Samoa 32 Australia 23

[NaturalHazard]

Choohooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! bring on the world cup!!! cant wait!!!

[English_Warrior]

Lol....good luck with that.


Here is how I see it going:


Pool A
NZ
France

Pool B
England
Scotland

Pool C
Ireland
Australia

Pool D
South Africa
Wales


NZ beat Scotland
England beat France
South Africa beat Australia
Ireland beat Wales

NZ beat South Africa
England beat Ireland (that would be a great match)

England beat NZ


Yes...I am VERY biased

[Arctigis]

Lol....good luck with that.


Here is how I see it going:


Pool A
NZ
France

Pool B
England
Scotland

Pool C
Ireland
Australia

Pool D
South Africa
Wales


NZ beat Scotland
England beat France
South Africa beat Australia
Ireland beat Wales

NZ beat South Africa
England beat Ireland (that would be a great match)

England beat NZ


Yes...I am VERY biased

Heh. I wish...

[NaturalHazard]

Lol....good luck with that.


Here is how I see it going:


Pool A
NZ
France

Pool B
England
Scotland

Pool C
Ireland
Australia

Pool D
South Africa
Wales


NZ beat Scotland
England beat France
South Africa beat Australia
Ireland beat Wales

NZ beat South Africa
England beat Ireland (that would be a great match)

England beat NZ


Yes...I am VERY biased

yes you are biased, so am I, I dont see wales getting past fiji or samoa, the 2nd spot will be samoa or fiji.

I also see argentina taking first or second place in their pool with them or england maybe going through, or even worse for you scotland beating England in the final match of the pool to take second place after argentina ambushes england in the first match of the pool.
Yeah England will be wearing black as their alternative strip with maori designs, what do you think of that? Was it to maybe make the 4 new zealanders in your squad feel better?

Wales have been beaten by samoa and fiji in world cups before, and didnt they lose to fiji last time they played them? Fiji and Samoa will be playing in New Zealand which would almost be like playing at home.

Haha I see England struggling to make it out of their pool, then through the quarters and semis let alone beating New Zealand in the final. When was the last time England beat NZ? 2003, whats the for and against record? And you got england beating ireland as well? didnt the irish spank them last time they played?

Good luck with that, I will be watching samoa play wales, in hamilton, You comming down under to support your team? Or has the poor rwc organisation, and poor pricing kept you away?

[English_Warrior]

yes you are biased, so am I, I dont see wales getting past fiji or samoa, the 2nd spot will be samoa or fiji.

I also see argentina taking first or second place in their pool with them or england maybe going through, or even worse for you scotland beating England in the final match of the pool to take second place after argentina ambushes england in the first match of the pool.
Yeah England will be wearing black as their alternative strip with maori designs, what do you think of that? Was it to maybe make the 4 new zealanders in your squad feel better?

Wales have been beaten by samoa and fiji in world cups before, and didnt they lose to fiji last time they played them? Fiji and Samoa will be playing in New Zealand which would almost be like playing at home.

Haha I see England struggling to make it out of their pool, then through the quarters and semis let alone beating New Zealand in the final. When was the last time England beat NZ? 2003, whats the for and against record? And you got england beating ireland as well? didnt the irish spank them last time they played?

Good luck with that, I will be watching samoa play wales, in hamilton, You comming down under to support your team? Or has the poor rwc organisation, and poor pricing kept you away?

I agree that Samoa have a good chance of getting past Wales and that Scotland may be beaten out by Argentina... The second place spots in Pools B and D are the hardest to pick in my opinion.

But England are a lot stronger than you admit...they just won the Six Nations a few weeks back...and they did so playing at only about 75% of their potential (about 50% in the game against Ireland). We scored the most tries, scored the most points and conceeded the least. Ashton scored the most tries in the tournament and Flood got the most points.

Plus if the matches go the way I think they will, England get European teams until the Final (with the exception of the Argies in the pool), so potentially they have an easier route to the final than most.

If Johnson can get them firing on all cylinders they have a good shot at winning it all

I guess we will see in October

[English_Warrior]

Haha I see England struggling to make it out of their pool, then through the quarters and semis let alone beating New Zealand in the final. When was the last time England beat NZ? 2003, whats the for and against record?

No doubt our record against New Zealand is terrible...but if you want to talk records...lets check how England vs Samoa stacks up historically:

Oh yeah....England have won 100% of the time in games against Samoa

[TheDearLeader]

This sounds like a Sport... am I on the right forums?

Do they roll Initiative to see who goes first?

