The benches will win this WC.

[Superalexmarket]

We're all a little disappointed by the performance of supposedly "the favorites teams", but I think the teams are actually playing for keeping a physical rest for the second part of this championship. It is a very intensive championship with a lot of matches in a very short period of time, so if you get a good physical and mental state at the end of the tournament, it will be key to win the trophy.
For this, the benches developed a fundamental work, and this is where the All Blacks have an abysmal advantage over the other teams.

 

[Chistera]

We're all a little disappointed by the performance of supposedly "the favorites teams", but I think the teams are actually playing for keeping a physical rest for the second part of this championship. It is a very intensive championship with a lot of matches in a very short period of time, so if you get a good physical and mental state at the end of the tournament, it will be key to win the trophy.
For this, the benches developed a fundamental work, and this is where the All Blacks have an abysmal advantage over the other teams.

Rather than being disappointed by the top teams I'm, as I think most are, surprised and pleased by the level demonstrated by "lower-tier" nations. It's healthy for rugby to have more competitive teams on the international level and not have 100-0 scores at the World Cup.
Fatigue is a key factor and that's why benches are so important, that's also why Pool A teams are disadvantaged, having three really tough games to play before the knockouts while Pool D teams -France and Ireland- will go relatively rested into the latter stages, with only one challenging game under their belt. The injury tally of these two teams (null except for the unfortunate no-contact Huget injury) seems to confirm this.

 

[RJAH777]

Rather than being disappointed by the top teams I'm, as I think most are, surprised and pleased by the level demonstrated by "lower-tier" nations. It's healthy for rugby to have more competitive teams on the international level and not have 100-0 scores at the World Cup.
Fatigue is a key factor and that's why benches are so important, that's also why Pool A teams are disadvantaged, having three really tough games to play before the knockouts while Pool D teams -France and Ireland- will go relatively rested into the latter stages, with only one challenging game under their belt. The injury tally of these two teams (null except for the unfortunate no-contact Huget injury) seems to confirm this.

+1 for this. The tier 2 nations have improved a lot. All the Georgia forwards play professionally in Europe. Imagine if they had some skilled backs today..It's great to see the gap narrow. There's actually is a real chance Japan could make the quarters.

 

[Toko_11]

+1 for this. The tier 2 nations have improved a lot. All the Georgia forwards play professionally in Europe. Imagine if they had some skilled backs today..It's great to see the gap narrow. There's actually is a real chance Japan could make the quarters.

Agreed... I think the top teams are a little stunned by the progress of the minnows... they used to cruise through them without much effort and they tried to do the same this time around... except now they were met with a stern resistance and were a bit dumbstruck by the whole thing...

people who are "Disappointed" with the terrible performance of their top tier teams should realize that it isn't their teams under-performing its the other teams progressing very fast.

whoever doesn't see that clearly doesn't look at the big picture.

 

[barthelemy]

+1 Top tier 2 teams have improved a lot, mainly in Defense. Defense are really tighter than before, Stamina is certainly making a difference also and enable these teams to put a good defense performance all along. The yesterday match was showing this rather obviously. All these "small" teams have now at least 4 or 5 profesionnal that can share their valuable experience with the other players and it makes RWC very interesting. I wish there would be a RWC every 2 years, that would accelerate the move.

I hope we will discuss about opening 6 nations et 4 nations after this world cup, maybe standardize the 2 format of the competition for example.

 

[Horacito]

I agree, that's why all blacks seem to be the most probable winners: they have the greatest bench by miles.