Rugby World Cup 2007

The 2007 Rugby World Cup will be the sixth event to be hosted. France are the main hosts, though Wales (Millenium Stadium, Cardiff) and Scotland (Murrayfield, Edinburgh) will also host matches.

France, as hosts, will play the opening match against Argentina on 7th September in Paris's Stade de France.

England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, South Africa, Austalia, New Zealand qualified automatically as a result of them making the quarter finals in the previous tournament in Australia. There are a further 12 places for which qualifying is not yet completed. Canada were the most recent team to qualify with a thumping 56-7 victory in Newfoundland over neighbours USA (who can still qualify by beating Uruguay in a play-off) and join Argentina (who qualified by beatign Uruguay 26-0 in Buenos Aires) as qualifiers from the Americas. Fiji and Somao are the Oceania qualifiers. The African, Asian, European and the two Repecharge qualifiers are not yet completed, though Japan (who face Korea and Hong Kong in their final qualification round) and Italy are likely candidates. Tonga (who were third place in the Oceania qualification group will face the second placed Asian team in a repecharge.

The pools are play in a round-robin with the top two teams from each pool qualify for the quarter finals. Wales and Scotland both have the fortunate position of being able to play two of their group games at their respective home stadia.

The pools are as follows.

Pool A
England
South Africa
Samoa
USA or Uruguay
Repechage 2

Pool B
Australia
Wales
Fiji
Canada
Asia 1

Pool C
New Zealand
Scotland
Europe 1
Europe 2
Repechage 1

Pool D
France
Ireland
Argentina
Europe 3
Africa 1

The full schedule is as follows:

7 September:
France v Argentina, Stade de France, St Denis, Pool D

8 September:
England v USA or Uruguay, Lens, Pool A
Australia v Asia 1, Lyon, Pool B
New Zealand v Europe 1, Marseille, Pool C

9 September:
Ireland v Africa 1, Bordeaux, Pool D
Wales v Canada, Nantes, Pool B
South Africa v Samoa, Parc des Princes, Paris, Pool A
Scotland v Repechage 1, St Etienne, Pool C

11 September:
Argentina v Europe 3, Lyon, Pool D

12 September:
Europe 1 v Europe 2, Marseille, Pool C
USA or Uruguay v Repechage 2, Montpellier, Pool A
Asia 1 v Fiji, Toulouse, Pool B

14 September:
England v South Africa, Stade de France, Pool A

15 September:
Ireland v Europe 3, Bordeaux, Pool D
Wales v Australia, Cardiff, Pool B
New Zealand v Repechage 1, Lyon, Pool C

16 September:
Fiji v Canada, Cardiff, Pool B
Samoa v Repechage 2, Montpellier, Pool A
France v Africa 1, Toulouse, Pool D

18 September:
Scotland v Europe 2, Edinburgh, Pool C

19 September:
Europe 1 v Repechage 1, Parc des Princes, Pool C

20 September:
Wales v Asia 1, Cardiff, Pool B

21 September:
France v Ireland, Stade de France, Pool D

22 September:
South Africa v Repechage 2, Lens, Pool A
Argentina v Africa 1, Marseille, Pool D
England v Samoa, Nantes, Pool A

23 September:
Scotland v New Zealand, Edinburgh, Pool C
Australia v Fiji, Montpellier, Pool B

25 September:
Canada v Asia 1, Bordeaux, Pool B
Europe 2 v Repechage 1, Toulouse, Pool C

26 September:
Europe 3 v Africa, Lens, Pool D
Samoa v USA or Uruguay, St Etienne, Pool A

28 September:
England v Repechage 2, Parc des Princes, Pool A

29 September:
Australia v Canada, Bordeaux, Pool B
Wales v Fiji, Nantes, Pool B
Scotland v Europe 1, St Etienne, Pool C
New Zealand v Europe 2, Toulouse, Pool C

30 September:
France v Europe 3, Marseille, Pool D
South Africa v USA or Uruguay, Montpellier, Pool A
Ireland v Argentina, Parc des Princes, Pool D

