England’s RWC 2007 fate rests with one match
RWC 2007 Predictions 2 - Pool A
As I noted earlier, this pool has all the suspense of drying paint: South Africa and England will undoubtedly advance to the Quarter Finals. The only question remains as to which team edges out the other when the two rugby powerhouses meet on September 14th in Paris. This is a critical consideration as the loser will most certainly face Australia in the Quarter Finals with the winner taking on Wales. Both England and South Africa can handily defeat Wales, but of the two only South Africa has a real shot at defeating Australia.
After watching both England and South Africa struggle during the last few years, my money is on the Springboks to take England and the pool. Both teams have very similar, very pedestrian playing styles with very little in the way of offensive creativity. Look for the ‘Boks’ to dominate in the set pieces, especially the scrum. On defense, I think South Africa is simply more accustomed to holding the line during repeated attack sequences. While England is desperate to defend their 2003 victory, I think the mounting losses (especially to France last week) will not be enough to overcome South Africa whose players know that this may be the last chance their country has at winning the Rugby World Cup for some years to come as ‘transformation’ extends it’s reach to rugby’s highest level.
So, is there any excitement in the rest of Pool A? Let’s look at the rankings:
- South Africa, 4th place in the IRB World Rankings
- England, 7th place
- Samoa, 11th place
- Tonga, 14th place
- USA, 15th place
The bottom of the pool actually looks like a 3-team race, with a lot of exciting match-ups. The USA-Tonga match should be great with USA Rugby enjoying a good domestic re-building program at the moment and the Tongans simply using their raw speed and power to stay in the top-20. After England-South Africa, USA v. Tonga is perhaps the next best match to watch in this pool. While I think Samoa will defeat the USA handily, Tonga v. Samoa also has a lot of potential for sparks and some exciting ball.
