[Gowfer_Lichtie]

The first match of the 2011 Rugby World Cup is on September 9 - only a few weeks away. How do P&B rgby fans think it will go?

The All Blacks will start as favourites (unless they are terrible in the Tri-Nations), but they always do - will they finally win the World Cup for the first time since 1987?

Australia are currently second favourites and with the Queensland Reds, winners of the Super 15 tournament providing a fair proportion of their squad they could be a good choice. Australia always seem to be there or there abouts.

South Africa are a bit of an unknown, but will front up as they always do, especially as defending champions in the back yard of arguably their biggest rivals.

As for the others, it depends on which French team turns up for each game - on their day they are world beaters. England are always strong and will have a young squad for the first time since 1999. Ireland are ageing, but as they showed against England in the Six Nations, are still a threat. Wales should also pose problems for the big three and Argentina will be viewed as a strong having finished third last time out.

Scotland? Well we have a proud record of always getting to the Quarter Finals as a minimum, but that will be under severe pressure, as we have been drawn in the same pool as England and Argentina. Win the pool and its likely to be France in the QF, come second and it'll probably be the All Blacks. Third means we go home.

For those who don't pay much attention, previous tournaments were;

1987 (New Zealand) - Winners, New Zealand - Scotland out in the QF against New Zealand
1991 (England) - Winners, Australia - Scotland out in the SF against England
1995 (South Africa) - Winners, South Africa - Scotland out in the QF against New Zealand
1999 (Wales) - Winners, Australia - Scotland out in QF against New Zealand
2003 (Australia) - Winners, England - Scotland out in QF against Australia
2007 (France) - Winners, South Africa - Scotland out in QF against Argentina

My predictions are;
Winners New Zealand and I think they'll beat Australia in the final
Scotland will beat Argentina, like the did in the recent test series. I think we might beat England too, particularly if the crowd are supporting us. If we do win the pool I think we can do ourselves justice against France in the quarters. If we come second we'll no doubt lose against the All Blacks, as we've never beaten them...ever.

[Sooky]

We will do quarter finals at best in my opinion but I think that we will really struggle to even get that far. I expect England to beat us and I reckon that Argentina will be a very tough game and that it could quite easily go any way so I'm not that confident. When Scotland do go out then I will be supporting South Africa.

I reckon New Zealand will win it for the first time since 1987, it's certainly be long overdue.

This post has been edited by Sooky: 24 July 2011 - 16:26

[Aurora Borealis]

Rugby.

Hope Scotland do well and England do shite though.

[lichtie23]

We can beat the Argies.....will struggle against the English!

Who is the other team in the pool?

[Sooky]

lichtie23, on 24 July 2011 - 16:42, said:

We can beat the Argies.....will struggle against the English!

Who is the other team in the pool?

4 pools with 5 teams in each. The other 2 are Georgia and Romania. We should just be given the wins for them now and not bother playing them.

EDIT: Also notice that we play both of them first and then we play Argentina and England last. Hopefully the first 2 games will give us some momentum.

Also noticed that our referee for the Argentina game is English. It's a conspiracy!

This post has been edited by Sooky: 24 July 2011 - 16:56

[Sooky]

Also does this mean that most games will be shown on TV at about the crack of dawn UK time?

[lichtie23]

What channel is it gonna b on?

[Sooky]

lichtie23, on 24 July 2011 - 17:01, said:

What channel is it gonna b on?

I believe that ITV have the rights.

[Gowfer_Lichtie]

Sooky, on 24 July 2011 - 17:01, said:

Also does this mean that most games will be shown on TV at about the crack of dawn UK time?

One of the Scotland games is at 2am Romania, but the others are all at 8.30am. Final is at 9am and most of the games are at the weekend.

[ajwffc]

full list of all the games with here u can switch between your time and New Zealand time.

[Sooky]

Gowfer_Lichtie, on 24 July 2011 - 17:41, said:

One of the Scotland games is at 2am Romania, but the others are all at 8.30am. Final is at 9am and most of the games are at the weekend.

ajwffc, on 24 July 2011 - 19:56, said:

full list of all the games with here u can switch between your time and New Zealand time.

Thanks for that. It appears that the Argentina and England games are on the weekend so I will be able to see them. Our only game not on the weekend is Georgia but I don't mind missing that one.

[Gowfer_Lichtie]

With Hugo Southwell having to withdraw from the squad, it appears that the 15 shirt is going to be between Rory Lamont and Chris Paterson. Initial reaction is that Lamont can make more of an impact from full back, but with Parks stuttering in his last couple of Scotland games, Paterson might be the choice kicker. Will be interesting to see who gets picked for the Ireland and Italy games, should Robertson pick his strongest team (on paper) or try and blood some of the younger players. Just now I think our strongest fifteen would be;

Alasdair Dickinson
Ross Ford
Allan Jacobsen

Richie Gray
Alastair Kellock

John Barclay
John Beattie
Kelly Brown

Rory Lawson
Ruaridh Jackson

Graeme Morrison
Max Evans

Sean Lamont
Rory Lamont
Nikki Walker

Subs:
Euan Murray
Nathan Hines
Alasdair Strokosch
Dougie Hall
Chris Paterson
Dan Parks
Joe Ansbro
Chris Cusiter

[ayrunitedfw]

Really looking forward to this as on paper we have a really decent team (also said that about the six nations and look how that turned out). Think we will get to the Quarter finals.



