And so the first weekend of battle dawns. Time to toss away the sparring, the jousting, the throwing down of the gauntlet and deferential soundbites. It’s here. It’s now. And it’s gonna be one helluva opening weekend! A massive match to open with and some potentially pool-defining Tests on the first weekend make this a crucial, nail-biting and brilliant opening to hopefully the best World Cup yet. And so to your humble scribe’s even humbler predictions:
FRIDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER, POOL A, Stade de France, Saint-Denis
FRANCE vs NEW ZEALAND: Pour a good glass of Bordeaux Blend for this one! A truly heavyweight clash to open the tournament with! Both sides among the overall favourites, although with mixed results in the run in, as well as injury concerns, especially for France. The home side will be swept along on a wave of passion, emotion and fervour, playing with that ‘extra man’ behind them – but keeping that emotion properly bottled and channelled will be key to seeing off a Kiwi side smarting from a thumping against eternal enemies, South Africa. Will it galvanise the Kiwis? Damned right it will. Do they have the personnel and plans to make it count? Damned nearly – still some question marks over the physicality of the pack, with a fairly callow front row and Sam Whitelock behind them past his (considerable) peak. Not a back row for the ages either. France, disrupted by injury, still have a formidable side from 1 to 15 and will be confident of taming the Kiwis.
Prediction? France by a handful. Don’t forget to put the bottle in the recycling bin.
SATURDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER, POOL A, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne
ITALY vs NAMIBIA: Chianti or Windhoek Lager? Since the Bordeaux Blend is long gone, maybe both. From the highs of the opening clash, to a more mundane and routine match in the same pool. An Italy side that has shown great improvement in the last couple of years (Georgia in for Wales in the 6N etc etc!) won’t be troubled by the Southern Africans, coached by ex-Bok mentor Allister Coetzee. A few of the Namibians have Super Rugby and European experience, notably hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld, but they’re not a side bristling with top players. Expect Italy to keep their powder dry for bigger matches to follow, but still have far too much in the tank for the willing Welwitschias.
Prediction? Italy by 25 or more. 1 bottle of Chianti and a case of Windhoek equals 25. Just stick to that.
SATURDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER, POOL B, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux
IRELAND vs ROMANIA: A lovely Guinness to wash away the wine and settle in for the afternoon. World number 1 Ireland, on a 13-match winning streak and with one of the more settled squads in the tournament (despite a couple of late withdrawals), won’t be expected to sweat too much against a willing but limited Romania. Romania were thumped in all three warm up matches, with both Italy and Georgia putting 50 on them, and even a weak USA beat them handily. Ireland can afford to put out a reserve side and still win with ease in the easiest of their pool matches. The biggest question is whether Sexton starts (or plays a cameo off the bench), or whether the Irish talisman is wrapped in cotton wool for the more testing fixtures to come.
Prediction? Ireland by as many as they want, really. Sounds like the drinking habits of your average Dubliner, too – join in!
SATURDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER, POOL C, Stade de France, Saint-Denis
AUSTRALIA vs GEORGIA: Chacha is a Georgian pomace brandy, clear and strong (thanks Wiki), and way better than that 4X piss or Hardy’s slop. Have a double. Each half. The first banana skin match of the World Cup? Australia have had an abysmal season thus far, losing five on the bounce. Not a single try-scoring bonus point in the Rugby Championship for a side supposedly with attacking flair, and only one losing bonus point. They’ve been pretty rudderless under Eddie ‘Cat Bounce’ Jones, who has ditched a number of senior players for youth and good old Aussie derring-do. Nick White says Samu Kerevi is back to full fitness and knocked him about in training, something we’d all like to see a bit more of, but will Australia be able to pick up the pieces against a Georgian side that has lost only once since their epic win over Wales last November? True, Scotland put 33 points on them in the second half of their last match, but they led 6-0 at the break, showing great resilience in the first half, before blowing out.
Prediction? Australia to do the same as Scotland and pull away in the second half – but only by 15 or so. Parched throat? No problem – another match on the way.
SATURDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER, POOL D, Stade de Marseille, Marseille
ENGLAND vs ARGENTINA: A warm tin of Carling or the delights of a Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Cincuenta y Cinco? Lob the Carling at the neighbours’ noisy dog and pull the cork! Another potential banana skin to follow the previous match? I doubt it. England don’t have the wherewithal to cause an upset. It’s been a mixed bag for Argentina this year, getting stuffed by the All Blacks and Boks in Argentina, but beating Australia away and losing by a single point to the Boks in SA. A rampant final warm up against Spain means little. However, Argentina have a better pack than England in almost every department and should boss the set piece and breakdown – which has been England’s Achilles’ heel for a while now. They’ve also got backs who on their day can rip just about any defence to pieces, and I reckon they’ve been targeting this match since they beat England at HQ in November. England’s travails in the lead up to the World Cup are well documented, from a stodgy pack and little guile behind it, to disciplinary issues for key players and seemingly little in the way of an evolving gameplan. With both sides having discipline issues, it may well come down to who finishes with the most players on the pitch.
Prediction? Argentina by up to 10. Don’t trip on the way to the kitchen for a refill!
SUNDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER, POOL D, Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse
JAPAN vs CHILE: Clear the slightly fuzzy head with the Yamazaki Single Malt, followed up with a Viña Casa Silva “Microterroir de Los Lingues” Carménère Colchagua Valley 2011. Great start to a Sunday! Japan ripped up the formbook and sailed into the hearts of the rugby world at the last World Cup on home soil, until they met the unsmiling orcs of the Boks. They played with verve, dash, courage and spirit, and no small amount of breathtaking skill. However, they’re not that side this year. A single win over Tonga in four warm up matches, with a narrow loss to Samoa followed by heavy defeats to Fiji and Italy speaks of side not coping with physical teams. However, they come up against a Chile making their World Cup debut – good on them – and who lost all three of their warm up matches, against Uruguay, Namibia and an Argentine Select side. All three losses were narrow, however, and they scored 26 points in each match – if they do that, it could be enough for a famous opening weekend win.
Prediction? Japan to win an entertaining, high-scoring match by a score or two in the end. Don’t have a whisky for each Japanese score, if you can remember.
SUNDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER, POOL B Stade de Marseille, Marseille
SOUTH AFRICA vs SCOTLAND: Stellenbosch Red, Hermanus Chardonnay, or Paarl Shiraz? Probably brandy and coke to get through this one, followed by a couple of drams of Glenmorangie or Macallan Rare Cask. A huge match in the context of the Pool of Death, pitting the 2nd ranked Boks against the 5th ranked Scots, both of whom have to face the 1st ranked Irish later in the pool. The Boks got mugged in Auckland by the Kiwis, conceding 17 points in as many minutes and not being able to claw that back. They won the rest of the match 20-18, but that counts for nothing. Convincing, powerful wins over Australia, Wales, Argentina and THAT match at Twickers against the All Blacks have seen the Boks emerge as one of the favourites. However, they struggled to contain a fired-up Argentina at Ellis Park, winning by a point – luckily so in the view of many here – and Scotland will have taken note. The Boks have huge forward power, starting and off the bench (Duane Vermeulen benched for Jasper Wiese, to the shock of many), and also have some scintillating outside backs. But the coaches have gone for de Allende and Kriel in midfield, which is the least inspiring combination, although probably the most defensively solid. Scotland will have noted the two diminutive wingers up against McDuhan and McSteyn and will probably pepper them. In Finntastic Russell they have the best 10 at the World Cup, and if the Boks allow him to dictate, it could be a long afternoon for the big boys in green.
Prediction? Heart says Boks by 10 or more, head says anything is possible, fear is kicking in BIG TIME. Check the score on Monday after calling in sick.
SUNDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER, POOL C, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux
WALES vs FIJI: Penderyn Whiskey (no jokes about Welsh Brains here please) or Bounty Rum? Why, I’ll have a couple of each, thanks! A potentially fantastic match to round out the weekend with, as a Wales that are in as much strife as their neighbours across the Afon Hafren, come up against a Fiji side popping and bouncing after their win against England at Twickenham. They did get dusted by France the week before that, but have only that loss in a run of strong wins against Samoa, Japan and Tonga in the run in. Fiji have a strong squad, based on their Super Rugby outfit, but with some real aces from the European leagues too – Bill Mata, Semi Radradra, Waisea Nayacalevu, Temo Mayanavanua and Sam Matavesi to name a few. The loss of two front line 10s is a major blow, but such is the nature of Fijian rugby, you can put a 130kg prop at first receiver and still get a magical backline move! Wales shared the spoils in two lousy matches against England, before being demolished by the Boks in their last hit out before the World Cup. Fiji showed against England that their traditional weakness at set piece has improved, and this may well be a weekend that Welsh fans hide behind the sofa pining for the days of playing only the Western part of Samoa!
