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Rugby World Cup France 2007


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The German rugby team is not thaaaaaaaaat bad. Perhaps the 8th or 9th best team in Europe. But as far as i know, there are no E-CHs and it is very difficult to qualify for the World Cup as long as there is no one single British team, instead of the English, Scottish and Welsh teams.

According to the latest IRB rankings, Germany are 26th or 28th and the 11th best European team.

Don't the Germans play in some sort of second tier Six Nations or something like that?

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The unfortunate truth about rugby union at international level is that the overall standard has not moved on much from 1987 and next year's tournament will probably show that again.

I must admit, I'm a bit disappointed that Italy doesn't seem to have progressed far since the Five Nations became the Six Nations. And even in previous heartlands _ the Pacific islands, Argentina, it seems to be moribund. It seems to me that full commercialisation of the gam has only really benefitted the rich, powerful leagues.

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They don't seem to have progressed very much, no, especially after coming into the Six Nations with such a bang beating Scotland in their first game. But, they are improving. It's just going to take time for them to be consistently a match for the other teams. It took France a long time to find their feet in the Championship as well.

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Well the problem is that in rugby union there is a massive gulf in the development, support and interest in the sport between unions like new zealand, australia, france, england, south africa etc. and 3rd tier team like germany. There just isnt the interest in the sport, which is sad becasue it is an amazing phyical sport which im sure alot of people would love to be involed in if they had more resourses.

That is true for most team sports, most of which have a remarkably similar number of competitive national teams.I have another post related to this subject.

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I think they're trying, but it really doesn't seem to be moving very far very quickly. This is why, in my opinion, the English 2007 proposal for a 16 team World Cup and a 32 team World Nations Cup alongside it was a far better proposal for the future of the sport and should have been acted upon.

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  • 1 month later...

Some interesting results over the weekend (and yes, it's too early to speculate on WC form, but I will anyway):

At Dublin

Ireland 21 Australia 6

Hmmm. Ireland could well be a dark horse for next year's WC.

Saturday

At Twickenham

England 23 South Africa 21

England back in the winning circle, but do they have what it takes for back to back championships.

At Murrayfield

Scotland 34 Pacific Islanders 22

No big deal or pointers to anything.

At Rome

Italy 16 Argentina 23

The Pumas continue their resurgence, even if the opposition wasn't as classy this time around.

At Paris

France 11 New Zealand 23

What can you say? The All Blacks certainly go into next year as favourites. But haven't they gone into every WC tournament as favourites?

At Hong Kong

Japan 52 HK 3

Well, HK aren't exactly heavy oppisition, but this is Japan's biggest ever win and it can't be anything but a filip to the growth of their game and their 2015 hosting hopes. They just have to beat South Korea now to qualify for 2007.

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At Dublin

Ireland 21 Australia 6

Hmmm. Ireland could well be a dark horse for next year's WC.

Ireland were outstanding yesterday, particularly in the first 40 minutes when they played against a howling Lansdowne Road gale. Australia were distinctly ordinary.

England 23 South Africa 21

England back in the winning circle, but do they have what it takes for back to back championships.

Probably not, but a win is a win.

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Well, Japan are in, after thumping Korea 54-0 (their new biggest victory).

They now join Wales, Australia, Fiji and and Canada in Pool B.

It'll be interesting to see how the Cherry Blossoms fare against Canada at the cup, considering the Canucks were thumped 41-6 by Italy on the weekend.

And let me just say, at least the Wallabies finished their European tour on a high against Scotland!

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ah...memories of the opening in south africa in 1995...its amazing what the 95 rugby world cup did for south africa..still regarded as the best world cup by some..

im thinking of postponing my visit to europe to september for the world cup in france, wales etc..but then id be missing out on wimbledon...choices choices!

newr-10a.jpg

95 world cup final

epj-02.jpg

closing ceremony

epj-01.jpg

semi final france vs RSA

kpd-03.jpg

ah memories

Nelson_Mandela_1995_World_Cup.jpg

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ah...memories of the opening in south africa in 1995...its amazing what the 95 rugby world cup did for south africa..still regarded as the best world cup by some..

im thinking of postponing my visit to europe to september for the world cup in france, wales etc..but then id be missing out on wimbledon...choices choices!

South Africa should be rightly proud of that Cup _ certainly the coming of age of the country in the international arena.

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  • 4 months later...

Talk about a while, before we know all the teams that have qualified for the 2007 IRB Rugby World Cup. Here are the pools of teams in this list.

POOL A:

- England

- South Africa

- Samoa

- USA

- Tonga

POOL B:

- Australia

- Wales

- Fiji

- Canada

- Japan

POOL C:

- New Zealand

- Scotland

- Italy

- Romania

- Portugal

POOL D:

- France

- Ireland

- Argentina

- Georgia

- Namibia

Official website link: Official 2007 IRB Rugby World Cup in France Website

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Yey! We're so gonna get squashed like midgets under a dinossaur's foot :D :D :D

But who cares? We're there! B)

Hey don't be hard on yourself, Portugal could knock over Scotland or Italy if you wanted to.

Mind you if NZ ever makes it into the FifaWC, we'd be saying the same thing here in NZ.

It's all checks and balances.

Have Fun at the RWC Portugal! :lol:

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