6 October:
QF1: W Pool B v RU Pool A, Marseille
QF2: W Pool C v RU Pool D, Cardiff

7 October:
QF3: W Pool A v RU Pool B, Marseille
QF4: W Pool D v RU Pool C, Stade de France

13 October:
SF1: W QF1 v W QF2, Stade de France

14 October:
SF2: W QF3 v W QF4, Stade de France

19 October:
3rd place play-off, Parc des Princes

20 October:
Final, Stade de France.

The traditional "Autumn Series" which sees southern hemisphere teams (and occasionally North American teams) tour Europe will be a good indication of how preperation is going. Wales, for instance, will host both Australia and Canada this Novemeber as well as the Pacific Islanders (Somoa, Fiji and Tongan select team) and New Zealand.

I am sure that the venue of choice to watch all this for many Munich based TTers will be the Arc.

for info, oktoberfest starts 22.09.2007 until 07.10.2007

my interest at the moment is how the qualification is shaping up. I have been following the rather complicated method for the European qualification which started over two years ago. Germany have done quite well so far:

My rugby viewing venue of choice shall remain Güther Murphy's as usual.

oops, i somehow failed to notice that Germany lost their paly-off match to Spain (wasn't mentioned on the scrum.de website) so Spain go forward to a play off against the Czech Republic whilst Ukraine take on Russia.

The Winner of Spain/Czech Rep will face Romania and Georgia in the penultimate qualifying round (6) whilst the winner from Urkaine/Russia will face Italy and Romania.

Teams that *can* still qualify include:

Americas: Uraguay or USA
Asia: Japan, Korea or Hong Kong (winner of this group qualifies, second place plays Tonga)
Oceania: Tonga if they beat the second placed Asian qualifier
Africa: Namibia v Tunisia v Kenya and Morocco v Uganda v Ivory Coast battle it out for in two pools and a play-off for the Africa 1 qualifier place. Runner-up will face Europe 4
Europe: Spain/Czech v Romania v Georgia and Ukraine/Russia v Italy v Portugal.

Teams that *can* still win the cup include:

New Zealand.

ummmmmm...errrrr...cough.

Would that cough be the sound of new Zealand choking in a semi final or the final?

Actually I saw the game live when zee Frenchies knobbled them at Twickenham which was a shocker.

But frankly I think they are gonna piss it this time, and I will be lurking on betfair.com nearer the time laying every other team.

that's what he said in his second post

which I didn't see because my reply took a while to actually post, so I have now deleted it.

More to the point,
who has their tickets ordered,
I have tickets for
Marseille NEW ZEALAND - EUROPE 1(Probably Italy) (Saturday September the 8th 2007)
Bordeaux IRELAND - AFRICA 1 (Sunday September the 9th 2007)
Marseille EUROPE 1(Italy) - EUROPE 2(Romania) (Wednesday September the 12th 2007)
Bordeaux IRELAND - EUROPE 3 (Saturday September the 15th 2007)
Then a little break, and then
Bordeaux Canada - ASIA 1(Japan) (Tuesday September the 25th 2007) Which I might pass on anyway
but will definitely be back for
Bordeaux AUSTRALIA - Canada (Saturday September the 29th 2007)

USA in Englands group, now that would be fun.


RFU News

thanks for the update leky! I had forgotten to post that the USA would be in England's group if they beat Uruguay in the play off in my thread yesterday.

edit: (which you probably haven't read since it was in the Sport in Munich section since it was a reference to watching the games on TV in pubs in Munich)

OG, No didn't see it otherwise I would have posted there, I hope the USA do get through, will be especially fun as Hubby is American & supports Scotland in the 6 Nations, valid reason for a divorce I say!

I am glad that Canada got through also, my lucky friend has tickets to all the games in Cardiff.

I have tickets for all Wales matches up to the quarter final.

