Coaching 101. Don’t say anything about your opponent to fire them up just before you play them.
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Awesome finish to Fiji Georgia! Everyone out on their feet.
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Well, Samoa are out after Argentina beat Chile (forgot about that one). Down to Argentina v Japan for the final spot in the pool.
News is Dupont rejoined the team.
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Most interesting remaining match in the Group stage may be the Gaelic matchup: Ireland versus Scotland.
It’s definately worth the watch. Ireland has qualified so it may field players with a view of the game against the All Blacks that may give Scotland some chance for an upset. Unfortunately for Scotland, if they beat Ireland and South Africa also wins and they are still tied they will get eliminated because they lost the game against South Africa.
Ireland has not yet qualified. If all three are tied it will come down to points for and against - Scotland would then need to be Ireland by 13 or more points. Scotland could also get through if they beat Ireland by 8 or more points.
Wiki hasn’t said that South Africa has qualified yet, but I’m struggling to think of a scenario where they wouldn’t qualify.
Edit: BBC says this -
Should the three teams finish level on 15 points, the team with the best points difference will finish top of the group, with second place going to the team that won the match between those two remaining sides.
This would mean that South Africa could be eliminated if Scotland raised their points difference above South Africa’s and Ireland scored 4 or more tries. Highly unlikely - Scotland would need to beat a four-try scoring Ireland by more than 20 points.
Scotland has the misfortune to be in the Group of Death. They would have probably advanced in England’s Group.
After the Ireland and South Africa game, I do not expect a high-scoring thriller. Ireland just had a great defence but may rest players changing expectations. Ireland also has a great attack if Johnny Saxton is in.
I also think Scotland, after losing 18 - 3 to South Africa, just doesn’t have a dangerous attack against these big teams but they defend really well. I just don’t see Scotland getting bonus points against Ireland. Again it will depend on the teams fielded on the day. It is one of the games which should be a delight to watch.
OTOH South Africa plays Romania. They will win (unless something bizarre happens) with bonus points. So the stakes for Scotland are not just a win but a win with bonus points. I think that’s a point too far but lets see the game.
South Africa has finished all its pool matches
Ireland will take this match very seriously. Scotland has made a WC semifinal before, Ireland has never done it. Scotland beat Ireland as recently as 2017. It would be foolish to rest any players.
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On the subject of the possibility of South Africa being eliminated -
A redo of the infamous Argentina-Peru 6-0 1978 World Cup (football) match?
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Ahh, that’s why my calculus was off. I thought SA had another game. I was looking at an old standings table. Disregard all my previous points. On the current table Ireland hasn’t qualified at all and will play as if their lives depended on it.
At the moment I think if Ireland maintains it’s winning streak it will have a motivating/ impact than them selling a game. Finishing the group stages with 18/19 points looks good too.
It is ironic that the SA coach raises this possibility given the food poisoning of the All-Blacks team in SA before the 1995 World Cup Final match against SA. Many still believe the food poisoning was not an accident.
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IIRC there was also talk about Ronaldo being food poisoned at the 98 football World Cup with that event being seen as the inspiration. Nothing was really established though.
Pool A plays today and tomorrow. New Zealand vs. Uraguay today and France vs. Italy tomorrow. France has 13 points and New Zealand and Italy have 10 each though Italy’s PD is negative. This group can get interesting if France loses to Italy though it’s unlikely.
France 60 Italy 7. France 1st and New Zealand 2nd as expected.
Some of these scores just show how far apart the 2nd tier teams are from the 1st tier ones.
Basketball scores really. They almost got to 100 in a proper Rugby match. Its hard enough doing that in a serious game of 7s.
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Yup.
Glad the Group stage is almost finished because of all of the blowouts. Should be some great matches in the quarterfinals.
Believe or not, Italy did beat France (in their annual Six Nations match) in 2011 and 2013. They must have had some key retirements since then.
Edit: Maybe not - their match this year was won by France by 5 points.