Raveen wrote:QUOTE (Raveen @ Sep 28 2011, 01:44 PM) It's all pretty subjective naturally but ...
Looking back I think what irked me was you saying "grossly unfair" when I said there wasn't much between the teams. I dislike being told I have extreme views when they're actually quite moderate.
QUOTE Haven't changed, still sticking with the Springboks but it looks like they will be facing the All Blacks in the final.[/quote]
Have you looked at the knockout draw HSharp? For this to happen, South Africa need to lose to Samoa, and Wales beat Fiji (so SA finish 2nd in the group), else they will meet before the final. If you can't beat Samoa you probably aren't going to wi nthe World Cup. Interesting stat - every team who has won the world cup has done so winning all their games.
NZ look the best from what I've seen. I haven't seen Australia, and South Africa are good for sure but not amazing. What are you basing your opinion on there Rav? @Vortog, they do have a right nutter in charge, but they still beat the Lions 2 years ago (grrr Ronan O'Gara

) so saying they can't beat the top teams isn't really fair.
For Northern Hemisphere teams, well, I've already said I see an England-Wales semi coming on, though as I said in my first post, I don't see much of a difference between France/England/Wales/Ireland, and nothing I've seen since has really changed my opinion. Wales & Ireland are playing the best out of those 4 so far, England rubbish but they could/probably will improve assuming they make it through, and France - well if they can play like they did in the first 7 moinutes against NZ for a whole game, they are #1 favourites for sure, but they are so unpredictable. Let's see how they all do this weekend as they're all playing the 3rd-ranked teams in their groups (Tonga/Scotland/Fiji/Italy).
QUOTE also i just read gandy's first post.... i cant believe you put argentina next to italy.[/quote]
I put them there as Argentina have really done very little in recent years (eg lost 2 home matches to Scotland), and Italy have been doing well (beat France, lost to Ireland by 1 point this year). You're welcome to disagree though
