Rugby World Cup Pool Draw - 10 May

[Leonormous Boozer]

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/pooldraw

Please be Ireland, Scotland, Georgia - Three RWC powerhouses going at it, guaranteed quality.

I hope that Argentina's group, sans Irlande, has a strong tier 4 side and a weak tier 2 side, it'd be interesting watching a 6nations or Rugby Championship side have to qualify, I think the last time it happened was Ireland for the 2003 RWC.

 

[saulan]

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/pooldraw

Please be Ireland, Scotland, Georgia - Three RWC powerhouses going at it, guaranteed quality.

I hope that Argentina's group, sans Irlande, has a strong tier 4 side and a weak tier 2 side, it'd be interesting watching a 6nations or Rugby Championship side have to qualify, I think the last time it happened was Ireland for the 2003 RWC.

Hey, why stop there, right now we could have New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina in one pool as well.

 

[profitius]

England, Wales, Argentina.

 

[Goodey]

I'm enjoying following the lower tier qualifying. Here's what each of the positions mean

Band 4 -

Oceania 1: Winner of the 2016 and 2017 combined Pacific Nations Cup tables. Probably Fiji (currently 2 wins from 2). Decided in June
Oceania 2: 2nd place in the above table
Europe 1: Winner of a combined table from the 2017 and 2018 REC matches (same time as the 6N) with all matches against Georgia removed. Probably Romania
Americas 1: Winner of the 2-legged qualifier between the USA and Canada in July

Band 5-

Africa 1 - The winner of the 2018 Africa Cup, probably Namibia
Americas 2 - The winner of this years' South American Rugby Championship (May) vs the loser of Canada-USA. Will be Uruguay or Canada
Playoff - The 3rd place pacific islander side vs the 2nd placed team from the European qualifying (who also have a playoff against the RET winners Portugal first). Probably Tonga or Samoa
Repechage - a semis and final mini tournament in autumn 2018 with the Americas 2 playoff loser, Oceania/Europe playoff loser, the 2nd placed team from African qualifying and the winner of an Asian/Oceanian qualifier. My guess right now would be Spain, or Canada if they end up here.

- - - Updated - - -

Hey, why stop there, right now we could have New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina in one pool as well.

NZ, SA, Argentina, Fiji and Samoa is the pool to hope for.

 

[FNS]

Im planning on going to Japan so at least group stage will be all good matches. =D

 

[sigesige00]

Scotland luckily avoided Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Deutschland recorded a historic win against România. Can Deutschland qualify as Europe 1?

Playoff - The 3rd place pacific islander side vs the 2nd placed team from the European qualifying (who also have a playoff against the RET winners Portugal first). Probably Tonga or Samoa

Can Deutschland qualify by beating Tonga or Samoa?

Why there are so small number of posts? Time difference?

 

[Goodey]

Germany's best chance is to qualify via the Repechage but I expect Spain to get that spot. Germany losing at home to Spain this year has left them too much to do as far as I see.

 

[Goodey]

Draw in full, likely qualifiers in brackets:

Pool A: Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Europe 1 (Romania), Playoff winner (Tonga)

Pool B: New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Africa 1 (Namibia), Repechage winner (Spain/Uruguay)

Pool C: England, France, Argentina, Americas 1 (USA), Oceania 2 (Samoa)

Pool D: Australia, Wales, Georgia, Oceania 1 (Fiji), Americas 2 (Canada)

Winners:

South Africa - two pushovers and Italy to beat, then avoid NZ until the final
Ireland/Scotland/Wales - happy not to play Argentina
Japan - will fancy their chances against Scotland
Australia - easiest band 3 team, they have a great record against Wales, will avoid NZ before the final if they win the pool

Losers:

England/France - pool of death
Samoa - they would actually get an easier pool by losing all their PNC games
Italy - would much rather have had a go at Scotland/Wales/France for a 2nd place attempt

 

[munstermuffin]

I'm happy in 1 way with Irish pool but in another it's dangerous as you don't fully know where you at until after it

 

[Caitlyn Jenner]

Draw in full, likely qualifiers in brackets:Pool B: New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Africa 1 (Namibia), Repechage winner (Spain/Uruguay)

Jeez, NZ should be able to rack up a couple of massive wins there. Namibia and Spain/Uruguay will probs be the 2 weakest teams in the comp, and they have to play NZ and SA lol. I think we'll be seeing a few cricket scores in that pool.


Can someone explain to me how the playoffs will work? Like who will play who through the quarters and semis???

 

[TRF_heineken]

Jeez, NZ should be able to rack up a couple of massive wins there. Namibia and Spain/Uruguay will probs be the 2 weakest teams in the comp, and they have to play NZ and SA lol. I think we'll be seeing a few cricket scores in that pool.


