RWC Pool A Sat 10 Sep: Scotland vs Romania 2am, England vs Argentina 9:30am

thomond2006

One thread for the two pool games. I'm off to get some sleep soon before 2am, maybe someone can create threads for France vs Japan and Fiji vs Namibia?

This is a very tight pool with teams who play a very physical brand of rugby through their packs. Ireland fans won't need reminding of the strength of the Georgian pack in 2007 while the top tier sides rely on their pack as their main weapon of choice.

All details taken from rugby365.

Time for Richie Gray to show the world what he's made of!

Scotland:
15 Chris Paterson, 14 Max Evans, 13 Joe Ansbro, 12 Sean Lamont, 11 Simon Danielli, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Mike Blair,
8 Richie Vernon, 7 John Barclay, 6 Kelly Brown, 5 Alastair Kellock (captain), 4 Richie Gray, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen

Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Nathan Hines, 19 Ross Rennie, 20 Chris Cusiter, 21 Dan Parks, 22 Rory Lamont.

Romania:
15 Iulian Dumitras, 14 Stefan Ciuntu, 13 Csaba Gal, 12 Tiberius Dimofte, 11 Madalin Lemnaru, 10 Marin Dumbrava, 9 Lucian Sirbu,
8 Daniel Carpo, 7 Ovidiu Tonita, 6 Mihai Macovei, 5 Cristian Petre, 4 Valentin Ursache, 3 Paulica Ion, 2 Marius Tincu, 1 Mihaita Lazar.

Replacements: 16 Bogdan Zebega Suman, 17 Silviu Florea, 18 Valentin Poparlan, 19 Sandu Burcea, 20 Florin Surugiu, 21 Ionel Cazan, 22 Florin Vlaicu.

Referee: Dave Pearson (England)
Assistant referees: Vinny Munro (New Zealand), Tim Hayes (Wales)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)

I don't think this will be pretty, Scotland's gameplan isn't designed to put up a big score on minnows. Still there is a gulf of quality there, so Scotland by at least 25 points.

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Argentina:
15 Martin Rodriguez, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Santiago Fernandez, 11 Gonzalo Camacho, 10 Felipe Contepomi (captain), 9 Nicolas Vergallo,
8 Juan Martín Fernandez Lobbe, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 6 Julio Farias Cabello, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.

Replacements: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Martin Scelzo, 18 Mariano Galarza, 19 Alejandro Campos, 20 Alfredo Lalanne, 21 Marcelo Bosch, 22 Juan Jose Imhoff.

England:
15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Mike Tindall (captain), 11 Delon Armitage, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Richard Wigglesworth,
8 Nick Easter, 7 James Haskell, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Steve Thompson, 1 Andrew Sheridan.

Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 Tom Wood, 20 Ben Youngs, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Matt Banahan.

Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Romain Poite (France), Simon McDowell (Ireland))
TMO: Matt Goddard (Australia)

If both sides play to type, there will be a lot of kicking and a territorial battle will be the order of the day. Contepomi is the unknown quantity here, very unpredictable player. On the other hand Wilkinson's playing style of play is no secret. I can't see many tries being scored so the game will probably come down to kicks. On paper England have more quality, so England to win by less than 10.

chupacabra

No love for Fiji and Namibia?

thomond2006

chupacabra wrote: »

No love for Fiji and Namibia?

Gimme a break, I'm gonna be absolutely ****ed by 11am tommorrow morning.

Meglamonia

Christ this world cup is gonna **** up the start of my leaving cert :P

Columbia

I've been looking forward to tonight for a number of days, but I feel my enthusiasm will have waned somewhat by about 11am

MungBean

Yeah gonna be wrecked by mornin, just hopin I dont conk out at some stage and sleep through England v Argentina.

blackdog2

Meglamonia wrote: »

Christ this world cup is gonna **** up the start of my leaving cert :P

A few months late there mate

CIARAN_BOYLE

blackdog2 wrote: »

A few months late there mate

He probably meant LC year..

Meglamonia

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

He probably meant LC year..