The Wales v Canada match (for which i obviously have tickets) will unfortunately be played in Nantes and not Cardiff. I will be going with Eleanor Rigby, although she is trying to resist this at the moment. Despiet being Canadian she is not really a sports fan, except when it involves getting plastered at hockey games.

I really really would like to go to the Wales v Canada match. So much so, in fact, that I'd agree to ANYTHING if you let me go with you.

funny that as the world cup is meant to be in france... i hope they never ever do this silly splitting crap again. ruins it to be honest.

France hosted some matches in 1999 when the World Cup has hosted in Wales so this is a reciprocal arrangement. It was a bit of horse-trading done to secure each others votes in the ballot to decide who hosts it.

It's somewhat of a joint Gaelic venture with France being the main host, they were also meant to have games in Ireland too, but Landsdowne wasn't considered suitable and the GAA would not let them use their stadium, they (the GAA) have since relented but too late for RWC 2007.

ER I could have sworn that wasn't what you said a little while ago!

WARNING: Never give your boyfriend your login information

From what I heard from the boys back home who were at the pitch last weekend, the Americans aren't likely to be in anybody's group.

apparently they lost on purpose to avoid being in the same group as Wales and Australia. They thought England and South Africa would be easier opponents

It always seems strange to me that for a country that plays a somewhat modified (read boring!!) version of rugby that they aren't better at the game, I know all the "good" (weenies) players play American football (so i'm told), but surely they could manage to field a halfway decent team from such a vast country.

i preferred this thread with the kinky stuff

how come Britain can't field a decent American Football team then?

it is a vastly different game with quite different skill sets and differeting physical demands. I have played against US Army teams with quite a few (american) football converts in the team. The standard was appauling.

Canada has some historical reasons for their superior team, with Universities providing a good training ground. They have lost out due to professionalisation since their own leagues are amateur (at best a few players recieve cost recompense). All their best players play in the european professinal and semi-pro leagues.

The USA, on the other hand, has no real history of playing the sport and no traditional areas where the game is played to a half-way decent standard. Players tend to join the game at far later.

yep, that was what I was trying to allude to - I don't find it strange at all that the USA aren't better than they are.

Canada do seem to have got considerably worse (relatively) in the last 10-15years.

you hadn't posted when i started writing. Simultaneous answers, like.

great minds and all that

see my point about professionalisation, which hit all the tier 2 nations quite hard. In fact, although professionalisation did wonders for the game in the tier 1 nations, it did a good job of almost killing off the sport in tier 2 and below by magnifying the gulf between the top 10 nations in the world and the rest. The IRB has only really started to put significant funding in place to help tier 2 and 3 countries improve. Most of the blame lies squarely with the big unions like the English RFU (and the English Premiership clubs as well) and RZRU, who put lining their own pockets first. A prime example is NZ refusal to allow Argentina into a southern hemisphere competition and the stitch up that prevented the next rugby world cup going to Japan.

Why the hell would they want to!! Anyway It's probably beacause they are hindered in their play by all the padding

because its a sport like any other, and a pretty popular one in Britain in the 80s.

Discussions about rugby being better and tougher than american football because they (Am Footballers) are so soft and padded always seems pretty pointless (amongst other things) though.

Never said they were soft? Hmm how do you know that then.

There are definately quite a few Am football players that I wouldn't mind finding out were soft or not!!

pointless but fun!

You cant compare really different Sports as they all require different Skills or Different techniques tho some positions in various Sports could be compared better than others. American Footballers generally dont last longer than a couple of Minutes on a Field before changing but then a Rugby Union Forward would struggle in American Football. Thats not to say people from Rugby Union or any other sport cant Play American Football or vice verse-its just very difficult as
a) you need to know the rules-especially in Rugby Union there are many! Would be a frustrating time as likely penalised alot as you wouldnt know the many rules of a new game and would still for a long while, think like you did in your original sport.If you played a sport when you was a kid then thats different as you know the basics but to play a sport that you havent grown up with is very difficult!

