Sports After Dark

Rugby’s show-piece kicks off in a week’s time and fans from all around the world are trying to decide who will be the first of the contenders to slip up. Unfortunately any upsets will not be happening in the first week.

The expansion of the Rugby World Cup to 20 teams has led to a number of second and third tier teams being included in this year’s competition which will likely result in games of little interest, such as Georgia vs Namibia, and one sided hidings such as Australia vs Japan. However there are some intriguing match ups in the tournament’s first round, it is just difficult to see them producing an unexpected result.

The tournament kicks off with one such game, hosts France up against Argentina. Some have said there could be an upset in the making here, but France were dominant in the warm up tests, beating England twice and comprehensively beating Wales, while Argentina were beaten by the same Welsh team during their warm up. Expect France to win this one comfortably.

Day two sees three games being played, and the result of two of them is in no doubt. England will put away the USA in one game, while the only question hanging over the Australia vs Japan game is whether the Wallabies will break the century mark or not.

The game most are looking at on day two will be New Zealand vs Italy. Can the Six Nations team provide a shock start to the tournament by beating the favourites? Extremely unlikely. Despite having not played since the end of July, the All Blacks will have far too much class for the feisty Italians but they will be rusty, no doubt starting the great New Zealand Knocking Machine back home.

Day three is one of only two days of the tournament to feature four games, as four top tier teams will get their first run against inferior opposition. Wales will put away Canada, Scotland will be too good for Portugal and Ireland should rack up a record score against Namibia.  The South Africa vs Samoa game could be of interest, as Samoa are known for their ability to punch above their weights and could trouble the Springboks early on, but in the end the superior African fitness will show through and South Africa will win comfortably.

Day five has just the one game between Argentina and Georgia, which will give the South Americans their first points of the tournament in an easy win.

Day six provides some interest to hardcore fans and every game is between second tier teams who have little to no chance of advancing out of the pool phase. The USA vs Tonga game will be a good one featuring two evenly matched teams, but the more experienced Tongans should win, Fiji will account for Japan as they did earlier this year in the Pacific Nations Cup, while Italy will be too good to Romania.

The first real key clash of the tournament comes on day eight when England play South Africa.  As I will be lucky enough to be there, this game is an even more exciting prospect. But that is week two of the tournament, a topic for another article.

While the first week may seem like a formality on paper, upsets are still possible, especially if teams take their opponents lightly. Does that mean that fans will stay away? Some might, but true fans will be enjoying every moment of the tournament, from 100 point drubbings to nail biting finishes, the show is about to begin.

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The Early upsets look unlikely at Rugby World Cup by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.