Rugby World Cup 2015 - Group Draw

England's starting XV is unchanged for this Friday against Fiji

Thought Billy Vunipola would start, would expect him to ultimately win that place by the Q-Finals, similarly in the battle for the second row spot alongside Lawes, I think Launchbury will win that from Parling eventually

And Sam Burgess makes the bench


England:Mike Brown (Harlequins); Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby), Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby), Brad Barritt (Saracens), Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby); George Ford (Bath Rugby); Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers); Joe Marler (Harlequins), Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Geoff Parling (Exeter Chiefs), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints), Chris Robshaw (capt, Harlequins), Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby).

Replacements: Rob Webber (Bath Rugby), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Kieran Brookes (Northampton Saints), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Billy Vunipola (Saracens), Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens), Owen Farrell (Saracens), Sam Burgess (Bath Rugby).
 
EdWeatherall said:
England's starting XV is unchanged for this Friday against Fiji

Thought Billy Vunipola would start, would expect him to ultimately win that place by the Q-Finals, similarly in the battle for the second row spot alongside Lawes, I think Launchbury will win that from Parling eventually

And Sam Burgess makes the bench


England:Mike Brown (Harlequins); Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby), Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby), Brad Barritt (Saracens), Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby); George Ford (Bath Rugby); Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers); Joe Marler (Harlequins), Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Geoff Parling (Exeter Chiefs), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints), Chris Robshaw (capt, Harlequins), Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby).

Replacements: Rob Webber (Bath Rugby), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Kieran Brookes (Northampton Saints), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Billy Vunipola (Saracens), Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens), Owen Farrell (Saracens), Sam Burgess (Bath Rugby).
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I see some not happy with Burgess over Slade for the bench spot. I'd personally have Sam on bench, Fiji with be brutal and I think having the physicality off the bench will be key. Both Vunipola brothers will be too. Agreed on Launchbury he will start against Wales, he hadn't played for 6 months before France game so I can see why Lancaster easing him in after a few appearances off the bench. One thing I don't agree with is Webber over George on the bench, I thought George was very good in last 2 warm ups while Webber has been very average for a while now. Other then that I like the 23 for England.
 
Yellow cards will be issued for players who feign injuries at this World Cup. Who'll be the first to cop ten in the bin for feigning injuries at this World Cup?
 
Two days to go, So who will this ? There is a doubt with every major contendor to be honest.

New Zealand: Never won the tournament outside their home country even when they have been favourites for almost all of them.Undoubtedly the best team on the planet, but they can be beaten.

England : Very poor record against SA and NZ in recent history, and you usually have to beat one of those to win the world cup.

Australia : Good side, but tough group and thus a potentially difficult path to the final, where they may have to face England, Wales, SA, and NZ just to get to the final. Mentally that is very tough.

SA- out of form, possibly too old, and not the greatest of morale

Ireland : Very poor world cup record

Wales : Injuries have hampered them big time

France : Very inconsistent, but that makes them so dangerous too.
 
K2K said:
Two days to go, So who will this ? There is a doubt with every major contendor to be honest.

New Zealand: Never won the tournament outside their home country even when they have been favourites for almost all of them.Undoubtedly the best team on the planet, but they can be beaten.

England : Very poor record against SA and NZ in recent history, and you usually have to beat one of those to win the world cup.

Australia : Good side, but tough group and thus a potentially difficult path to the final, where they may have to face England, Wales, SA, and NZ just to get to the final. Mentally that is very tough.

SA- out of form, possibly too old, and not the greatest of morale

Ireland : Very poor world cup record

Wales : Injuries have hampered them big time

France : Very inconsistent, but that makes them so dangerous too.
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I would say the odds are great for New Zealand. Ireland are a total shot in the dark based on past history. France will probably come good, infuriatingly, as they always do. I can't comment on Aus or SA because I haven't seen them for a while.
 
unchanged_lineup said:
I would say the odds are great for New Zealand. Ireland are a total shot in the dark based on past history. France will probably come good, infuriatingly, as they always do. I can't comment on Aus or SA because I haven't seen them for a while.
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NZ are always the favourites though..but they arent as dominant in world cups as they they should be..the fact that they have won as many world cups as SA who have played two less tournaments with many great teams is testament to that..France are the dark horses for me too.
 
The Southern Hemisphere big three.

New Zealand as ever start as favourites, but they've never won a World Cup outside of New Zealand. As they themselves learnt four years ago, there are such fine margins at this level. They found out 8 years ago what impact poor refereeing decisions can have, and the impact of a non decision going your way four years ago. They are beatable, it's about belief.

South Africa while they've not looked in impressive this year but, in a World Cup anything can happen. They didn't look great heading into the 2007 World Cup results wise, but won it. Before the 99 World Cup they didn't have a great time of it in the then Tri Nations, but made the semi finals. It's all about two games for them before the final: Quarter final and semi final; win those two, they'll be in the final and I think they'll win it.

Australia have been on an interesting journey post 2011. They've had three coaches post the last World Cup Robbie Deans, Ewen McKenzie and now Michael Cheika. This time last year, eventually resulting in Ewen Mckenzie resigning. Michael Cheika is a big advocate of playing ball in hand running rugby. The win against South Africa this year was testament to that. 20-17 down with two minutes to go they were given a penalty and the obvious would have been to go for goal and level the scores. Instead, Tevita Kurrindrani scored a try in the 82nd minute to win the match. It got the Aussie public onside something that's something that's hard for the Wallabies to do. They'll fear nobody, but unlike South Africa and New Zealand the wallabies won't top their pool.

Hoping for England vs Australia in the final, and replica of 1991 would be nice.
 
I hope it's an exciting World Cup. As much as I love football I really do love Rugby as a sport too and the WC is so important for helping promote it.
 
Phurry said:
I think we usually do pretty well at stuff like that, I enjoyed that and also thought the Olympics one was decent too.
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No doubt they are always quite the spectacle, but it's usually a lot of fluffy bollocks to me. I enjoyed it tonight though.
 
I'm gonna go with England by 10, with the game being quite close until the last 15 minutes or so. But that's a total guess, I don't know anything about either the England team or the Fijians. (Samoa and All Black supporter)
 
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