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Must See Matches of the Tournament

L

leicester

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It seems to me that, New Zealand's dominance aside, there are some great matches coming up in RWC 07.



Must see matches for me are...



POOL A



England v Springboks. RSA clear favourites this time around but ENG will not be the same team that lost so badly in the summer.



England v Samoa. After RWC 03, really looking forward to this. SAM are always up for the world cup and their form outside of the event is no reflection of their form come RWC time. ENG are favourites but SAM will give it everything.



POOL B



Aus v Wales. AUS have improved recently but WAL play them in Cardiff and, after a narrow loss in the first of the June tests, will be up for it.



Wales v Fiji. Could be a real display of entertaining running rugby. My worry is that the Fijian rugby union seems to be in difficulties at the moment. I hope that is not reflected on the pitch.



POOL C



Scotland v Italy. THE must-win match for both these teams, with SCO still smarting from their VI Nations disasterand ITA clearly improving year-on-year. I rate Berbezier as a coach. This could be a close affair. It would be as uplifting for ITA to win this and qualify as it would be disastrous for SCO to lose.



POOL D



France v Argentina. First match of the tournament and the first real test. Could be the making or breaking of either team. Clearly, FRA are the favourites but ARG can beat them and seem to be developing real self-belief.



France v Ireland. What with all that frustration following the loss to FRA at Croke Park, IRE are really going to be up for this one. Having said that, for all their quality, IRE have a pretty poor recent record against FRA - and the match is to be played in France. I fancy FRA for the win but, with the Irish, anything could happen.



Argentina v Ireland. Seems to me that RWC match ups between these two are becoming tradition. Historically, they've always been close games. Add to the mix that both teams have improved since RWC 2003 and that the summer tests between these two featured less than full strength teams and you have a classic crunch match in the making.



For my money, these are the pool matches likely to generate the closest and/or most exciting games. The reasons why there is less emphasis on Tri Nations teams is...



1. In most cases, there seem to be horrible mismatches so no real challenges except for the possibilities (RSA V ENG and WAL v AUS) identified above.



2. I am a NH supporter so of course my eyes are on NH match ups.



I am also looking forward to some of the match ups between second tier nations. I figure the closest / most entertaining will probably be...



Canada v Fiji. USA v Fiji was pretty close in 03. Canada are better than USA and who knows which Fijian team will turn up?



Namibia v Georgia. Georgia probably have the edge but both teams would love to get a RWC win under their belts this time around.



Any comments?
 
Must see matches for me are:

Pool A:

Sept 8th England vs. USA
Sept 14th England vs. SA
Sept 22nd England vs. Samoa
Sept 26th Samoa vs. USA
Sept 30th SA vs. USA

gotta watch as many USA games as I can because they might not make it to the next round, and I think Samoa has some brutal hitters on their squad...always a fun team to watch

Pool B

Sept 15th Wales vs. Aussies
Sept 29th Aussies vs. Canada

Pool C:

Sept 8th NZ vs. Italy
Sept 23rd Scotland vs. NZ
Sept 29th Scotland vs. Italy

every NZ game is on my list though, and being part Scottish and part Italian I have to watch those games.

Pool of Death:

Sept 7th France vs. Argentina - will set the tone for the tourney
Sept 21st France vs. Ireland
Sept 30th Ireland vs. Argentina - should be a great game
 
completely agree with voicekiller but i disagree about georgia and namibia. will be quite scrappy. hopefully interesting tho.
 
I agree with most of Leicester's posts but another entertaining match to look out for is:

Pool A: Samoa vs Tonga.

Yes, there has been some mis-matches between them especially in the last few years but this is a different case, and it's on European soil. Look out for the late shoulder charges, the brutal high tackles and the forward battle.
 
I reckon Fiji and Samoa will disappoint.

I'll be glued to the AB pool matches, because Scotland and Italy will test them.

