North losing to South

[Leothebear]

Argentina beat Wales fair and square. The NZ v Ireland match was great. A pity they had to meet in the quarter finals. England will find Fiji no walk over. France will have to be at their brilliant best to beat an improving SA. A wholly Southern hemisphere semi is possible.

It's getting rather good now

[simoan]

Argentina beat Wales fair and square. The NZ v Ireland match was great. A pity they had to meet in the quarter finals. England will find Fiji no walk over. France will have to be at their brilliant best to beat an improving SA. A wholly Southern hemisphere semi is possible.

It's getting rather good now

I wonder what odds you’d have got on England being the only Northern Hemisphere team in the Semi finals before the tournament? Disappointing for Ireland and France in particular, but let’s face it, it’s why we love sport so much.

[didds]

Quite low odds id imagine. A glance at the draw, versus world rankings leading into the RWC showed England had an almost guaranteed SF space.
Anybody they would have played at QF were eminently beatable (basically one of Aus, wales and Fifi), no matter what happened in the pool game against Arg.

Sco never had a chance with that draw made almost three years ago... wales would have had a QF against Arg or Eng;land, and likely to lose to both given rankings heading into RWC.

That leaves Fra and ire of colurse, 1 & 4 respectively in the rankings at the start... but there's a fag paper between the top 4 teams 9and clear blue water to fifth) so those QFs were always a decsion here, a slip there, a missed kick ... (That conversion charge down potebntially saved the game for SA....)

[BigB]

Quite low odds id imagine. A glance at the draw, versus world rankings leading into the RWC showed England had an almost guaranteed SF space.
Anybody they would have played at QF were eminently beatable (basically one of Aus, wales and Fifi), no matter what happened in the pool game against Arg.

Sco never had a chance with that draw made almost three years ago... wales would have had a QF against Arg or Eng;land, and likely to lose to both given rankings heading into RWC.

That leaves Fra and ire of colurse, 1 & 4 respectively in the rankings at the start... but there's a fag paper between the top 4 teams 9and clear blue water to fifth) so those QFs were always a decsion here, a slip there, a missed kick ... (That conversion charge down potebntially saved the game for SA....)

As a bitter Ireland fan I'm not going to rehash any of the myriad conversations about the draw...

However, I have just received an email from World Rugby, with tickets for sale for both SFs. There'll be plenty Eng fans there I'm sure, but I think the organisers will have been hoping/planning for Fra and/or Ire to still be there. Plenty SA fans will be there too, but unsure about NZ/Arg representation!