Need to adapt your skills to fit in with the Sport as well as the team you play with and this would take time.

c) You may not enjoy it as much as the game you played-which is likely.

New Zealand for mine for the World Cup as the rest are playing poorly to say the least. What the hell the Aussies were playing at in the last game against South Africa god knows! Would likely be France in Final being at home and all.

well, you heard wrong. USA beat Uruguay 33-7 to join England, South Africa and Samoa in Group A.

Always reckoned that a good running back would be good at rugby league. Obviously would have to learn a few new skills, but the main attribute is avoiding being tackled. Mind you, always thought that Jason Robinson would have been a superb running back...

I have just read a wonderfull atricle from a New Zeland website

www.stuff.co.nz

which preditcts a Rugby World Cup final next year in Paris between New Zealand (onviously) and... wait for...WALES!

Is this possible? What do the pundits out there think?

QUOTE

Graham Henry wants this current northern hemisphere rugby tour to be a dress rehearsal for next year's World Cup.


Perhaps he has always known more than the rest of us, but could it be that the next two matches on the tour – against France in Paris and against Wales in Cardiff – will mirror what could happen less than a year from now: a semi-final against France and a final against Wales? Again, for emphasis: a final against Wales.

Don't laugh, a quick look at Rugby World Cup 2007 reveals the top of half of the draw is likely to throw up quarter-finalists in the form of South Africa, England (pool A), Wales and Australia (pool B ) .

For reasons I'll come to shortly, you could happily back Wales to advance to the semi-finals whether it meets England or South Africa, with a rebound semi-final against fellow pool B member Australia.

Graham Henry is God!
(Gareth Jenkins is an asshole)

no. Mike Ruddock is the "Lord God Mike". abbreviated to LGM on certain other message boards. Did Graham Henry ever lead Wales to a Grand Slam?

New Zealand v anybody

Dont think it really matters as the rest are playing shite except Ireland. Wales are great sometimes then the next game crap going by reports. I would say the team that can be most consistant out of Wales, France, South Africa will be in the final. Australia have no young players coming through really and as for England say no more. Argentina and Scotland can upset teams but again not consistant enough to get to the final.

Watched Germany v Belguim in Heidelberg at the Weekend and it was the most boring game I have ever seen and feel robbed of €8! Very little go forward, alot of penalties and some poor kicking by both sides. The Belgians offered nothing in attack and wasnt much better in defence. Germany twazzed it left and right at pace but with no real forward momentum. Germany need a lot more improvement just in the basics of Go Forward, Tackling, Creative play and work on discipline. Was with 5 other people and all said it was utter crap especially for a decent level of international Rugby Union.

have a look at the draw. *Assuming* the ABs will make the final, this means that France will go out latest in the Semi-final. On the other half of the draw you have England, South Africa, Australia and Wales (most probably). By current performances, it is probably anyone's guess which of those countries can make it to the final. My guess, of course, is Wales

this is possible but ireserve judgment untill i've seen wales play in the 6N. if it does happen i may even scream for wales. but only if you personaly OG stop singing bred of heaven. otherwise i'm bying an AB top and printing out temporary maori tattoos for my face

(before anybody asks yes it is possible to print out your own tats)

i reckon we should save everyone elses time and effort and just give New Zealand a bye to the final. We then scrap the 6 Nations this year and replace it with a round robin between Wales, England, Australia and South Africa to deicide their opponents. Then the World Cup in Paris need only consist of one game.

On second thoughts, lets just hand the ABs the trophy and be done with it till 2011.

what a bunch of pussies ... ud all lay down before the whistle went off wouldnt you ? shame on the whole freakin lot of you

Remember the similar hype re the ABs last WC? They may do a choke again...altho this team is certainly better

If New Zealand and France both win their groups, then they wouldn't meet until the final. Placing 1 or 2 in your group places you in one half or the other. So it's possible for any 2 teams to meet in the final...

i doubt they‘ll choke. but have they peaked too soon?

edit: you are right