making WC Squad. It is MAY!!! Most of the injured guys back at least 3 weeks before Tri-Nations starts. Kirchner...HA HA...there is no chance with Rassie Erasmus part of the Management team that Kirchner will start ahead of F.Steyn. Don't think you have been watching The Bulls play lately...your comments are not justified.

Possible Bok 22-

1.Beast/Steenkamp
2.J.Smit (C)
3.Jannie Du Plessis
4.Bakkies Botha
5.Victor Matfield
6.Heinrich Brussouw/Schalla Burger
7.Juan Smith
8.Pierre Spies
9.Fourie Du Preez
10.Morne' Steyn
11.Bryan Habana/Bjorn Basson
12.JDV
13.Jaque Fourie
14.JPP
15.F.Steyn

16.B.Du Plessis
17.B.Mujati
18.Andries Bekker
19.Burger/Brussouw
20.Francois Hougaard/Ruan Pienaar
21.Patrick Lambie/Butch James
22.Basson/Habana

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

HA Ha, F.Louw has no chance of making WC Squad. It is MAY!!! Most of the injured guys back at least 3 weeks before Tri-Nations starts. Kirchner...HA HA...there is no chance with Rassie Erasmus part of the Management team that Kirchner will start ahead of F.Steyn. Don't think you have been watching The Bulls play lately...your comments are not justified. I suspect though that it has more to do with the direction FdP has been starting to give the team again where we have really missed him since after the B&I Lions; in SA our 9's dictate play more than our 10's TBH.

Possible Bok 22-

1.Beast/Steenkamp
2.J.Smit (C)
3.Jannie Du Plessis
4.Bakkies Botha
5.Victor Matfield
6.Heinrich Brussouw/Schalla Burger
7.Juan Smith
8.Pierre Spies
9.Fourie Du Preez
10.Morne' Steyn
11.Bryan Habana/Bjorn Basson
12.JDV
13.Jaque Fourie
14.JPP
15.F.Steyn

16.B.Du Plessis
17.B.Mujati
18.Andries Bekker
19.Burger/Brussouw
20.Francois Hougaard/Ruan Pienaar
21.Patrick Lambie/Butch James
22.Basson/Habana

The Bulls have been picking themselves up. A mate of mine has been saying these key Bulls players that have been underperforming have just been biding their time for the RWC. Might he be right? Personally though, as I told him, I would have no respect if they came out saying they haven't been giving the green and gold their all for the last season and a half.

I agree that is the most likely team and yeah, its difficult to pick some of those positions.

What I would personally love is to see Danie Rossouw take up his position at 8 again (RWC 2007) with Burger on the bench and either Alberts or Vermeulen as injury cover.

At the halves I would like to see FdP and the two Steyns as the starters with a bench of
20)Hougaard, 21)Pienaar, 22)Lambie- that covers every position in the backline doubly LOL.

Props;
Guthro Steenkamp
Jannie du Plessis
Tendai Mtawarira
Brian Mujati

Hookers:
Bismarck du Plessis
John Smit
Adriaan Strauss

Locks;
Victor Matfield
Bakkies Botha
Andries Bekker
Flip van der Merwe

Backrow:
Juan Smih
Danie Rossouw
Heinrich Brussow
Schalk Burger
Willem Alberts if he comes right during the S15 otherwise Vermeulen

Scrummies;
Fourie du Preez
Francois Hougaard
Ruan Pienaar (utility)

Flyhalves;
Morne Steyn
Patrick Lambie (on the bench to cover 10/12/15)

Centers;
Jacque Fourie
Jean de Villiers
Juan de Jongh

Wings;
Bjorn Basson
JP Pietersen
Gio Aplon

Fullbacks;
Frans Steyn
Odwa Ndungane

1 spot over to make 30 but no place in the squad (maybe Riaan Viljoen) for Spies, Januarie, Kirschner, Van der Linde or Habana for me. That'd be a very good squad with a bit of gamble on the form of older players rather than the nerve of younger players though I feel a slight mix would be best.

 

[Aout]

I expect France to lose against NZ in pool games, win its quarter final against England and then... who knows...

But I expect at least a semi final. The only issue will be the 1/4 final against England. For some reason, France is ALWAYS underperfoming against them. But I'm confident, I know we have the tools to win that game.

 

[Hulk Hogan]

Australia to win it and for NZ to then implode.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Just a bit of useless trivia. I put up a 2007 wallabies world cup poster in my garage 4 years ago... counted the players still in the squad today... could only count 5
have any other teams changed as much?

For England, based on likely starting 15, it would be 3/15, just cueto, moody and sheridan. And those are 3 players who could realistically lose starting places in the forseeable future. Maybe 2 others on the bench, but the changes have been huge, as with australia

 

[Aout]

What happened to Monye ? And Abendanon ? Are they going to be picked up for the RWC ?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Doubt it - I think Mike Brown is ahead of Abendanon atm (or at least will be if he has a good game against Barbarians on the weekend) and Johnson considers Matt Banahan and David Strettle better than Monye (which neither of them are - however I wouldn't pick Monye for my squad unless he was the starting winger, as he only plays wing so isn't the best to come off of the bench)

 

[TVH11]

well despite a very tough pool, i expect us to go through to quarters. We never go any further than that of late (saying that 2007 was a complete shambles - no wonder with Gypo in charge ). I'd expect us to progress through as runners up of the group, but our form of late has been **** poor. So hopefully we'll get some decent performances in the warm ups, and really solidify our combination. I fully expect Shane to have a great final Hurrah at the tournament, so combining that with an on form Henson, we'll take on the world

 

[Charles]

I expect nothing less than an undefeated tournament from the ABs.

Nothing else is acceptable after all this time.

Should have learnt by our mistakes by now surely???!!!

Obviously not.

lol.

 

[lucky number 7]

Ireland for a semi final place I hope ...

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Ireland for a semi final place I hope ...

You'd either have to beat Aus in the pool stages or go through, probably, SA in the QF. Both tough asks but I have a suspiscion that Ireland are the dark horse for this RWC; the other horses being NZ, SA, Aus, Eng and France of course.

 

[irelandfan123]

If Ireland played like they did against England , we should at the very least reach the semi's and maybe even the final if we are very lucky

 

[m0rris]

Yeah... but that would require England to be their opponent at every match!

Ireland against England were amazing, but as soon as you take away the extra motivation they looked distinctly lack-lustre this six nations. Hopefully they'll pull themselves together for the RWC, but I'm not holding my breath.

m0rris

 

[lynam1104]

Ok I'm going to step in right here and say that Ireland will not get past QF unless there is a huge lift in form or drop form everybody else after the last WC all we should be hoping for is a QF.