Pool C - General discussion

[watty]

I would say that NZ's scrum is almost up there with the best just now. They can usually hold their own against the saffa scrum. But I dont think any teams scrum is outstanding at the moment

 

[SPIDER18]

New Zealand are sooooooooooo lucky in here. Don't ya think? [/b]

why are we lucky we have been the best team for the last four years and by a long way we earned the easiest pool.

I would say that NZ's scrum is almost up there with the best just now. They can usually hold their own against the saffa scrum. But I dont think any teams scrum is outstanding at the moment [/b]

almost? we have the best scrum in world rugby we twisted the sa scrum all over the place.

 

[Boofhead]

Looking forward to the match between Scotland vs. Italy, will be a real nail biter!

This is the best opportunity Italy has had for a while though.

 

[udo]

NZ at a canter

I expect Italy to beat Scotalnd, they had one of the strongest packs in the 6 nations, troncon was superd at scrummie, the centres are quality, flyhalves do the job, the only problem is the back 3. I'd see a Scotland win as a surprise. [/b]

Sorry but I would be surprised if Italy beat scotland. The last six nations was a freak game with all those interception tries for Italy. Scotland totally dominated for the rest of the game. The only likely hood of Scotland losing to italy is if scotland have not settled on their squad from the S Africa and Ireland tests in August. I think the squad was taking shape by the last game against france.

 

[udo]

Looking forward to the match between Scotland vs. Italy, will be a real nail biter!

This is the best opportunity Italy has had for a while though. [/b]

I agree it really does look evens for the QFs on recent games but am confident scotland will make it through, especially if they play their 2nd team against NZ!

 

[barbu677]

My best hope as a Romanian is that Italy beat Scotland. Why? Well, we play horribly against Scotland (been beaten by 30-50 points the last two times, just like by any other British 7-nation team), and we are bad news for Italy (been beating them by 1-3 points in the last 2-3 games we played). So if Scotland beats Italy, we beat Italy and Italy beats Scotland there is a tiny (very tiny, mind you) chance that Romania could go through to the QF.

 

[melon]

Wow! Are you serious?! I never knew Romania was beating Italy! That's very good for Romanian rugby.

 

[barbu677]

Oh, yeah. And it's a sweet revenge. Because from the 50s to the 80s, when we had a .500 record against France, we had something like a .200 record against Italy. We could hold our own against pretty much anybody (except England and the Southern Hemisphere) but Italy pwned us repeatedly.

And now it's backwards :cheers: We are owned by pretty much anybody who's anybody (=the 6 nations, pacific nations, southern hemisphere), but we are causing Italy trouble.

Don't get me wrong, I will be cheering for Italy, they would be one of my favorite teams in world rugby if only their team was 100% Italians.

 

[Murrayfielder]

First Post and I am gonna be a critic.

Italy are mediocre, they maybe fast, but lets not forget that March 2007 is 6 months away from September 2007 and Scotland i am sure will work on the mistakes they made with Italy, remember they were mistakes that were made, Italy had a good day of Rugby, Scotland didnt.


Fixtures and My Guess Results
------------------------------------

NZ v Italy - NZ will win by 20+ pts
Sco v Por - Scot will win by 15+pts
Ita v Rom - Ita will win by 10+pts
NZ v Por - Agree with someone above +70pts or even 100
Sco v Rom - Sco will win by 15+pts
Ita v Por - Ita will win by 20+pts
Sco v NZ - NZ will win by 30+pts
Rom v Por - Rom will win by 15+pts
NZ v Rom - NZ will win by 50+pts
Sco v Ita - Depending on the temperature if too hot then Italy will win but if its good conditions suited for Scotland then Scotland will win, Id put my bet against my own nation, Italy were lucky in 6nation.

1. New Zealand - Obviously are favourites for this group, but possibly a shock win from Italy who knows.
2. Scotland - Scotland have been mediocre during the 6 nation campaign, the problem is too many people on here see that got the wooden spoon and think crap, if they get there head together stop penalising, which is a major problem with the Scotland side, then it could be Scotland going into QTs
3. Italy - Italy are fast upfront but still not good on going from counter to defensive, they may have worked on it for the World Cup if so, then yeh they could get to QT's personally I cant really decide who will be going into Quarters (Scotland or Italy)
4. Romania - Could give a Shock result with any of the faves for 2nd spot, it just depends on the day. Not previous results.
5. Portugal - Looking at the World Rankings they aint that bad a side if u base it on points, but seeing that New Zealand are the masters and Scotland and Italy play in 6 nation and Romania are not that bad a side not that great but not as bad as Portugal. But who knows.

----------------------------

As for remark about France beating Scotland or Italy in the Quarters, they maybe at home but lets not forget that Italy and Scotland can beat them

 

[barbu677]

Small add-on to this excellent commentary - from the Romanian perspective:

Romania's chances of causing an upset are, in reality, pretty small (think 2%). The team is changing generations, the old players are getting older (the forwards), the young players aren't experienced enough and they are at some key positions (almost all the backs).

Portugal has beaten Romania once in 6 or 7 games, in a home game (i.e. Lisbon). Don't get me wrong, if they play well they might force Romania to take the last place in the pool. The gap is not as big as the one between Scotland and Romania.