And I'll watch Ireland's matches with closed eyes - hoping France meet their match and Arg disappoint as well.

Best pool match? Aus v Wales.
 
What time(NZ Time) will the matches be played? I might be using up a bit of my annual leave from work.

Hopefully Italy and Scotland will be stubborn at least vs New Zealand.
 
Juggernaut,



I love the way Islanders play and always like to see competitive teams from Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. I would hope to see a great match between Tonga and Samoa but my understanding was that Tonga were pretty poor at the moment and the Samoa would walk it. What makes you think that the match will be closer / more entertaining? Do you expect Tonga to lift themselves on the RWC stage? Have they got any classy players available that were not available in recent matches?



Hopefully Italy and Scotland will be stubborn at least vs New Zealand. [/b]



I hope so too but I won't hold my breath. Despite their recent troubles, I would tip the Scots to be the ones to fight to the death. The likes of Jason White (if he regains fitness and form) and Sean Lamont just don't have the 'roll over and die' mentality. Besides, I remember the Scots actually putting up quite a fight (to start with at least) against eventual finalists Aus in the 2003 RWC. I don't expect Italy's pack to roll over either but they ain't got the same fight in the backs (except for Troncon).
 
Leicester,



It's not so much about their star players but their pride. Tonga were well beaten by Samoa in Apia this year (something like 40 - 9) and that will hurt them. Knowing some of them and their mentality, they'd rather go out there losing big to the Boks & England (which will definitely happen) but will try to avenge their loss.
 
Leicester,



It's not so much about their star players but their pride. Tonga were well beaten by Samoa in Apia this year (something like 40 - 9) and that will hurt them. [They] will try to avenge their loss.



[/b]



Cool. Sounds like it could be fireworks then, eh?
 
Australia vs Wales will be a terrific match at the Millennium Stadium and theres no way id miss South Africa vs England.
 
Australia vs Wales will be a terrific match at the Millennium Stadium and theres no way id miss South Africa vs England. [/b]



Canada and Fiji is going to be the most entertaining match of the world cup for me. It does help if your ****** as a fart in the stands. I can only afford cheapo tickets.
 
I think the big one as far as England are concerned will be the Samoan match, if SAs ability to play hasn't politicised out of them it'll be a big match but Eng v SA is pretty much a known quantity, we play Samoa so rarely, anything can happen
 
SA vs Eng
Franced vs Ireland
Argentina vs Ireland

These will be the best pool matches to watch.
 
The most must see match of the Rugby World Cup has[/i] to be:

Georgia vs Namimimi...Namibibiaiaia...Namibbbb-b-b-b....*ARGH!* South Africa 2nd XV!
 
Samoa vs England is going to be the match of Group A.

Or that maybe wishful thinking as I have tickets to watch the game! :cheers:
 
Leicester,



It's not so much about their star players but their pride. Tonga were well beaten by Samoa in Apia this year (something like 40 - 9) and that will hurt them. Knowing some of them and their mentality, they'd rather go out there losing big to the Boks & England (which will definitely happen) but will try to avenge their loss.



[/b]

Samoa beat Tonga 50-3.

But that was Brian Lima's last match on home soil, so I guess they were playing on passion.
Also, Tonga can't be that average. They were able to beat Fiji. Samoa only managed to scrape a 8-3 win against Fiji.

Tonga usually lift when they play Samoa. There is a huge rivalry between the two nations, mainly because of the history. There are always good hits though. Hopefully it'll be more of the same :)

I'm sure everyone remembers the All Blacks putting 50 points on the Aussies, and a few months later the Aussies beat the All Blacks in the semis. Well, thats pretty much how it is for Samoa and Tonga. That sme rivalry is there, and its pretty much anybodies game. Although, imo, Samoa will win :p
 
Forget the whole fixture list, i'm still well in truely excited about the first game, Argentina vs. France. The winner of that match will give us an idea on what Pool D will look like.
 

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