whos the most underrated team

[Corywalker]

I think Canada as well, but then again, im from Canada We've got some hard players, and I was coached by some of the players, and they know a lot about the game, and I certainly learned a lot from them.

 

[islander]

Samoa for sure...



They made a huge impact. After sweeping aside Wales 16-13 in Cardiff and defeating Argentina 35-12, and narrowly losing 3-9 to eventual champions Australia in their pool match, Western Samoa, a country with a population of 160,000, found itself in the quarterfinals against Scotland at Murrayfield. The Scots, however won comfortably, 28-6, but the Samoans were clearly the personality team of the tournament.

The 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa proved that the team belonged in top company. They again reached the quarterfinals after wins over Argentina and Italy, but were beaten 42-14 by the eventual winners South Africa. After the Cup, Manu Samoa made a 13-match tour of England and Scotland, drawing 15-15 with the Scots and going down 9-27 to England.

Rugby World Cup 2003 pools alongside automatic qualifiers England and South Africa. In one of the games of the tournament they led eventual champions England for most of the game before losing 22-35 in the last ten minutes.

 

[Hazey]

samoa for sure..they smashed wales...in 1991

...made a biggest upset in 1995 smashing wales...

...made another BIG UPSET smashing wales again in 99 world cup...

[/b]

Anyone else sense a pattern...?

 

[islander]

Anyone else sense a pattern...? [/quote]



wat u talkin about??



Samoa for sure...



They made a huge impact. After sweeping aside Wales 16-13 in Cardiff and defeating Argentina 35-12, and narrowly losing 3-9 to eventual champions Australia in their pool match, Western Samoa, a country with a population of 160,000, found itself in the quarterfinals against Scotland at Murrayfield. The Scots, however won comfortably, 28-6, but the Samoans were clearly the personality team of the tournament.

The 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa proved that the team belonged in top company. They again reached the quarterfinals after wins over Argentina and Italy, but were beaten 42-14 by the eventual winners South Africa. After the Cup, Manu Samoa made a 13-match tour of England and Scotland, drawing 15-15 with the Scots and going down 9-27 to England.



Samoa emerged from the 1999 Rugby World Cup with honour intact after another shock 38-31 victory over host nation Wales in the pool stages. They again lost out to Scotland in the quarter final play-off.

Rugby World Cup 2003 pools alongside automatic qualifiers England and South Africa. In one of the games of the tournament they led eventual champions England for most of the game before losing 22-35 in the last ten minutes.

 

[THE CHIROPRACTOR101]

see thats why i think the eligibility rules is f***ed up...when we can do things like that...picture what we can do with players who grew up the nz system of rugby who cant cut it with the allblacks....

the same with fiji...

middle finger to those useless ******** at the irb!

 

[Air4life]

Argentinia for sure!

 

[scrumhalf]

Argentinia for sure! [/b]

Yes, Argentina could do some serious damage. I don't think they can eventually win, however. But they are one of the most promising sides in this RWC.

Ciao
Francesco

 

[backinblack]

Jordan.



I know it's a big big call but I'll stick my neck out on this one.

 

[samoan_stallion]

I don't think Argentina are definitely the dark horses ....



Samoa is another team to watch out for, in terms of exciting play,

I can't see them beating SA or England, but they'll definitely be testing their defence.



Here are the latest IRB ratings ....



1(1)NEW ZEALAND93.302(4)

AUSTRALIA86.533(2)

FRANCE85.664(3)

SOUTH AFRICA85.445(5)IRELAND82.526(6)ARGENTINA82.437(7)ENGLAND78.938(8)WALES76.269(9)ITALY75.5310(10)SAMOA74.9711(11)SCOTLAND73.9412(12)FIJI70.5213(13)CANADA70.0614(14)TONGA67.5215(15)USA



Sorry that was suppose to read

'I think Argentina are definitely the dark horses .... '



Here's that IRB listing again ...



1 NEW ZEALAND

2 AUSTRALIA

3 FRANCE

4 SOUTH AFRICA

5 IRELAND

6 ARGENTINA

7 ENGLAND

8 WALES

 

[diom]

1 NEW ZEALAND

2 AUSTRALIA

3 FRANCE

4 SOUTH AFRICA

5 IRELAND

6 ARGENTINA

[/b]

teams ranked 3,5 & 6 in the one pool. Insane.

Anyways Argentina are not "dark" horses. They are blazing white as far as I can see. Ireland and France both know that they have their work cut out for them.

I think Wales will do okay actually.

As for true minnows, I'm going for Samoa.

 

[Wellycane]

<div class='quotemain'> samoa for sure..they smashed wales...in 1991

...made a biggest upset in 1995 smashing wales...

...made another BIG UPSET smashing wales again in 99 world cup...

[/b]

Anyone else sense a pattern...? [/b][/quote]

Yip. An impressive pattern too.

