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If your team takes an unexpectedly early bath, or was never in with a chance to start with, who will you be rooting for and why? Either to win overall or to generally have an excellent tournament by their own standards. This is all about the heart, not the head.
To win
So faced with the miniscule chance Italy do not make it out of their group I'll be supporting the Pumas for the win (given a SF is easily do-able I think they are in the wider conversation). I like how they try to play and think Cheika was criminally underrated by the Aussie union as he had possibly an even poorer batch of players than they have now (they were stinking up Super Rugby something awful in his later years).
Honorable mentions to Ireland and NZ in honour of their quest to continue punching above their weight (in terms of population) and also strangely to England and Australia for the comedy value of seeing if their coaches get any credit. A finals appearance by Borthwick or EJ would be wonderfully surreal.
I generally never support hosts, so apologies to France.
To overachieve
Despite my avatar and username it has to be Uruguay. They are the same size as Georgia but have none of the government funds. They are a simple, small union who makes annual improvements every year on and off the field for many years on end and this is their best side ever (even better than the one that defeated Fiji last time around). They are not a favoured child by World Rugby and they cannot use eligibility rules to their advantage. They are just grafters, plain and simple.
I would not mind them beating Italy (since Italy are almost elminated before we start) and I think we can see them give the French a bloody nose in the first half in round 2 (if France aren't a wounded animal after losing on opening night). Something like that would make the most out of a pretty horrible draw.
To win
So faced with the miniscule chance Italy do not make it out of their group I'll be supporting the Pumas for the win (given a SF is easily do-able I think they are in the wider conversation). I like how they try to play and think Cheika was criminally underrated by the Aussie union as he had possibly an even poorer batch of players than they have now (they were stinking up Super Rugby something awful in his later years).
Honorable mentions to Ireland and NZ in honour of their quest to continue punching above their weight (in terms of population) and also strangely to England and Australia for the comedy value of seeing if their coaches get any credit. A finals appearance by Borthwick or EJ would be wonderfully surreal.
I generally never support hosts, so apologies to France.
To overachieve
Despite my avatar and username it has to be Uruguay. They are the same size as Georgia but have none of the government funds. They are a simple, small union who makes annual improvements every year on and off the field for many years on end and this is their best side ever (even better than the one that defeated Fiji last time around). They are not a favoured child by World Rugby and they cannot use eligibility rules to their advantage. They are just grafters, plain and simple.
I would not mind them beating Italy (since Italy are almost elminated before we start) and I think we can see them give the French a bloody nose in the first half in round 2 (if France aren't a wounded animal after losing on opening night). Something like that would make the most out of a pretty horrible draw.
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