Rugby in General Thread

[Limerickred]

The rugby world cup starts on Friday morning when hosts New Zealand kick off the tournament against Tonga at 9.30am.

A full list of the fixtures can be found here.

Thanks to being the other side of the world the kick off times arent great for a lot of the games. They can be starting from anywhere between 2am and 9.30am.

Favourites for the tournament are of course New Zealand, but then they have been favourites going into every world cup and have failed to win it since its first running and last time they were hosts back in 1987. If everything goes at it should they should win it but being hosts comes the extra pressure heaped on top of already playing for probably the most rugby proud nation on the planet. In previous world cups they have failed to deliver thanks to freezing or bottling it thanks to the pressure they come under so it will be no surprise to anyone if it happens again. Problem is though, there are very few teams capable of beating even a misfiring All Black team.

Australia will be second favourites, and my tip to win, after winning the Tri-Nations tournament recently and also Queensland Reds being Super 14 champions. They have a young team hungry for success and also know how to beat the All Blacks.

Defending champions are South Africa and they will not go down easily but are an ageing team. Two years ago they were world champions, Tri-Nations champs, Super 12 champs and hammered the Lions in a test series, But since then SA and their provincial teams have done nothing as the core of the team have grown older and their style of play became predictable and easy to defend. Could easily be going home early if the old guys dont perform.

Ireland...what can I say. They started August ranked fourth in the world and start this weekend ranked eighth. A very substandard year by all involved was only brightened by a brilliant performance against England in March. Since then its been miserable. Some think its all a ploy by coach Kidney to keep their plans hidden but I seriously doubt it. They start on Sunday on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 against a USA side coached by former Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan. The omens are not good.

England have actually been improving over the last two years with a couple of major blips along the way. Currently they are 6 nations champions even though they are not the best team in Europe. Johnson has them playing the same way as they used when he was captain and its far from exciting or flamboyant. It will get results though and they could easily grind their way to a semi final or even more.

France will be France. They could be brilliant world beaters one day and miserable flops the next. Capable of beating anyone else in the tournament it all depends on who coach Lievremont picks on the day. They have enough quality players to enter two teams which causes selection problems for the coach.

There should be some cracking games straight from the off and sometimes the most exciting are between the group minnows as they go hell for leather to get that all elusive world cup win.

Let the games commence.