Think it's New Zealand's torunament to lose as they have by far the best squad. Australia will probably finish runners up.



The game against Ireland on saturday will give us some indicationas in how we are going to do.

[nessies long lost ghost]

South Africa to win.

Scotland quarter finals.

[TheScarf]

New Zealand will stroll it. Just like they have already started strolling the Tri-Nations.

[TheScarf]

nessies long lost ghost, on 02 August 2011 - 03:41, said:

South Africa to win.

[jay_7]

Can't believe there's even discussion on who will win. South Africa are no where near the quality they were 4 years ago.

New Zealand will win. Comfortably. I expect SBW to oust Nonu from inside centre. The resulting back line play will be mind-blowing.

[nessies long lost ghost]

I expected New Zealand to stroll to victory last time in France. France played brilliant against them in the quarter finals and put them out despite New Zealand being overwealming favourites before the match. I don't see why a shock result can't happen again.

[Andy_AUFC]

Gowfer_Lichtie, on 28 July 2011 - 20:26, said:

With Hugo Southwell having to withdraw from the squad, it appears that the 15 shirt is going to be between Rory Lamont and Chris Paterson. Initial reaction is that Lamont can make more of an impact from full back, but with Parks stuttering in his last couple of Scotland games, Paterson might be the choice kicker. Will be interesting to see who gets picked for the Ireland and Italy games, should Robertson pick his strongest team (on paper) or try and blood some of the younger players. Just now I think our strongest fifteen would be;

Alasdair Dickinson
Ross Ford
Allan Jacobsen

Richie Gray
Alastair Kellock

John Barclay
John Beattie
Kelly Brown

Rory Lawson
Ruaridh Jackson

Graeme Morrison
Max Evans

Sean Lamont
Rory Lamont
Nikki Walker

Subs:
Euan Murray
Nathan Hines
Alasdair Strokosch
Dougie Hall
Chris Paterson
Dan Parks
Joe Ansbro
Chris Cusiter

You've got two looseheads there mate, and Dickinson is terrible in the scrum. I would consider giving Murray another shot at it even though he was dire in the Six Nations, failing that Moray Low should be given a chance. No place for Joe Ansbro in the starting XV? I think he has been one of Scotland's best performers since he has came on the scene.

[jay_7]

nessies long lost ghost, on 02 August 2011 - 12:39, said:

I expected New Zealand to stroll to victory last time in France. France played brilliant against them in the quarter finals and put them out despite New Zealand being overwealming favourites before the match. I don't see why a shock result can't happen again.

Is that your logic?! A shock result can happen at any time in the knockout stage of a tournament. If you excuse me, I'm just away to get shot in the face. That senator once survived a bullet to the head and I don't see why a shock survival can't happen again.

[nessies long lost ghost]

jay_7, on 02 August 2011 - 21:16, said:

Is that your logic?! A shock result can happen at any time in the knockout stage of a tournament. If you excuse me, I'm just away to get shot in the face. That senator once survived a bullet to the head and I don't see why a shock survival can't happen again.

No it's not. I just have a feeling South Africa will win it.

[KiwiDB]

jay_7, on 02 August 2011 - 08:16, said:

Can't believe there's even discussion on who will win. South Africa are no where near the quality they were 4 years ago.

New Zealand will win. Comfortably. I expect SBW to oust Nonu from inside centre. The resulting back line play will be mind-blowing.

SBW is more than likely to be used as an impact sub.

[Kejan]

If Scotland get out of the Pool, I would consider that a succesful campaign.
Argentina will be difficult, I know we beat them a few summers ago over there but they are a good team.

As for the winners, I went for South Africa - not on current form as they have been crap in the tri-nations last few years but just have a funny feeling they will be there or there abouts again this year.

[Cheeko Green]

Got my tickets for the Romania game, hoping its a certain victory as its a 7 hour drive to get there. I think it will be a good achievement for Scotland to get out of the pool but i'm hopeful they can produce the goods when it matters.

I think the All Blacks will win it but they are not unbeatable. Its scary how many top players can't even make the squad. The main danger is that they have quite an old team and they could be knackered after a long season but i think home advantage will see them home.

[Swarley]

Just for you form studiers! The South Africa team that were recently hammered by Aus & NZ in the opening 2 Tri-Nations games is basically their B squad. They've left all their World Cup stars at home because they are "injured" apparently!

They'll still not win it though. My money would be on NZ with England and Argentina tipped to go far.