Prediction? Fiji, just, against a Welsh side that spoils for an arm-wrestle. Go to bed, if you can make it, or just sleep on the floor and hope the missus/mister is understanding. You’ve got four days before the next lot.
Refreshment recommendations by Deebee7
Onna telly this week
Friday 8th September
| France 27 – 13 New Zealand | 20:15 | ITV1 / S4C / iPlayer / STV / RTÉ2 |
Saturday 9th September
| Italy 52 – 8 Namibia | 12:00 | ITV1 / STV |
| Ireland 82 – 8 Romania | 14:30 | ITV1 / STV |
| Australia 35 – 15 Georgia | 17:00 | ITV1 / STV / RTÉ2 |
| England v Argentina | 20:00 | ITV1 / STV / RTÉ2 |
Sunday 10th September
| Japan v Chile | 12:00 | ITV1 / STV |
| South Africa v Scotland | 16:45 | ITV1 / STV |
| Wales v Fiji | 20:00 | ITV1 / STV / iPlayer / S4C |
Thursday 14th September
| France v Uruguay | 20:00 | ITV1 / STV |
Ovally Balls 
There was Bevan, there was Joubert, there were Irish refs by a shit load, now there is Carly. Discusting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yellow for Wales now, bit late mind.
LikeLike
If I was Fiji, I’d be asking about the Welsh player leading with the head there.
LikeLike
Munched the scrum. Going again.
LikeLike
Also questionable him blowing the whistle while Fiji were moving ahead.
LikeLike
North’s no Manu, when it comes to scrummaging.
LikeLike
But Fiji score! Well deserved.
LikeLike
I really hope England don’t play Wales in the QF. I’d much rather lose to Australia or Fiji!
LikeLike
G’wan Fiji!
LikeLike
Wales can fuck right off,
LikeLike
Dab – you’re assuming that England make it to the QF. :-D
LikeLike
Jesus, just had a 10 second peal of thunder.
LikeLike
Fiji score!
LikeLike
Another warning for Wales.
LikeLike
Oh, what a heartbreaker for Fiji!
This has overtaken all others in the best-match-so-far stakes.
LikeLike
Ohhhh, Fiji noooooo.
LikeLike
Wales a tad lucky there. Played very well in patches, but benefited from some poor decisions by the ref. Fiji just lacked that little bit of composure where it counted most.
LikeLike
Unbelievable match! That was spectacular! Wales absolutely stood toe to toe with Fiji and gave as good as they got. Stunning match, great result for Wales, some bloody sore bodies tomorrow!
LikeLike
Fiji wuz robbed!
LikeLike
That said Dab, Fiji would absolutely have shat the bed, in that last minute, just a few years ago. Having the Drua team has made a huge difference.
LikeLike
I’m sure we will all be strongly supporting Fiji against Australia.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Now then (as they say by way of hello in these parts). Don’t suppose anyone’s seen any exciting games of rugby recently…
LikeLiked by 3 people
Raiders Knights in the first round of the NRL finals looked pretty good on extended highlights, CMW.
Other than that, 15 guys in white were just beaten by 15 in red + a referee. Usually really like Carley as the guy on the whistle, but he was really soft on Wales today.If you card a guy for repeated infringements, you don’t usually let them get away with another handful straight away without pulling out another one. Not to mention Fiji losing a guy on first offence, or the fact that the yellow he did show to Wales was about three penalties too late anyway.
Aside from all that, what a bloody great game, well done both sides.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLike
“If you card a guy for repeated infringements, you don’t usually let them get away with another handful straight away without pulling out another one. Not to mention Fiji losing a guy on first offence, or the fact that the yellow he did show to Wales was about three penalties too late anyway.”
