Rugby World Cup Draw

[Puja]

Avoiding France is a big plus. Pretty pleased with that draw.

Absolutely. Argentina are a threat, but it's mitigated by getting the weakest second seed and a quarter final against Wales, Australia or Fiji is about as good as could be hoped for.

Puja

Hard to say where Argentina will be in 3yrs time given what’s happened with the Jaguares.

Japan are the intriguing one for me. Quite a few of their better players like Horie or Tanaka will be too old and I don’t know anything about the next generation coming through.

Could be a positive for them in the short term given they're now selecting from France and England again. Plus most of the Jaguares have gone to prop up the Australian Super Rugby competition so they'll still be in semi-high level competition (Plus they'll have two teams in the SLAR for developing new players for the big teams to poach).

I join you in having no idea about Japan. Mind, a few of their better players from 2015 were due to retire before 2019 and people were dubious that they'd be able to accomplish anything, so hopefully they've got a talent production line somewhere.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

I suspect that’s why they’re willing to pay for top players to join the league in Japan to help to raise the standard of the domestic competition.

‘Development’ does seem a bit ‘Scotland-like’ in that they’re happy to pick a lot of non-Japanese players where they can.

[Puja]

I suspect that’s why they’re willing to pay for top players to join the league in Japan to help to raise the standard of the domestic competition.

‘Development’ does seem a bit ‘Scotland-like’ in that they’re happy to pick a lot of non-Japanese players where they can.

People say they need to join in with SANZAAAAAAAR, but before the pandemic, they were getting the kind of crowd numbers that no other domestic league could even dream of. I see no reason why they can't build a top tier league and become a real power in the game.

Puja

[Peej]

Sounds like Eurovision at its worst.

Don't the teams in Japan basically represent businesses? Or is that the traditional, now somewhat out of date view?

[Puja]

Sounds like Eurovision at its worst.

Don't the teams in Japan basically represent businesses? Or is that the traditional, now somewhat out of date view?

Eurovision at least has songs. This was a 4 hour* show for something that only needed 10 minutes.

I think they are still business-backed, but I believe they've just reorganised and streamlined their competition to make it a bit more professional.

Puja


*May be an exaggeration due to just how long it felt like.

[Mikey Brown]

No idea how correct it is but lots of those pairings seem incredibly familiar. Not looking forward to Scotland’s group at all, and although Argentina just beat NZ it doesn’t seem that thrilling to have them and Japan in England’s group.

[Scrumhead]

I know what you mean. There’s a few familiar ones.

With the exception of swapping Japan for France, there’s a good chance we’ll have the same group as 2019.

Wales, Australia and Fiji were grouped together in 2015 and 2019,

Poor old Italy and Namibia (likely) almost always seem to get NZ and another big contender (last time SA, this time France).

Ireland and Scotland were previously paired together in 2019 too.

[Puja]

Wales, Australia and Fiji inseparable again!

Pools A and B look hard and the reward is to get to play the qualifiers from the other group. Ireland not getting past the quarters again?

If you were Uruguay and USA, you'd be hoping to lose the qualifier for Americas 1 - go in with NZ and France or in with Argentina and Japan for an outside chance of a quarter final?

Puja

Puja whats the draw for the QF's onwards? Who plays who from what groups etc etc?

Found this out now:

QF 1: Winner Pool A vs Second Pool B
QF 2: Winner Pool B vs Second Pool A
QF 3: Winner Pool C vs Second Pool D
QF 4: Winner Pool D vs Second Pool C

SF 1: Winner of QF1 vs Winner of QF 4
SF 2: Winner of QF2 vs Winner of QF 3

So, if we top Pool D, then we have whoever comes second in the Wales/Australia/Fiji bunfight in the quarters, and our putative semi is likely to be whichever of France or New Zealand topped pool A (assuming SA top pool B and Ireland fail miserably in the quarter finals again).

This means that we could quite plausibly have a situation where we beat Argentina to top our pool, Australia make it past Fiji but lose to Wales, Japan make the quarters but Scotland and Argentina go out in the groups, then we then beat Australia in the quarters, while Ireland lose to NZ, before semi-finals of Wales vs South Africa and England vs New Zealand.

Reboots are never as good as the original, although I hope they've at least changed the godawful ending this time.

Puja