RWC 2015 Pools

[KevinO]

So thinking it through from the holidaying punters perspective, during the first 2 weeks of this comp, there'll be a smallish beer festival on in Munich.

Might have to combine the 2.

A little mid week trip to Munich would not be a bad idea.

Drop down to Spain for some sun in between games as well could be a option.

Not as easy as NZ for keeping busy on the days off, but for those who have not traveled Europe they could easily go to Scotland, France, Ireland or Spain for a couple of days before the next game.

Biggest problem is not much of the other sports would be going at that time of year, would be good if you could go get a champions league game in mid week somewhere (for the atmosphere, not saying I like soccer) but that's most unlikely.

 

[KevinO]

Times are confirmed for games, just waiting to see the full prices.

Wallabies games are not going to be spectator friendly by the looks of things.

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fixturesresults/index.html As an Irish fan it's really not friendly for watching from here. Might have to really look into going now that I have seen the game times.

 

[KevinO]

 

[oztimmay]

Think it will be easier if I take a month off work, grow a hermit beard, learn to love red bull and just deal with the crap hours. The perils of being a poor little Aussie fan dealing with the time difference. I'm sure if I said to the missus I'm taking 6 weeks over in the UK for a Rugby piss trip locks would be changed by the time I got home.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

One of these days we have to beat you, and I am keeping the faith that we will top the group thanks.

Oh so so close. Keep the faith.

 

[Tangawizi]

Think it will be easier if I take a month off work, grow a hermit beard, learn to love red bull and just deal with the crap hours. The perils of being a poor little Aussie fan dealing with the time difference. I'm sure if I said to the missus I'm taking 6 weeks over in the UK for a Rugby piss trip locks would be changed by the time I got home.

The midday and 8pm kick offs will be ok for most fans in Oz. The 5pms are a bit unfortunate but they're obviously favouring the bigger commercial markets in Europe.

£315 for Eng v Aus seems over the top for a pool match. I'd rather go to both the Twickenham Quarter Finals in Cat B or lower.

 

[ChargerWA]

Well the Wallabies best chance to win it is to top their pool. If they come Runner up and they will likely meet SA in the QF. Top their pool then have to beat Scotland/Samoa then Ireland/France and manage to avoid the AB's all the way to the GF.

Nice.

 

[gel]

Odd that they would schedule the third ranking team to play two games in 4 days.

I guess maybe someone has to due to the scheduling and it's probably our turn given we didn't have that last World Cup.

*edit* just checked - we had a 4 day turnaround in 1995 and 1999 world cups as well. So maybe it isn't so odd after all.

 

[JSRF10]

Start saving now folks, it will be an expensive trip

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/ticketing/prices/index.html

 

[oztimmay]

Start saving now folks, it will be an expensive trip

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/ticketing/prices/index.html

With prices like that I'm perfectly justified in subscribing to Foxtel for the RWC.

 

[KevinO]

Catergoy D seats have the crazy mark up's.

Ireland v Canada cost the same as Ireland v France.

Compare that with NZ where Ireland v Russia was like $10 for the category D and the Ireland v Australia was about $75

 

[RugbyReg]

For the Qld folk:

Australia v Oceania 1 on Thursday 24 September @ 2am

Australia v Play-Off Winner on Sunday 27 September @ 9pm

Australia v England on Sunday 4 October @ 5am

Australia v Wales on Sunday 11 October @ 2am

 

[Braveheart81]

It will be interesting to see how Australia uses their squad for the four games.

Clearly you play your best team against England and Wales, no questions whatsoever.

With the short turnaround between Fiji and the next match, do you play your best team against Fiji and rest some players for the next match or do you play the dirt tracker team against Fiji then play your best team in the next match in preparation for the remaining matches that all require your best team?

 

[Forcefield]

With the short turnaround between Fiji and the next match, do you play your best team against Fiji

This. Losing to Fiji is not completely inconceivable. Send the dirt trackers in the other game. You then have about 10 days before two very tough games. If you make it through those very tough games successfully, you have a relatively easier game against Samoa or Scotland.

 

[Braveheart81]

This. Losing to Fiji is not completely inconceivable. Send the dirt trackers in the other game. You then have about 10 days before two very tough games. If you make it through those very tough games successfully, you have a relatively easier game against Samoa or Scotland.

I don't think it is necessarily that straight forward. Do you want your best team to have played and then have a 10 day break or a 7 day break before your weekly key matches start?

I'm not convinced that Fiji are that much stronger these days than Romania (who won this place last time). Other likely options are Spain or Portugal.

I agree that Fiji is better than whoever this qualifier is, but I don't think they are conceivably capable of beating a team that would not be that much worse than our best team (considering we will have a squad or 30 or 31 there is a huge overlap between the dirt trackers and the main team).

 

[daz]

My son, who I love more than air, will be sitting his year 12 exams at the exact time the pointy end of the tournament begins.

Debating: Be a good parent and stay home to support my boy, or get him to repeat year 11 so my schedules don't conflict.

It really could go either way.

 

[oztimmay]

My son, who I love more than air, will be sitting his year 12 exams at the exact time the pointy end of the tournament begins.

Debating: Be a good parent and stay home to support my boy, or get him to repeat year 11 so my schedules don't conflict.

It really could go either way.

Exams by correspondence? This way he gets to experience the RWC (mighty Australian triumph, again on English soil), you have a (nearly legal) drinking buddy and he can complete the exams with help of our friend - the Internet. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[BDA]

man our draw sucks balls. Seriously if we don't win our pool we can kiss goodbye to the Cup. On the flip side if we do manage to beat England and Wales back-to-back you'd expect us to make it through to the final (and deservedly so).

 

[Forcefield]

I don't think it is necessarily that straight forward. Do you want your best team to have played and then have a 10 day break or a 7 day break before your weekly key matches start?

I'm not convinced that Fiji are that much stronger these days than Romania (who won this place last time). Other likely options are Spain or Portugal.

I agree that Fiji is better than whoever this qualifier is, but I don't think they are conceivably capable of beating a team that would not be that much worse than our best team (considering we will have a squad or 30 or 31 there is a huge overlap between the dirt trackers and the main team).

I thought it was only a 6 day turn around from the 2nd game to the 3rd (vs England). If we were battle hardened from the RC, I'd take the 10 days off.

 

[scaraby]

man our draw sucks balls. Seriously if we don't win our pool we can kiss goodbye to the Cup. On the flip side if we do manage to beat England and Wales back-to-back you'd expect us to make it through to the final (and deservedly so).

To be honest if any of the big teams don't win their pools they can probably kiss goodbye to "Bill" as well......i think by the time we get to the RWC we will be expecting to win that pool.
As you stated if we win the pool we get the run to the final. I think its set up perfectly for us.
At the present stage everyone is targeting the"Dark" and rightly so and we will not see them until the final and will probably be crowd favourites if we do.
IF and I say IF we are good enough to beat Poms and Wales at home then we will give ABs a real shake. Do we want to win the pool or "Bring Bill Home."
The draw is perfect for a RWC win and hard for pool win..who wants to win a pool, get excited and then get knocked out in the semis......