I think the main thing here is the last bit though three would be an exaggeration (I think he should have carded the last one without bothering with a warning as it should have been obvious to Wales that they were pushing their luck). I don’t much like Fiji’s card for bringing down that maul as I don’t much like the importance of driving lineouts in the game for the last however many years, but it seems to be pretty standard to card that. I don’t think it’s normal to card again immediately after binning someone for repeated infringements either.
We definitely got the better of the decisions though I’m not going to get upset about that as like all teams there are plenty of times when we don’t. Think the disallowed tries were fair enough though Elias or Rowlands could well have been penalised on the first one even if what they did was the same as loads of things that happen near the line throughout any game these days. Biggar was lucky with a couple of hits on the high side at one point too from his upright tackling style. On the flip side the Fijian player who dragged Gareth Davies to his feet should probably have to go for that regardless of whether Davies was making a meal of it (he did get hit in the head though he will have wanted the penalty reversing) and there would have been a possible deliberate knock on to look at had LRZ not scored which might have been penalty try and bin. The no-arms hit on LW in the first half after he passed (!) wasn’t great either. There was a lot going on in the game, guess that’s par for the course when it’s so open.
Wales contributed enormously to the spectacle themselves and it was a really good game. Other teams (South Africa, cough) will defend better in midfield than Fiji did of course, but it was great to see some exciting running rugby from our lot as well as theirs. Obviously Fiji got a chance to win it at the end, but they had left themselves rather a lot to do in the last ten minutes and needed everything to go right to snatch it. Wales did their best to help them with some horrendous errors in that period, but got away with it. We’re some way from getting through, but have every chance now.
Fiji still have a chance too and all their games are going to be entertaining. I’ll guarantee that ours will not be to the same extent as we seem to play boring rugby against boring teams and more exciting rugby against exciting ones unless they turn out to be so good that we get shut out all together.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I also thought the bollockings that Biggar dished out to his teammates in the first half were absolute highlights of the tournament so far and can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t enjoy them. We were all in stitches.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well that was tight.
And brutal.
Genius by Gatland making Jac Morgan captain.
Imagine how many cards we’d have got if Biggar was captain.
But Jac “baby face” Morgan?
Well you’ve been quite naughty in the red zone so this is my absolute final warning.
LikeLiked by 3 people
@BRB – I think Biggar would have carded North, Tompkins and Liam Williams himself as a bare minimum even before the ref got started.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Morgan needs to work on his post-match interview technique though. Perhaps Warbs can coach him to talk a bit slower in between the big gaps.
LikeLike
I am ‘reliably’ informed as I always am in these matters that Morgan is ‘sort of from somewhere near Ystradgynlais’. Turn left when you’re going up the valley just before you get to Ystrad or somesuch.
LikeLike
CMW
Brynamman I thought.
Which is also turn left at Ystradgynlais.
Classic Biggar last night including some of his greatest hits like bollocking his teammates then missing a penalty.
LikeLike
Cwm-Twrch (one for the non-Welsh to enjoy) I was told though it wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out to be New Zealand.
LikeLike
We had a conversation about whether or not it’s a good thing for your outside half and goalkicker to be the angriest man on the pitch/in the stadium/in France and all agreed that it probably isn’t. He then almost immediately had a touchline conversion to go for and we all said he’d get it and of course he did.
LikeLike
Good article in the Indy on this, CMW. And yes, Wales did contribute. At times, they look really exciting, and North is starting to find his feet at centre. One of the main things that I find interesting is that Wales actually seem to have quite a good grasp of how to play off the cuff when needs be, making really good snap decisions in open play, ( well also some daft ones), one player beaten and there looks to be three or four support players running different lines and offering multiple options, whereas England look so surprised that someone finds a bit of space that the other 14 players stand around with their jaws around their knees, and the break almost certainly ends in a turnover, or Johnny may going as the first man to protect the ball.
Also, yes, normally if you get a yellow and then infringe on the line two minutes later, thats another yellow.
