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Pool B - South Africa, Samoa, Scotland, Japan, United States

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
Japan would have beaten any side in the world with the way they played.

Eddie Jones deserves a knighthood.
 

Zinzan

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Japan would have beaten any side in the world with the way they played.
Disagree, hyperbole city, but the type of over-the-top reaction you get with such upsets. Japan were magnificent, but the Boks were really poor, and lacked intensity. Just because they managed to overcome them, that doesn't mean they'd have beaten anyone.
 

91Jmay

International Coach
Sticking by my opinion on Samoa. They will win this game but they are a seriously poor side. Japan should have no fear at all.
KF is so bad now. Did he seriously just box kick a ball 20 yards forward and 20 yards out of bounds on the full? Dire.
 
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hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
Disagree, hyperbole city, but the type of over-the-top reaction you get with such upsets. Japan were magnificent, but the Boks were really poor, and lacked intensity. Just because they managed to overcome them, that doesn't mean they'd have beaten anyone.
The boks were run off their feet by a faster, fitter team. They didn't adjust their tactics early enough and paid the price. Plenty of teams have tried the same thing against SA but are unable to pull it off as it requires a great deal of accuracy to play at that speed - Japan did pull it off and that's hugely impressive. There aren't too many teams in world rugby who can play at that pace with that accuracy - NZ, Australia sometimes, the French when they're on their game. In the end I thought South Africa were somewhat lucky that it was that close - they scored two tries that were pretty much individual acts, and looked completely out of the game for large parts of it. I don't know whether that's playing poorly; they simply weren't allowed to play their game.

Japan did the same thing to Wales a couple of years ago who dealt with it even worse - the whole team looked like they'd run a marathon about 10 mins in and were never in the game.

Those tactics probably wouldn't work against NZ or Australia but I think if they played the same game with the same accuracy they'd beat any of the Northern Hemisphere teams as well as Argentina. Of course it will be very difficult to repeat that performance but they have some bloody champion players.
 

flibbertyjibber

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Shame, they look a tired side now. Not surprising given their schedule. Seems crazy to be playing 4 days after last game.
 

91Jmay

International Coach
Samoa worst RWC performance I can remember from a top 10 side. Woeful. Kahn Fotuali'i is awful.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
Watching Japan take down Alesana Tuilagi has to be one of the most inspirational things in sport.
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
so stupid that Japan will most likely miss out on the quarters even if they go 3 wins 1 loss
 

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Nah, Scotland have been playing well and deserve to advance if they beat Samoa. Japan are a long way behind the other two front runners in terms of pd, so while it's a pity I wouldn't call it an injustice. Having said that the scheduling was particularly cruel on them, and does leave a really bad taste (especially since this isn't a new problem in rwc).
 

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