Knockout Stages

[headhunter]

Well here we have it the group stage are over and it's down to the serious business.

Quarter Finals


06 Oct - 15:00 Australia - England
06 Oct - 21:00 New Zealand - France
07 Oct - 15:00 South Africa - Fiji
07 Oct - 21:00 Argentina - Scotland

[steds]

They all look such huge mismatches. This isn't going to be fun.

[Perm]

Australia
France
South Africa
Argentina

TBH.

[BoyBrumby]

I dunno. They all look fairly clear-cut on paper, but only really SA/Fiji is a cast-iron certainty. France are unlikely to upset the ABs, but it is possible & with Wilkinson & Paterson respectively England and Scotland have chances in their games. If either advance it will doubtless be by playing a forward-orientated game and it won't be pretty, but the end justifies the means.

If a mod is reading this, maybe it could be stickied & the group threads cut loose?

[Perm]

I don't think Fiji have any real chance against South Africa, wouldn't surprise me if they lost by 50 points. Australia shouldn't have much trouble brushing aside England, while the same should be true for the All Blacks and France. But, I think France have that ability to step it up when it counts (99 semi) and they've just got that unpredictability and flair. If the AB's and Australia win, will we meet each other in the semi-final?. Argentina should get past Scotland, if they can continue playing to the standard they have been lately.

[ohtani's jacket]

Australia
New Zealand
South Africa
Argentina

IF England can pull off some 10 man rugby they could upset Australia. I don't rate France's chances at all. Our forwards have dominated them time and time again and their backline sucks.

[Perm]

I'd be very wary of a cornered France though, our chances are greatly increased by playing this game in Cardiff.

[vogue]

South Africa

Argentina ...those two are the ones i would feel most certain of...


I would love England to win,and the last game Australia played wasnt impressive so we might have some slim chance if the wind was in the right direction!!!

And New Zealand cos its my second team (thanks to some rather gorgeous lookin guy playing for them..) ...i wouldnt write off France though...

[jot1]

We made a bit of a heavy weather beating the USA, IMO.

[Cricket_Fanatic]

France are no hope against the All Blacks! Laporte has coached every ounce of flair out of them!

[BoyBrumby]

Thanks to Auntie:

England: Jason Robinson; Paul Sackey, Mathew Tait, Andy Farrell, Josh Lewsey; Jonny Wilkinson, Andy Gomarsall; Andrew Sheridan, Mark Regan, Phil Vickery (captain), Simon Shaw, Ben Kay, Martin Corry, Lewis Moody, Nick Easter.
Replacements: George Chuter, Matt Stevens, Lawrence Dallaglio, Joe Worsley, Peter Richards, Olly Barkley, Dan Hipkiss.

Well, the good news is that Jase Robinson is back. Other changes made are possibly more debateable. I totally see the logic in bringing back a bigger centre (the idea of Mortlock running at Barkley & Tait was, frankly, scary), but Farrell? Had his best game for us v Tonga coming off the bench as an impact player. Hipkiss to start at 13 with maybe Cetty at 12 (who has the virtue of being right-footed too).

The presence of Lol & Worsley on the bench suggests we're abandoning any pretence at a 15-man game (no specialist openside in the 22 at all) and are going to try to smash Oz up front. Vickery starting in the place of the infinitely more dynamic Stevens, presumably on the grounds of his (arguably) better scrummaging seems to support this too.

[vogue]

From the BBC....

Farrell ruled out of England side
England lose centre Andy Farrell for the World Cup quarter-final against Australia because of injury.

[BlackCap_Fan]

All south semis for me.

Australia
NZ
SA
Argentina

Poor northern hemisphere.

[vogue]

......England replace Farrell with Catt
England name Mike Catt at inside centre in place of the injured Andy Farrell for Saturday's quarter-final against Australia....

[PY]

Probably a good job that CW went down this afternoon.