 

[orenofhowick]

I agree on Argentina. I think they're gonna win the opening pool match against France. At the moment they're training at some cutting edge American Football camp in the states where NFL teams prepare. This is gonna do a lot for their confidence and I wouldn't be suprised if they come out fit as f***. Then they'll go home, take it easier and work on skills for a while. And focus. They're an established team who have beaten both France and Ireland on the last two encounters with each.

This initial loss for France is gonna rock them and they'll go beserk against Ireland. If they lose they're out but I doubt they will. And then It'll come down to the final Pool match between Argentina and Ireland. If Ireland win it'll go to a points differential which I would have to expect Ireland and France to have the edge in. But I'm not so sure the Argentinians will allow it.

 

[kbourke88]

see thats why i think the eligibility rules is f***ed up...when we can do things like that...picture what we can do with players who grew up the nz system of rugby who cant cut it with the allblacks....

the same with fiji...

middle finger to those useless ******** at the irb! [/b]

I know, the eligibility are so ****. They were brought in with the purpose of protecting the islander teams from having players poached by NZ and Aust, but they in fact had the exact opposite effect. the IRB didnt count on the fact that for the islanders there is a lot more glory in playing 1 game for the All Blacks than having a long career for their home country. so now they dont even risk playing a game for their country ever in case they get a call up for the kiwis...



anyways, back to the real topic, i think Fiji will be massively underrated. I think they have a great chance of making the quarters.. They have a better chance than Samoa to get through, beating Wales should be easier than beating England (in theory)...

 

[dangandan]

argentina are highly underrated just because their not involved in a worldclass professional competition. id doubt samoa for this world cup watching them play in the pacific island cup this year.

 

[dobbin252]

Argentina for sure. I reckon they'll shock France and beat them in the first game of the tournament like Greece did against Portugal in Euro 2004

 

[American Springbok]

My pick is definitely Portugal. They'll rock the All Blacks and win the group!

I think Samoa will find a way to beat someone (hopefully England), but looking at the matchups, I think Fiji (if they keep their discipline) or Canada (if they stay under the radar) could shock Wales or Australia.

I'm not sure if an Argentina win could be classified as an upset... Argentina is a pretty good team... maybe not ***le contenders... but they're not terrible.. They have upset potential in the playoffs, but, if you've read any of my previous posts about Argentina... I've pretty much written them off in the group. I think Ireland and France are just too hungry for this world cup to come unprepared to ANY match. But I guess that's why you play it out, right?

 

[Dumbo]

At this point AS, how many drinks have you had?

Tell the truth...

 

[American Springbok]

Too many to count...

But I stand by my predictions there. =^P

And since I'm sobering up... I guess I'll reason out a few of these predictions:

1. I ungraciously hate on the New York Yankees of Rugby and think it's cool that Portugal qualified for the cup this year.

2. Samoa is going to find a way to upset someone given their past RWC history and just the simple fact that we tend to always overlook Pacific Nations (hell, even us Americans think we can beat them from time to time). Given my name, I would like them to lose to the Americans and the Springboks, and I'd love for them to shock England.

3. Fiji could upset Wales/AUS for the same reasons: they have a tendency to be overlooked, and they're damn fast and HUGE. But, as was seen in the last RWC, they NEED to keep their discipline during the game or they'll just throw it all away (again...)

4. Canada is always overlooked, and for good reason. All 1990s results aside, Canada got whooped by Wales 65-3 in 2006 and overshadowed the All Blacks with a surprising intercept try and good first-half defence.... albeit to a 65-13 loss. But Canada has the advantage of being grouped in one of the weakest Pools in the RWC... they play Wales first, but their two possible wins (Fiji and Japan) second. Then they play Australia. Canada will NOT be the easy whipping boys in the group. And they can put up a fight... but will they get past damage control and win an upset? Probably not. But even I'm overlooking them at this moment.

5. I just hate Argentina. I hate their football, I hate their basketball, and I'm not too impressed with their rugby. Except when they play England. I like them when they play England.

 

[Dumbo]

Will you still stand by them in the morning?

Tell the truth...

 

[Hamster]

1 NEW ZEALAND

2 AUSTRALIA

3 FRANCE

4 SOUTH AFRICA

5 IRELAND

6 ARGENTINA

7 ENGLAND

8 WALES

Funny how 3, 5 and 6 are in the same group, actually it aint that funny at all, ****** me off! One of them wont make the QF!

And the fact a team outside the top 8 will make the QF in Group C.. Which will probably be Scotland who I dont like but lets hope Italy can pull off an upset!

I hate how Argentina are considered 'Minnows' or 'Crap', the Pumas are a world class team and can beat NZ on a good though, they have one of the best forward packs in the world, the backs arent as good as other top countries though. Also Canada are a pretty good team.