By Bedfordshire Boy
September 9 2015
It doesn`t seem like 4 years have passed since a pretty shambolic England display, both on and off the pitch, in the2011 RWC but the 2015 competition will soon be with us. Most warm up games have now been completed with a few surprising results, two examples being Italy in Wales and Scotland in France at the weekend. It goes to show that if any of the perceived front runners take their eye off of the ball they could end up in trouble.
England have been progressing well culminating in a well deserved win against The Irish at Twickenham, I am sure most of us would have preferred a few changes to the final 31 man squad but now is the time to put all that behind us and support the team. Having watched the Fijians play at The Stoop on Sunday it is obvious that England are in for a bruising encounter in their opening match but they should have enough to get through the game with a win if they play to their potential. The Welsh have suffered a couple of setbacks after the weekend losing both Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb to injury but they still have enough in the tank to cause England problems. I expect England to negotiate this hurdle with a close win as they have home advantage so the crowd will have to play their part. I find the England v Australia game much harder to predict, a lot will depend upon the England pack establishing a strong foundation for the backs to play from but that is not a foregone conclusion following recent matches. There can only be one result from the England Uruguay game but England need to be ruthless and score as many points as possible in case the pool is decided by points difference following close games between England, Wales and Australia. I expect England to qualify for the quarter finals from the pool and with luck sit at the top of the table.
As usual New Zealand are the bookies favourites as they normally are but have only managed to come through the competition as winners twice to date, both times playing on home soil. Australia, South Africa, France and England I would but forward as the main contenders against The All Blacks retaining their title as I suspect that Wales and Ireland probably do not have enough strength in depth to go all the way.
Whatever happens I am sure that we will be in for some great rugby and there will certainly be a few surprise results with Scotland, Italy, Samoa, Fiji and Argentina all capable of taking a big scalp.
What odds on an England v Australia final I wonder?
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Quote:It goes to show that if any of the perceived front runners take their eye off of the ball they could end up in trouble.