RWC 2011 Draw today Dec 1st

Try1ng

The RWC 2011 draw for the pools takes place today in London - I think it's on SS.
Should be interesting, hoping for a good pool for Ireland

Serenity Now!

It is live online at the IRB website.
3pm.

crisco10

We are in with Aus, Ita and the second qualifiers from america and europe. im happy. avoided scotland. Could have been a lot worse. Hopefully those two qualifiers will be weak enough we can field a second string team confidently. and Italy don't improve loads by then!

Arg, Eng and Sco in same group. funtimes.

France and NZ and tonga. And finally SA, Wales and Fiji.

What you guys think?

kodmuffin

So ireland got australia and italy..........what do people think?!

Podge_irl

Decent draw for Ireland. Italy shouldn't be a major problem - though one imagines they will be better again in three years time. Aus are the best team to get out of the big 3, though for once I would have liked to have gotten Argentina.

Wales get Fiji again

Cuchulain

Italy and Australia....could have been worse.

crisco10

Podge_irl wrote: »

Wales get Fiji again

Be hilarious if wales repeated the same mistakes 4 years on. and yes it felt odd to be wishing for argentina...

MikeHoncho

Australia, Italy, America 2 and Europe 2. It could be worse. Thought we were gonna end up with The Argies again for a minute which probably would have been preferable. France and New Zealand in the same group is nasty.

Rourky

Do we stand a chance this time round?

Amz

Threads merged.

Noopti

Yeah, not bad. Happy enough with that, would have preferred Argentina though.

anonymous_joe

Hmmm.

Think the All Blacks have the easiest group on paper, and manage to get their perennial bogey team early. If they lose to France it'll be in the first game, so I can see them going on and ploughing through for the win.

Australia have the smallest player base in the Tri-Nations and we always give them a good game, so that's a relief. Europe 2 is probably going to be Georgia/Romania/Russia so that won't be fun. America 2 will almost certainly be Canada, can't see Uruguay beating them.

Does Pool A's winner play Pool C's Runner up? A New Zealand QF would suck balls.

Podge_irl

We're unlikely to beat Aus, but they are the second best team we could have gotten after Arg I think. I presume the quarters will be AvB and CvD in which case we'll then likely be against SA, which would be tough. If we beat Aus we'd likely have Wales, which would be interesting.

Podge_irl

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Australia have the smallest player base in the Tri-Nations and we always give them a good game, so that's a relief. Europe 2 is probably going to be Georgia/Romania/Russia so that won't be fun. America 2 will almost certainly be Canada, can't see Uruguay beating them.

Does Pool A's winner play Pool C's Runner up? A New Zealand QF would suck balls.

Is America 1 not Canada and America 2 USA? Canada are by far the better team.

anonymous_joe

I'm not sure actually. Might be now that you say it. Either/or both are teams we'd hope to be able to beat.

subfreq

I think Australia are a team that is in a strong building phase and expect them to have a much stronger tight five by 2011. Italy wont bother either Aus or Ireland.

The real question is who do we face in the second round. Which other group are we twinned with?

twinytwo

no reason why we could not top the group. The thing is would we want to.. now i dont no what the first game is but if say we play aus last do we put everything we have into trying to win the game but they have nothing left for the QF weather we win or lose?

Daysha

According to the BBC, A pairs with B and C pairs with D for the quarters, meaning if we qualify for the quarters it will be one of South Africa, Wales or Fiji.

England may have a good group, but they're pretty much guaranteed to play either the All Blacks or France in the quarters.

Don't know what happens for the semis though.

Edit:

Quarter Final 1: Winner Pool B v Runner-up Pool A
Quarter Final 2: Winner Pool C v Runner-up Pool D
Quarter Final 3: Winner Pool A v Runner-up Pool B
Quarter Final 4: Winner Pool D v Runner-up Pool C

Semi-Final 1: Winner QF1 v Winner QF2
Semi-Final 2: Winner QF3 v Winner QF4

Bronze Final: Loser SF1 v Loser SF2

Final: Winner SF1 v Winner SF2

Taken from IRB.com. So if we top the group, it's possibly Wales in the quarters and probably England and the runner up of France/New Zealand in the semis.

If we finish second (more than likely happen) it's probably South Africa in the quarters and then the All Blacks in the semis, assuming they top the group and go on to beat the runner up of Scotland/England/Argentina.

subfreq

OK so winner in Pool C plays Runner up in Pool D which will likely be Wales.

Runner up plays winner in Pool D which will be South Africa for the Quarter Finals.

Topping the group will be pretty much vital to progressing.

toomevara

Good group, no complaints. I, for one am fecking delighted that we don't play the Argies, because frankly the whole Ireland/Argentina thing is becoming a nasty and tiresome little pantomime..We should definitely be looking to top that group.

NZ/France group pairing fascinating...

subfreq

The NZ/France side of the draw is certainly an easier path through to the Semi's for both teams.

ALH-06

subfreq wrote: »

OK so winner in Pool C plays Runner up in Pool D which will likely be Wales.

Runner up plays winner in Pool D which will be South Africa for the Quarter Finals.

Topping the group will be pretty much vital to progressing.

I'm not so sure. Wales should have beaten South Africa in the AIs. They've got a great team that will, for the most part, have reached their prime for 2011. Gatland will give them the required consistency. Wales could well be the team to beat in 3 years time...

Both Wales and South Africa are gonna be very tough in the QFs.

ALH-06

But this draw could have gone so much worse...!

I'm pretty relieved

twinytwo

Hmmm the AB's with home advantage and everything... i hope france beat them in theri own back yard... anyone no when tickets gto on sale?.. im thinking 2010?

sm.org

ALH-06 wrote: »

I'm not so sure. Wales should have beaten South Africa in the AIs. They've got a great team that will, for the most part, have reached their prime for 2011. Gatland will give them the required consistency. Wales could well be the team to beat in 3 years time...

Both Wales and South Africa are gonna be very tough in the QFs.

SA, Wales, Fiji and Samoa. Thats are pretty physical group. Cant see Wales coming out of it without 4/5 injuries. Have they got the squad to deal with those number of injuries?

Should be a fascinating group.

LightningBolt

I'm pretty happy with the draw that we got. No complaints.

zAbbo

If Italy play like they did in '07 we'd be OK, but I guess out of the 4 top teams - Aus isn't too bad.

Could have been worse I guess.

Stev_o

All depends on the advancement in cloning in the next 4 years for im afraid if Italy master that and fill their squad 1-30 with the clones of Parise we'd be screwed

In all seriousness it depends on what Mallet can do with them between now and the RWC dont forget people what happened at Ravnehill where we luckily got a try awarded to us (wrong decision imo) at the stroke of full time

RugbyFanatic

Personally I would have preferred getting NZ in our group so we wouldn't have to face them again until the final.

I reckon on our day we can beat any other team and then in a final anything can happen (thats if NZ aren't knocked out by that time which judging from the past isn't rare)

Fishtits

The Aussies seem to be happy with it...

http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/world-cup/wallabies-get-dream-draw-for-nz-tournament/2008/12/02/1227979969299.html

Just the press, I presume the squad won't be as assuming... :rolleyes:

Long time away.

Crash

Pff, if I was an Ozzie, looking on our past 18 months performance, i'd be assuming we're blessed.