Yeah thought it would of been obvious...good chance to see a lot of tries before the England game anyway

chupacabra

Already struggling to stay awake... thank heavens setanta are showing the new zealand vs tonga game as I missed it earlier.

Blair

What channel is the Scotland game on?

MungBean

Blair wrote: »

What channel is the Scotland game on?

ITV1 and Setanta Ireland, all games this weekend are. Plus the Irish one will be on RTE.

BarackPyjama

How long more do I have to stay awake for this? Who knows. I'll try my best. *makes coffee*

Blair

Skunkle wrote: »

ITV1 and Setanta Ireland, all games this weekend are. Plus the Irish one will be on RTE.

Ah was looking on UTV website and could not find it listed, will watch it ITV1 HD.

MungBean

Why is Craig Doyle on my telly ??

errlloyd

Craig Doyle get off my damn TV.

Anyone know a spot in Dublin to catch England v Argentina over breakfast. Would love to see it, but I have work at 11.

blackdog2

errlloyd wrote: »

Craig Doyle get off my damn TV.

Is that G0B****E never off the air?

MungBean

Love flower of Scotland, beautiful song.

MungBean

Romanian anthem was a crackin tune too.

Souless

It's gonna be a long night lads! Hopefully will manage to stay awake for this with the aid of a few beers then up to watch the Japan V France and England V Argentina Don't think I've the strength of will to stay awake the whole time to catch the Fjjii Namibia game

Scotland to win it by 14 or so I'd say can't see it being a very high scoring game though. Didn't realise the Romanians had a few players playing their trade in France, but still fancy the Scots to win by a few points.

jk86

It's just like watching the All Blacks...

blackdog2

Scots look lethal!

Cypher_sounds

I think the Scots will win this one very comfortably by at least 30.

Kiwi_knock

Scotland looking very good so far, full of confidence.

Kiwi_knock

Excellent try, Scotland are a joy to watch so far.

jk86

Nice kick!

johnmcdnl

My bet of Romania +33 looks like it's going to loose already...


poor paterson there though haven't seen that before in an international game that I can remember

Souless

Lovely try, the defence was awful mind you! Does look like it'll be a fairly comfortable win from the first 10 mins. Lamont at 12 was a strange choice but is looking good

Cypher_sounds

Think Patterson thought he was playing in Hampden Park for a second!

jd007

Nice kick

Sanity_Saviour

what was the try like only switched on there?

Invercargill seems to be New Zealands answer to the Sportsgrounds. Looks like a miserable place to play rugby!

MungBean

This game has farce written all over it.

busyliving

Edz87 wrote: »

Invercargill seems to be New Zealands answer to the Sportsgrounds. Looks like a miserable place to play rugby!

Think its a lovely little ground...but for rugby a little open so no protection from the wind

Souless

How was that not a second try? :eek:

blackdog2

Danielli is a donkey

jd007

Scotland shootin themselves in the foot

MungBean

That was embarrassing

johnmcdnl

really poor decision making there by the Scots - that should be a try every single time

Cypher_sounds

Really bad play there.

Souless

Came eventually, another lovely try

Cypher_sounds

Two easy really.

johnmcdnl

ahh that was shocking defending.. basically just ran past 3-4 guys without even a half tackle

Sanity_Saviour

counted about 7 missed tackles for that try....oh dear

Kiwi_knock

Another good try, Romania's defence is dreadful when a player runs straight at them.

busyliving

busyliving wrote: »

Think its a lovely little ground...but for rugby a little open so no protection from the wind

I should have pointed out I was talking about the weather!:pac:

I think its really cool the fact that a tiny club pitch is holding a RWC game.

blackdog2

that was classy. need romania to pick it up, have them +20

Kiwi_knock

Romania doing well from the kickoffs, but really bad play from Scotland to throw away points so easily.

johnmcdnl

blackdog2 wrote: »

that was classy. need romania to pick it up, have them +20

what odds did you get for that - that's going to be a serious test for Romania...

Souless

blackdog2 wrote: »

that was classy. need romania to pick it up, have them +20

Lol what odds did you get on that? If the Scots keep giving them the opportunity to slot over peno's ya never know but I wouldn't be overly optimistic

jd007

Great maul