2011 Rugby World Cup draw

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Cob

Cob

Cob

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Pool A

New Zealand
France
Tonga
Americas 1
Asia 1

Pool B

Argentina
England
Scotland
Europe 1
Play-off winner

Pool C

Austraila
Ireland
Italy
Europe 2
Americas 2

Pool D

South Africa
Wales
Fiji
Oceania 1
Africa 1



Pretty decent draw for England, Wales and Ireland. Scotland could have a little trouble.
 
Oceania 1? That means we'll get Samoa. So, we've got SA, Fiji and the Samoans, we could win all three but we'll have a mighty injury list afterwards. Not a particularly good draw for us. How exactly are the rankings worked out? I don't think anybody could honestly claim that Argentina should be in the top four seeds at the moment. England have had a very good draw, though the Scots will be pumped up going into their match if it means they could knock England out of the tournament.
 
Argentina are currently ranked 4th in the world. World Cup seedings are taken from the world rankings as of 21st of last month IIRC.

The only team I can think of that should be above Argentina are France, but then Argentina beat them in the last WC and got to the semis.
 
England have got off quite lightly, but on current form they'd be doing well to finish second. The Argies are easily capable of beating us, and the last England game I watched at Twickenham they did.
 
Looking forward to the Wales games, if we keep on improving like we have been doing since Gatland came in I think we'll do alright, except for SA, but that's a given :D
 
2011 is a long way off but Argentina are definitely the most improved team of the last 3/4 years come 2011 they could be a much stronger team, nowhere near good enough to beat the likes of Australia/south Africa at the big stage but real competitive.
 
Talking with my faltmate and it seems Ireland have gotten off pretty lightly out of this draw.... Australia seem to be the only massive threat (and given Wales supprisingly beating them recently) it could be quite good for them... (though 2011 is agggges away)
 
Off current form, I don't see how you can say England have a good draw :p.

Still. 3 years to try and rescue the debacle in the English RFU.
 
azza21 said:
2011 is a long way off but Argentina are definitely the most improved team of the last 3/4 years come 2011 they could be a much stronger team
Click to expand...

They's got a pretty old squad though, haven't they?

Given the disarray that Argentine domestic rugby is in I don't think they've got many replacements coming though.
 
pingwing said:
Talking with my faltmate and it seems Ireland have gotten off pretty lightly out of this draw.... Australia seem to be the only massive threat (and given Wales supprisingly beating them recently) it could be quite good for them... (though 2011 is agggges away)
Click to expand...

It wasn't surprising to us. The only disappointing thing was we gave them too soft tries to make the scoresheet a bit more respectable. We should have done over the boks as well but Hook forgot momentarily who he was playing for. Ironically, if we had won that match we'd have had England and Scotland. Now that would have been the group to watch!
 
Yeah, but in 3 years time who knows. I don't think we're going to suddenly drop off but a few of our stars will be a bit long in the tooth then. Will Atephen Jones, Martyn and Shane Williams, etc still be around then? I can't see Shanklin lasting as his level has already started to drop. Still, players like Byrne and Powell should really be flying then.

And what's with all the bizarre facial hair in the welsh squad at the moment? It's like watching a deleted scene from Life on Mars! I know they're playing like it's the 70's again but looking like it's another matter!
 
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