[Arkat]

Rugby?

[NaturalHazard]

Rugby?

Yes rugby union a real mans game, well sort of, its getting softer and softer, I think I will have to switch to rugby league one day, seems like these days you get a card for even looking at another player with malice.

[Bodic]

more interested that USA is up 2-1 over Japan

[English_Warrior]

more interested that USA is up 2-1 over Japan

hmmm...you must be watching a delayed cast....I won't spoil it for you ...but its worth watching

[LightInDark]

I predict the ABs will choke against France .... again...

[English_Warrior]

I predict the ABs will choke against France .... again...

That reminds me of another reason not to underestimate England....England have been in the World Cup Final the last 2 times...one of which was in the Southern Hemisphere (which they won!). Underestimate England at your peril

NZ do seem to be chokers when it comes to the World Cup...when you look at their test record it is RIDICULOUSLY good...they win 70+% of their games against everyone except Australia and South Africa (and even those they beat more frequently than 50% of the time). Yet when it comes to the World Cup Finals, they have been to the final game less than England and Australia... and have won it less than Australia and South Africa....NZs record should be MUCH better than that.

[NaturalHazard]

That reminds me of another reason not to underestimate England....England have been in the World Cup Final the last 2 times...one of which was in the Southern Hemisphere (which they won!). Underestimate England at your peril

NZ do seem to be chokers when it comes to the World Cup...when you look at their test record it is RIDICULOUSLY good...they win 70+% of their games against everyone except Australia and South Africa (and even those they beat more frequently than 50% of the time). Yet when it comes to the World Cup Finals, they have been to the final game less than England and Australia... and have won it less than Australia and South Africa....NZs record should be MUCH better than that.

100% record vs Samoa wow what an acomplishment, yeah it was a close run thing the past 2 world cups as well, you *just* managed to beat us in 2003 and 2007, lets look at statistics, samoa population 180k people total, england? 300k rugby players alone? that might be more than there are samoans worldwide if you incluede samoas population overseas, in new zealand, australia and the united states. England how many professional clubs do you have? How much $ is put into english rugby each year? How much does Samoa get? No professional clubs in Samoa. Its like a small city in England vs the rest of the country.

Ha! you even have a samoan in the english squad, his older brothers play for Samoa. Manu Tuilagi.

Yeah NZ have only won world cup, but they have the best win record of *any* international team, bogey teams for them at world cups have been Australia twice and France twice, and South Africa in 1995, england has never beaten them at a world cup. But I think the rest of the world like it when NZ *chokes* at a world cup, cause it gives them a reason to feel good about themselves when the all blacks go up to the NH and get a grandslam. Its rare for a NH team to beat NZ, in the 2000's it has happened what? 3 times? england in 2003, france rwc 2007 and again in 2009. Thats 3 games in the last 10 years? much more than 70% win ratio.

To be honest im more worried about fiji in samoa's pool than wales slightly, anyway, who ever makes it out of that pool is going to be pretty beat up, the attrition will be pretty bad. I think it will be the pool to watch. South Africa, Samoa and even Fiji play a very physical game, and Fiji and Wales play a high tempo entertaining stlye.


Lol again at underestimating england, in terms of $ and numbers england *should* be favourites or close favourites to win the each RWC. Only france comes close to spending as much or having as many players.

[Arctigis]

Lol again at underestimating england, in terms of $ and numbers england *should* be favourites or close favourites to win the each RWC. Only france comes close to spending as much or having as many players.

This always gets brought up. In terms of registered players, England does have a lot yes. You also have to
remember it's a very poor second to Football (and possibly cricket) and just doesn't really feature outside
of World Cups and the 6 nations. This is changing (and I hope it continues to changes as Rugby is by far
the best sport ever created! ) with the ongoing 'professional era'. England's RWC record is pretty good
actually:

1991: Finalists
1995: Semis
1999: 1/4
2003: Winners
2007: Finalists

Certainly better than New Zealand's who haven't even made it to the final since 1995 - despite absolutely
dominating the international stage. I don't think England will win it this year but write them off at your
peril.

As for Samoa. I really, really hope they do well as I absolutely love the way they (usually) play the game.
'Hard but fair' - I think most peoples top 20 'bone crunching' tackles would be dominated by
Samoans! ( Brian "The Chiropractor" Lima anyone?). Whoever they play will know they were in a game!
(hopefully they'll stuff Wales! )

Love the Tuilagis too (I'm a Tigers fan; we've had Freddie, Henry, Alesana, Anitelia and now Manu all at the
club) - Manu is fantastic prospect if he can learn to keep his temper in check. Should have stuck him in
with Klitschko instead of Haye!

