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All Blacks v Spingboks RWC final on the cards
By Sasha Distel September 16 2007
Heading towards the halfway stage of the knock-out segment of RWC 2007, let’s take a look at the situation in the four pools to see if there’s any conclusion to come to other than the fact that the Southern Hemisphere teams are in command. In fact, any crumb of comfort for Northern Hemisphere teams would be more than welcome.
With New Zealand, Australia and South Africa vying with each other to see who can score the most points in the pools and Argentina the producers of what is still the shock result of the tournament so far, it’s difficult to find anything for the North to smile about.Apart, perhaps, from the fact that some of the minnows have not been as easy to beat as was expected in some quarters.

Pool A - South Africa only have to turn up for their final games to coast into the quarter-finals, while England have been exposed for the second-raters they are. As in so many other sports that the rest of the world plays but they aren’t interested in, USA are also-rans, while Samoa and Tonga have proved they will always give any team a game.

Pool B – Australia streets ahead of the rest, but what a pity they have to mix arrogance with their superiority. They thought it was wrong to have to play Wales in Cardiff, but if they have real World Cup aspirations surely they should be able to cope with such problems … and in the end, they did. Wales might yet be the best performing home country after admitting that they paid the Aussies too much respect and should finish second, though Fiji in Nantes on September 29 will be the decider.

Pool C – still no sign of anything to suggest New Zealand won’t win the tournament, though allowing Portugal to score a try seemed a bit soft. As in other pools, the big battle here is to decide who finishes second, and Scotland v Italy on September 29 is the big one. What a pity it’s in St Etienne rather than Edinburgh.
Pool D – They called it the Pool of Death before the tournament started, but Pool of Nerves might be closer to the mark. France managed to lose their first game against Argentina, and from then on it’s been arguably the most interesting pool. Ireland v Argentina on September 30 will be just as interesting – and just as close – as Scotland v Italy in Pool C the day before. 

Allowing for the fact that the whole tournament is being played to decide which country is second best to New Zealand, Sasha’s predictions for the quarter finals are: Australia v England, New Zealand v Argentina, South Africa v Wales, France v Scotland 
So it’s New Zealand v South Africa in the final.

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Re: All Blacks v Spingboks RWC final on the cards
Posted by: Muzza (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:09:18:08:14:08

The perfect final - AB's v Boks @ a netural park.

From 1937 to 56 to 65 to 70 to 76 to 94 to 95 to 96 the historical big AB V SA games - now to Paris. There can only be one.

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