 

[nosferatu]

My best hope as a Romanian is that Italy beat Scotland. Why? Well, we play horribly against Scotland (been beaten by 30-50 points the last two times, just like by any other British 7-nation team), and we are bad news for Italy (been beating them by 1-3 points in the last 2-3 games we played). So if Scotland beats Italy, we beat Italy and Italy beats Scotland there is a tiny (very tiny, mind you) chance that Romania could go through to the QF. [/b]

1st of all, welcome to the forum! Great to have another Oak around here .And an optimist, too.

That being said, huh?

Here are our last 5 results against Italy:
6 Jun 2004 Romania 25-24 Italy
28 Sep 2002 Italy 25-17 Romania
18 Nov 2000 Italy 37-17 Romania
01 Oct 1994 Italy 24-6 Romania
07 Oct 1990 Italy 29-21 Romania
And, let's not fool ourselves - the Azzurri of 2004 were a largely experimental side. It will take much more to beat this Italy.

As for the .500 of that period vs France, you forgot to mention that it is for home games. Away we won once (ever, and that only in 1990), which kind of ruins our overall record.

 

[P0IS0N]

Italy's getting better by the year. I think there's more hope to beat Scotland, but even that is very thin. We need one of our good days, and they need a really bad one for that. Our team looks pretty good though, except for Tofan, I'll never understand what he's doing on the team...

 

[nosferatu]

With the RWC approaching, this is slowly turning into a Romanian thread !
Tofan? Why, he's the cheerleader(defensively, at least), of course.

 

[barbu677]

Who's Tofan? :lol:

No, really, he is bad. I don't know a good fly-half that could replace him though. I've seen Romania vs. Namibia at the tourney in Bucharest and it's tragic. It seems it is one of those positions where every other country produces good players and we don't. :angry:

Now about the records of Romania against Italy and France. It seems I was wrong. I thought we had played Italy 2 more times than we actually had, and that we had won one of those 2 games (which would have made our record after 1990 2 of 5=40%). My apologies.

France: Nosferatu, you're right about our away record being horrible against France.

On another note, why isn't www.rugby.ro working? :huh:

And we're hijacking this thread because there is too much (talk of) soccer on TV and Rugby 08 from EA sports has arrived.

Now, seriously, let's stop hijacking this thread and come back to talking what people wanna hear:
- All Blacks
- New Zealand
- that country south of Australia
- the team that first did the Haka
- the nation whose capital is Wellington.

 

[P0IS0N]

Who's Tofan? :lol:
No, really, he is bad. I don't know a good fly-half that could replace him though. I've seen Romania vs. Namibia at the tourney in Bucharest and it's tragic. It seems it is one of those positions where every other country produces good players and we don't. :angry: [/b]

Dimofte looks better to me than Tofan. Tofan can't kick to save his life (or the game). Not even line-outs, ffs. I think that's the basic thing a fly-half shoud know. I'm not mentioning anything else, because we all know he can't do anything else. I can't remember at least one tackle he gave, ONE! He can't even catch a ball right, damn-it.

 

[nosferatu]

I say we remain la oile noastre. There can't be much of an argument about the All Blacks in the pool stage (other than something similar to the just brilliant "All Blacks vs. Portugal score" :toss: , for every other team).

So, I'd rate Dimofte and even Dumbrava(out of position - but, what the hell?) ahead of Tofan. Come to think of it, even in 14 we would defend better and kick less ball straight into the hands of the opposition's back three (thus,Sivivatu or Rokocoko for top try scorer?).

 

[barbu677]

Enough pessimism. Let's talk of the good things in the Romanian team, like Calafeteanu and Fercu. Four years from now they're going to be great. Especially if they manage to transfer abroad (unlikely for their positions, but who knows).
The issue is having good forwards 4 years from now to complement the backs. I heard good things about Zebega, but little else about other young forwards.

And another good piece of news: Ion Paulica (prop) just got transferred from Steaua to Bath :bana: :bravo: yes, *the* Bath team from England. This is absolutely :cheers: I don't think we've had another player in England before.

 

[Murrayfielder]

have to agree with someone early cant remember who, but New Zealand are a great side no denying it but they have fell too often and it seems to be a pattern with them in World Cups, yeh they have an easy group, no Argument there.

I mean Statistically this is how the Groups Fair with World Rankings

Official World Ranking by IRB (29/07/07

Group A

England | 7th
South Africa | 4th
Samoa | 10th
Toga | 14th
USA | 15th

Group B

Australia | 2nd
Wales | 8th
Fiji | 12th
Canada | 13th
Japan | 18th

Group C

New Zealand | 1st
Scotland | 11th
Italy | 9th
Romania | 16th
Portugal | 21st

Group D

France | 3rd
Ireland | 5th
Argentina | 6th
Georgia | 17th
Namibia | 25th

 

[Ciais]

I don't believe too much in statistics. In football's Copa America, Argentina were the already-declared winners, because they had a full strength roster and played incredibly well, but as you know they lost to poor-looking Brazil 3-0. As an Italian, I hope we manage to beat Scotland (and who knows, maybe even the All Blacks), I only care about a quarter-final spot, so we also safely qualify for the next WC

 

[dam942]

If Italy plays like in 6 Nations, can beat Scotland and aim to the second place

Luca