Can someone explain to me how the playoffs will work? Like who will play who through the quarters and semis???

We don't know yet how the playoffs will work, and if they'll use the same structure as the last WC.

That wasn't confirmed today. So we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

I'm not sure ours is a pool of death. Maybe the pool of most bruises as it will be extremely physical, but I'd invariably back our full strength team to beat Arg and, resorting to cliche, who knows what France team will show up?

I'd be more worried if I was Irish or Scottish. Not impossible that Tonga might pull a performance from somewhere, but Japan will have prepared for this like nothing on earth and with the wind up them might just do something special.

 

[marianodan]

We'll shape up in time for the RWC, as always. I'm not anxious for our current results.

I would have liked to get one really easy team in the pool to rest players, though.

 

[Goodey]

I'm not sure ours is a pool of death. Maybe the pool of most bruises as it will be extremely physical, but I'd invariably back our full strength team to beat Arg and, resorting to cliche, who knows what France team will show up?

I'd be more worried if I was Irish or Scottish. Not impossible that Tonga might pull a performance from somewhere, but Japan will have prepared for this like nothing on earth and with the wind up them might just do something special.

I'm sure what to make of this post. Argentina are twice cup semi finalists, they have beaten SA, France and Italy since the last cup, there's no comparing them to Japan.

 

[Caitlyn Jenner]

I'm not sure ours is a pool of death. Maybe the pool of most bruises as it will be extremely physical, but I'd invariably back our full strength team to beat Arg

Yours certainly is the pool of death... I think you're greatly underestimating Argentina. They're more than capable of beating anyone on their day. And we all know what France can do...

 

[FNS]

If they change the retarded no jags no pumas rule. Then we might show up with a very decent team overall and we tend to play a lot better in a WC.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Goodey I'm not comparing Arg to Japan. Arg are clearly the better side, but they're a known quantity. With home advantage the Japanese might just produce the odd special performance that upsets the apple cart.

As for underestimating Arg. Possibly. It will be tough but objectively they're ranked 7 places below us and their 2016 form was 1 win out of 6 in the Championship and 0/3 in the AIs. The win was by 2 points at home and 5 of the 8 defeats were by at least 12 points.

Several of their stars from past campaigns are gone or waning. We're on the up with much better strength in depth. Arg warrant considerable respect, but if we have any real pretensions of being in the mix we shouldn't be facing them with real trepidation.

I'm sure what to make of this post. Argentina are twice cup semi finalists, they have beaten SA, France and Italy since the last cup, there's no comparing them to Japan.

 

[ALJ]

Can someone explain to me how the playoffs will work? Like who will play who through the quarters and semis???

From yesterday's article on the BBC:

World Rugby has confirmed the structure for the knockout stages of the 2015 tournament will remain in place in 2019. That means:

• The winners of Pool B will face the runners-up in Pool A
• The winners of Pool C will face the runners-up in Pool D
• The winners of Pool D will face the runners up in Pool C
• The winners of Pool A will face the runners-up in Pool B

Teams who played each other in the pool stages cannot meet again in the semi-finals.

 

[sigesige00]

From yesterday's article on the BBC:

World Rugby has confirmed the structure for the knockout stages of the 2015 tournament will remain in place in 2019. That means:

• The winners of Pool B will face the runners-up in Pool A
• The winners of Pool C will face the runners-up in Pool D
• The winners of Pool D will face the runners up in Pool C
• The winners of Pool A will face the runners-up in Pool B

Teams who played each other in the pool stages cannot meet again in the semi-finals.

So it would be quite likely for Scotland to face All Blacks in QF.

 

[Caitlyn Jenner]

From yesterday's article on the BBC:

World Rugby has confirmed the structure for the knockout stages of the 2015 tournament will remain in place in 2019. That means:

• The winners of Pool B will face the runners-up in Pool A
• The winners of Pool C will face the runners-up in Pool D
• The winners of Pool D will face the runners up in Pool C
• The winners of Pool A will face the runners-up in Pool B

Teams who played each other in the pool stages cannot meet again in the semi-finals.

OK, so it'll likely be:
QF1: NZ vs Scotland
QF2: England vs Wales
QF3: Australia vs France
QF4: Ireland vs SA
The big match here is Ireland vs SA. Whoever wins that will likely go through to the final.

SF1: NZ vs England
SF2: Australia vs Ireland
It seems, if all goes as expected, the 2 best teams will meet in the semis. Whoever wins SF1 will probs win the whole thing.

Final: NZ vs Ireland