[liverbaggie]

Its ireland all the way for me, they are super fit and think on the field as a team, fantastic to watch,
Ireland v France would be fab with the irish winning  it, my wife will be happy anyway

[Baggies]

Group stages conclude, with 3 of the best games of the tournament taking place over the final weekend in Japan v Argentina, England v Samoa and then finally Fiji v Portugal. Portugal Fiji in particular was everything you want a Rugby game to be. Its made the back pages of Portugal's sports papers which is a big positive for the growth of the game. Its a huge shame they we are now going to shut out improving nations like Portugal, Georgia, Samoa and Uruguay with the introduction of a World League which will only feature the big 10 tier 1 nations plus it seems Japan and Fiji.

Onto the Quarter finals, a lot has been been said about the 3 year old world cup draw bunching the best nations together,  but it does mean at now have 4 really competetive Quarter finals. I don't think you can confidently pick the winners from South Africa v France, Ireland v New Zealand, England v Fiji and Wales v Argentina.

[Adder]

Portugal have been a joy to watch. They were impressive against Wales and have played well in each game. Unfortunately, their coaching team are breaking up but we'll hope they can maintain the progress over the next couple of years.
Fiji are looking tired. They had a tough build up to the world cup with the aim of hitting the ground running against Wales and Australia. It may be catching up with them....depends on how quickly they can recover and galvanise themselves for the England quarter final.

[Albionic]

Portugal have been a joy to watch. They were impressive against Wales and have played well in each game. Unfortunately, their coaching team are breaking up but we'll hope they can maintain the progress over the next couple of years.
Fiji are looking tired. They had a tough build up to the world cup with the aim of hitting the ground running against Wales and Australia. It may be catching up with them....depends on how quickly they can recover and galvanise themselves for the England quarter final.

If england play like they did against Samoa, I would back a jaded Fiji to beat us frankly.

[Mikkyk]

You could also argue that Fiji would holding a little back in their last two games, targeting the quarter final as they knew as soon as they beat Australia it was very likely they would be playing us in the QF.

A good weekend of rugby lined up nonetheless.

[Baggies]

Four very good quarter finals, four very close QFs, but at the end of it all were left with an uninspiring, anti climatic last 4, with a near certain South Africa v New Zealand final and no new name on the cup.

In 2015 it was a last 4 containing Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa.

In 2019 it was a last 4 containing England, South Africa and New Zealand

In 2023 it's a last 4 containing England, South Africa, New Zeland and Argentina.

In fact, in the last 5 editions, you only have 1 tournament where the last 4 didn't contain atleast 3 of those 4 in the semi finals.

I struggle to shed too many tears for Ireland despite having been rooting for them, but gutted for the French who had built up to this tournament, a home tournament, playing some great stuff.

On to next week, where England will get decimated by this South African side and where I expect Argentina will come up short vs New Zealand, despite their recent record vs the All Blacks.

[Albionic]

I'm going for an England v Argentina final, with Messi converting the winner in extra time. 

Not a fan of union egg chucking nowadays, ruined by the rules IMO, I think League egg chucking is a far better watch, better ball handling skills too.

[Adder]

Ireland failed to get their usual forward domination due to missing a couple of lineouts and a few scrum penalties correctly given against them.
NZ were clinical and managed to get in a healthy lead which is crucial against Ireland. Their defence was close to faultless also. Great finish with the 37 phases where Ireland kept their heads under pressure but New Zealand were also very disciplined not to concede any penalties defending all that.

Argentina deserved the victory against Wales as generally the side winning the physical collisions. The basic Wales lineout malfunctions let Argentina back in at the end of the 1st half. Some Welsh handling errors were costly also.

England should have won more comfortably against Fiji and it goes without saying that they now face a major step-up in class and intensity against South Africa. England have the power to cause some issues but South Africa strong favourites.

Feel for Ireland and France who have both been at a very high level for a couple of years now. They lost knife edge knock-out games having previously won their group showdowns. The games between the big four in the top half of the draw have all been worthy of finals.

[liverbaggie]

Dissapointed with ireland, poor lineouts cost them dear, but they weren't quite at it and the all blacks were on top of their game
So incredibly somehow we are in last 4 i hope for the best but fear the worst, must keep young Smith in the team

[Adder]

World Cup semis done and dusted.
After a spirited start by Argentina, New Zealand won 44-6 without breaking too much sweat.
Pretty much the perfect engine tune up before the final.

On the other hand the England v South Africa game was very hard fought. England were certainly fired up and could have edged it. South Africa looked a bit jaded after some hard games in the tournament including the France game the previous week.
If it wasn't for the tension of it being a World Cup semi it would have been a dire game to watch with both sides kicking the leather off the ball.

South Africa were my pre tournament pick but with the easier group, easier semi and an extra day to recover and prepare for the final, New Zealand must start favourites.

[Baggies]

World Rugby formally unveil their new competition. Starting in 2026, a Rugby Union divisional structure, Div 1 and Div 2, with promotion starting in 2030.

England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, France, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina  Australia, plus 2 others (it will be Japan and Fiji).

Second division will almost certainly be Samoa, Tonga, Georgia, Uruguay, Namibia, USA, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Chile and one other (Germany/Brazil/Hong Kong/Netherlands most likely).

[Adder]

Wonder where that leaves the 6 Nations and international rugby on terrestrial TV ? Both under threat I suspect.

[Adder]

It sounds as though the new competition in effect replaces the summer tours and autumn internationals. What they said on Wales Today was that each side would play 3 games in the autumn, so for 6 nations teams they would play 3 games against the Southern Hemisphere teams, then they would play another 3 games on a summer tour of the Southern regions. It may well be, but not sure, that the 6 nations games will count towards the new competition also....as would the rugby championship games.

[Adder]

South Africa complete their 4th world cup win. They are certainly masters of making themselves hard to beat and won this competition the hard way with a tough group and tough games against France, England and NZ in the knock-out stages.
France and NZ are better sides to watch but the South African team does cover all bases and gets the job done.

[liverbaggie]

True mate but only by 1 point in each match since after,semi and final
I thought they were very lucky against England.
My bet was Ireland,England surprised me
I would pay to watch SA , boring stifling battering rugby not for me but I would pay to watch all blacks