[NaturalHazard]

This always gets brought up. In terms of registered players, England does have a lot yes. You also have to
remember it's a very poor second to Football (and possibly cricket) and just doesn't really feature outside
of World Cups and the 6 nations. This is changing (and I hope it continues to changes as Rugby is by far
the best sport ever created! ) with the ongoing 'professional era'. England's RWC record is pretty good
actually:

1991: Finalists
1995: Semis
1999: 1/4
2003: Winners
2007: Finalists

Certainly better than New Zealand's who haven't even made it to the final since 1995 - despite absolutely
dominating the international stage. I don't think England will win it this year but write them off at your
peril.

As for Samoa. I really, really hope they do well as I absolutely love the way they (usually) play the game.
'Hard but fair' - I think most peoples top 20 'bone crunching' tackles would be dominated by
Samoans! ( Brian "The Chiropractor" Lima anyone?). Whoever they play will know they were in a game!
(hopefully they'll stuff Wales! )

Love the Tuilagis too (I'm a Tigers fan; we've had Freddie, Henry, Alesana, Anitelia and now Manu all at the
club) - Manu is fantastic prospect if he can learn to keep his temper in check. Should have stuck him in
with Klitschko instead of Haye!

I think in terms of numbers of players, and $ invested england should be doing better, and doing well at 1 tournament that happens every 4 years should not be the sum of success, yes a lot of it, but not all. and look at australia where aussie rules, cricket, rugby league dominate well before rugby does, yet they have 2 world cups, even in south africa soccer dominates with much more people playing soccer rather than rugby. As an english fan, are you a little concerned with the number of foreign players playing at your clubs and now even entering the english team? Im not talking about the people who move to england as youngsters but those that where born and grew up over seas and even started playing professional rugby overseas then move to england and after a few years play for them?

And back to the all blacks and the *chokers* tag, which is the best international team to date? Its the all blacks. If someone was to ask me who the best international rugby league team up to now, I would have to say the Kangaroos, yeah even though the kiwis are the world champs.


As to writting off england, im not, im just saying not to take anything for granted, im not taking samoa making it out of their pool for granted. Argentina and even the scots wont make it easy for england, but anyway sometimes being in a tough pool can work for you like south africa and england, and you dont have to win games convincingly just win them, like england did in the last world cup. I think england as ever are pretty solid in the forwards, I might be wrong though but I think you are missing a bit of X factor in the loose, someone like sergio pariisse or kieran read, and a ball winner like richie mcaw, david pocock. 9-10 pretty solid I suppose. but centers some question marks, i mean ricky flutie shontaye hapi? Manu Tuilagi seems pretty good. You do have some flair out wide which is good to see.But yeah dont watch a lot of NH rugby, its on way to late here, otherwise I would esp to see the island players playing over there.


Well I have one thing to be grateful to english rugby and european rugby, and its that you guys provide a place for pacific island players to play professionally and hopefully represent their countries that they want to play for. Out of the 22 samoan players who beat australia only 1 yes one (the half back) plays super 15 rugby in New Zealand, a few of them actually started there, but as soon as they put on the samoan jersey they get forced out. The NZRFU has strict policies in terms of foreign players. And a lot of players who are eligable to play for a pacific island country often play only 1 test or get named once in a New Zealand team and thats it, Its like they stockpile players or cap them just to deny them playing for another country. And New Zealand is so close to the pacific islands but not once have the all blacks played a test there.

Anyway, because of politics im not normally an all black fan, I cant stand the big wigs in the NZRFU, i would rather support the kiwi's over the all blacks.

[English_Warrior]

It's almost here

Rugby World Cup kickoff is just hours away....



COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!!

[Mick]

Can't wait for this. Good luck to all the teams. May every game be memorable and Australia win .

Cheers,
Mick

[CoasterHops]

Kiaora all, anyways im thinking that some time before the RWC final we should get a bunch of half orcs together on khyber dress them in balck and perform a Haka, anyone interested?

If so I will bring my Bard Emmpeethree he can also do a rendition of the National Anthem, God Defend New Zealand.

In fact I am going to post somehting in Khyber forums about it..

[NovaNZ]

Hiya CoasterHops.

Shame Im not able to join u in the Haka - Im on Cannith.

Still If u set a date/time and place on K - I may roll up a spec Horc for the occasion.
Would u be using armour appearance kits to go All Black?