RWC23 - Pool C - AUSTRALIA, Wal, Fiji, Georgia, Portugal

[KevinO]

Given games are in the middle night and through the week, out of respect for people who won't be able to watch matches live but still want to engage broadly on the RWC, let's keep spoilers to the match threads

One of the hardest pools to pick the two sides to qualify, 4 sides all capable of making it out of the group. I think this group will go down to the wire, might even have two teams going through who have had to loses.

 

[Slim 293]

Not a single Jones in the Welsh squad...

Backs: Josh Adams, Gareth Anscombe, Dan Biggar, Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies, Rio Dyer, Mason Grady, Leigh Halfpenny, George North, Louis Rees-Zammit, Nick Tompkins, Johnny Williams, Liam Williams, Tomos Williams.

Forwards: Taine Basham, Adam Beard, Elliot Dee, Corey Domachowski, Ryan Elias, Taulupe Faletau, Tomas Francis, Dafydd Jenkins, Dewi Lake, Dillon Lewis, Dan Lydiate, Jac Morgan, Tommy Reffell, Will Rowlands, Nicky Smith, Gareth Thomas, Henry Thomas, Christ Tshiunza, Aaron Wainwright.

 

[Froggy]

And only three Williams and two Gareths???
Great to see those good old Welsh names like Domachowski, Faletau and Tshiunza

 

[Dctarget]

Funnily enough the most important match for everyone is Wales v Fiji. If Wales win, then we just throw everything at Fiji and the rest is moot. Beat Georgia, Fiji and Portugal, doesn't matter if we beat Wales. But if Fiji win their match against Wales, then out come the calculators. Wales getting one over Georgia isn't even a given considering their loss last year.

 

[KevinO]

Funnily enough the most important match for everyone is Wales v Fiji. If Wales win, then we just throw everything at Fiji and the rest is moot. Beat Georgia, Fiji and Portugal, doesn't matter if we beat Wales. But if Fiji win their match against Wales, then out come the calculators. Wales getting one over Georgia isn't even a given considering their loss last year.

Everybody is talking about Fiji causing the upset, I'd be worried about Georgia. The thing they are use to is winning, and consistently and that's even been transferring across to games against tier 1 nations. There pack is the best in the group, and if they get wet conditions that become a forward slog they will destroy the rest.

 

[HogansHeros]

Everybody is talking about Fiji causing the upset, I'd be worried about Georgia. The thing they are use to is winning, and consistently and that's even been transferring across to games against tier 1 nations. There pack is the best in the group, and if they get wet conditions that become a forward slog they will destroy the rest.

I would love to see this.

 

[Blue]

This is a VERY difficult pool. Fiji and Georgia will be well up for it. Look out.

 

[Confucius Say]

2 weeks between Wallabies last pool game and the QFs. England have a week and Argentina a week.

 

[rugbyAU]

 

[Footy head]

Wallabies are not looking good against Fiji

 

[Dctarget]

Do people seriously think Fiji are a better team than England and Australia? If England played Fiji 10 more times I'm confident England would win 70-80% of the time. Yeah they're a threat and a danger, but I bet you the bookies will still have Aus and Wallabies as heavy favourites.

 

[emuarse]

But putting everything into perspective, the poms have been very disorganised and probably thought Fiji would be an easy game, whereas Fiji really had something to prove.
What Fiji have done is alert the Wallabies that they won't be an easy game.

 

[qwerty51]

Do people seriously think Fiji are a better team than England and Australia? If England played Fiji 10 more times I'm confident England would win 70-80% of the time. Yeah they're a threat and a danger, but I bet you the bookies will still have Aus and Wallabies as heavy favourites.

The overreactions have been nothing short of incredible and fucking absurd. Apparently, beating a team makes you instantly better than them. Look forward to that reasoning if we managed to knock over a big scalp in the semi-final. They will hear from me.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Short Ball Rugby on Instagram: "The new favourite in Pool C? #fiji #fijirugby #wallabies #walesrugby #welshrugby #worldrugby #rwc2023 #rwc #rugbyworldcup #rugby #rugbyunion #rugbygram"

33K likes, 360 comments - shortballrugby on August 27, 2023: "The new favourite in Pool C? #fiji #fijirugby #wallabies #walesrugby #welshrugby #worldrugby #rwc2023 #rwc #rugbyworldcup #rugby #rugbyunion #rugbygram".

www.instagram.com

 

[Tomthumb]

Continue to write off Fiji at your peril. They looked a hell of a lot better vs France than we did

 

[qwerty51]

Continue to write off Fiji at your peril. They looked a hell of a lot better vs France than we did

France (15-1)

Melvyn Jaminet; Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Jonathan Danty, Arthur Vincent, Yoram Moefana; Antoine Hastoy, Maxime Lucu; Gregory Alldritt (capt), Dylan Cretin, Francois Cros; Paul Willemse, Florian Verhaeghe; Uini Atonio, Peato Mauvaka, Reda Wardi

Replacements: Pierre Bourgarit, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Thomas Laclayat, Bastien Chalureau, Thibaud Flament, Sekou Macalou, Baptiste Serin, Matthieu Jalibert

So, no Ramos, Penaud, Fickou, Villiere, Jailbert (starting), Dupont, Ollivon, Flament (starting), Marschand, Gros (starting), Woki & Taofifenua & Boudehent & Couilloud missing from bench.

yeah nah

 

[Tomthumb]

Like I said, keep writing them off

They are more of a threat than Wales or Georgia

 

[qwerty51]

I mean our maul would be concerning, that's where we destroyed them in 2019 but I think our scrum will pummel theirs. I think Eddie will play it smart unlike Cheika did in 2019 when he played fast and loose and it played right into their hands, credit that he switched it to tight in 2nd half and we blew them away.

Obviously they're a bigger threat than Georgia would realistically should not be able to score a try against us if we're fair dinkum but no they're still not better than Wales until I see otherwise.

 

[Tomthumb]

I mean our maul would be concerning, that's where we destroyed them in 2019 but I think our scrum will pummel theirs. I think Eddie will play it smart unlike Cheika did in 2019 when he played fast and loose and it played right into their hands, credit that he switched it to tight in 2nd half and we blew them away.

Yeah, but they are a much better team now then they were in 2019. Far more depth, far more talent, and far better coached

 

[qwerty51]

Not sure I agree, I think talent wise they were better in 2019, coaching is a tough one, Raiwailai was a failure with us. John McKee was highly rated and people forget just before 2019 they beat France????

Problem for them will always be backing up performances in pools. Like, they lost to Uruguay ffs.