LikeLike
“Also, yes, normally if you get a yellow and then infringe on the line two minutes later, thats another yellow”
If this happened all the time then we’d see an awful lot more yellows than we actually do. In any case the next two penalties were for Morgan falling on the wrong side some way from the line and being pretty clearly unable to roll away (don’t think anyone would see it as ‘cynical’) and a scrum penalty which is something that hadn’t been an issue in the game really till then. Could easily have been a pen to Wales at the following scrum, but ref played on and Fiji scored. Wouldn’t particularly expect to see a card for either of those penalties. Our prop then got pinged in their half for putting his hands on the ground beyond one of our own rucks when their player backed out of contact. Pretty harsh when you consider that Fiji then proceeded to hurtle in off their feet at a number of rucks after that, most notably the one immediately prior to the one where LW could well have been carded in the lead up to the try that was disallowed for the double movement. Think LW was lucky, but only one team were getting reffed by that point. Perhaps that was understandable as Wales had annoyed the ref with some silly and not particularly fruitful efforts at wasting time, but he should still try to make the right calls (I’m sure he was trying, but wasn’t necessarily doing all that well).
Fiji got their chance anyway and dropped it, so it goes.
LikeLike
I can’t imagine that Corey Domachowski was in a tremendous hurry to speak to Gats after the game. If it wasn’t a World Cup squad situation then I don’t think we’d see him again for a very long time.
LikeLike
Nice to see our Cymraeg correspondents thoroughly dissecting the match.
Are the Scots still hiding behind the sofa?
LikeLike
I don’t know if anyone on here follows/reads James Doleman, but this explains why he’s been posting so many pics of hostpital food
LikeLike
I’m in Malaga. Haven’t seen anything since Friday.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Didn’t miss much, BB. It was one way traffic, Scotland lucky to get 3 points, Finn lucky not to get red carded, not so much for his no arms hit on KLA after the whistle, but for his Owen Farrell ‘look at me I’m injured’ pish until the ref decided to bottle it. Rassie’s disco lights probably the highlight of the Scottish evening, to be honest. Go well with Irn Bru and deep fried pizza.
Boks decided to take off Etzebeth after 20 minutes to even it up a bit, but Scotland stubbornly refused to contest the set piece. Would have been a far bigger win/loss if Grant Williams hadn’t run so fast that he tripped over the end of the world and lost his footing. The VanScots were awful – WP Nel looked puffed in the warm up, Pierre Schoeman made WP Nel look athletic, and the best thing that can said about McDuhan is his increasingly creepy resemblance to Johnny Bravo.
I’ll get round to dissing the English, Welsh and Irish later. Can’t be bothered with the Kiwis or Aussies – they can play in their 2nd Tier Super Rugby from now on and leave the real stuff to the rest of us. France are hosts, so escape a lashing. For now.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Curry banned for three matches; 2 if he attends World Rugby’s infamously ineffective Tackling School.
I don’t know, maybe some electrodes should be involved.
LikeLiked by 1 person
… naughty
LikeLike
I don’t know, maybe some electrodes should be involved.
Electrodes to the tackle area would certainly focus some minds.
I drew Portugal in our sweepstake thing for the rugby. Hoping they pull off the biggest upset in Rugby World Cup history on Saturday. Any takers?
LikeLike
@Deebee – Sorry to disappoint you, but we’ve got the refs on our side.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So as long as we’re at least 30 points up with ten minutes to go we should be just about OK.
LikeLike
Jeez CMW, tempt fate why don’t you. Portugal beat 12 man Wales in reffing nightmare shock. Biggar sent off for player abuse, after shouting ” I fucking told you last game, you fucking cxxt ” at Liam Williams ,and Liam Williams also sent off for punching. ( Biggar) . Josh Adams also sent off for saying ” You are fucking joking ref “
LikeLiked by 2 people
@SBT – I’ve accepted that we’ve got to take the rough with the smooth!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The only tie this coming weekend that won’t be an almighty humping is Aus/Fiji and even then that is not a given, other than that I can’t see anything other than a return to some of the scorelines of the World Cup in the early years
France – Uruguay, New Zealand – Namibia, Samoa – Chile, Wales – Portugal, Ireland – Tonga, South Africa – Romania, Australia – Fiji, England – Japan.
Tonga might prove to be a tough nut, but not for long and not against Ireland.
LikeLike
This rather gallows humour deserves some musical accompaniment:
LikeLike