RWC 2007 - state you case!

[Infidel Castro]

Well, 9pm tomorrow (8pm BST) will see France play Argentina in the Rugby World Cup opener. I know we\'ve got a fair handful of supporters floating about here, so let\'s use this thread to accommodate our banter over the next 7 weeks.

I have no hopes for Wales getting beyond the QF unless we beat Aus, SA beat England and we then play England in the QF. \"Better the devil you know\" and all that.

I can\'t choose the winner till I see a few more matches yet, but I fancy SA.

Good luck to you all, Canadians, Americans, Italians, English, Irish, Kiwis, Wallabies, Bokke, Welsh, Scots, Portuguese, Namibians, Samoans, Tongans, Fijians, Frenchies, Georgians, Argies, Japanese and Romanians.

 

[breadhead]

BOKKE!

I would love to see South Africa win, that would be great.

I always struggle to see how anyone can beat the all blacks though. I saw them demolish France (admittedly a third strength French team) in Wellington earlier this year and they just look unstoppable, as ever!

 

[Avelorn]

Not much rugby here in Sweden. Shame.. that\'s one of the sports I\'d like to try out.. people often complain that I\'m too rough when playing regular football!

 

[supervike]

I\'d love to see more Rugby action here in the states....its just not something they will show on the television....

But, then again, Football season (american!) kicks off tonight, so I shall be satiated for a while!

 

[Dragonsreach]

Should be some class games going on there.
(Even though I don\'t watch sport on TV, Rugby is still the best Ball sport played on a field.)

 

[Roger Bunting]

I think it was in 1995 that Soth Africa won it, by beating the All Blacks. I don\'t think England has much chance of defending their title, they\'ve pretty much been crap since they won it. The occasional game they\'ve played well; but there\'s no consistancy. Much like most England teams.

 

[freakinacage]

well i can\'t tell you who will, but i can name a country that won\'t! actually i can think of a couple. need to pull it together to get anywhere for this

 

[Infidel Castro]

I think feasibly only the tri-nations teams and France have a chance. The rest of us will be restricted to occasional cameo performances.

And I thought the professional game would have changed matters by now.

Terrible.

 

[frenchkid]

France all the way !!!

Though it looks like we have some though matches ahead of us, and the all blacks are dame scary. Versus Argentina should be interesting, time to make some pop corne and bring out the beer :beer:

 

[Infidel Castro]

It\'s a cracking opening match. It\'ll be blood and thunder I hope (as opposed to thud and blunder). I think a beer will be in order tomorrow evening

 

[Beelzebrush]

I reckon SA too... in fact I backed them several months ago

I\'d obviously love England to do well, but it\'s not on the cards methinks.

England v USA should be intersting though. I\'ve never seen the US play rugger... I hope they don\'t turn up wearing helmets and armour lol

 

[Roger Bunting]

I have seen them play, in the last RWC, I think. Most of their team live outside of the US, I believe. Quite frankly, I\'m not sure England could beat them as who knows what\'s going to turn up dressed in England shirts these days.

 

[generulpoleaxe]

i reckon france will be a team worth watching.

unfortunately all anyone has to do is stop englands kicking game and they have us beat. if it was a friday/saturday night drunken brawl contest i reckon we would be odds on favourites lol

 

[Roger Bunting]

I\'m not sure about that, if Johnny Wilkinson was taking part. \"Ooh, oww, I\'ve stubbed my toe, that\'s me out for another year\".

 

[DrEvilmonki]

I am not a religious follower of union (more into the 13 aside game) but obviously coming from New Zealand you would have to be dead for the world cup not to be on your mind. I didn\'t realize it was 7 weeks long though.

I hope the All Blacks win, for no other reason than I don\'t want to have to put up with the level of depression losing will cause in others. We are in danger of becoming like England in the soccer WC always looking back at the one time we won.

And I doubt SA have a chance - their team has to much politics involved in selection.

 

[Roger Bunting]

There haven\'t been enough RWCs for you to become like us just yet.

 

[Legacy Account]

I\'m going with the Kiwis beating the Frenchies in the final.

The All Blacks still play flowing, attacking and entertaining rugby - something many of the top international sides seem to have forgotten about in favour of massive packs of bludgeoning forwards.

No wonder poor little Jonny keeps getting knacked!

 

[DrEvilmonki]

Originally posted by Spacemunkie


No wonder poor little Jonny keeps getting knacked!

That and he\'s English (bunch of woofters really, lucky you guys had the Russians and Yanks on your side in WWII )

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by DrEvilmonki

Originally posted by Spacemunkie


No wonder poor little Jonny keeps getting knacked!

That and he\'s English (bunch of woofters really, lucky you guys had the Russians and Yanks on your side in WWII )

And the ANZAC\'s weren\'t?

 

[Aidan K]

Have to go with EvilMonki here, NZ will win, beating France in the final.

No bias though