Originally Posted by platelet:
“Ireland (barring some French miracle) should top pool D, giving them Argentina in the quarters - a reasonable path to the semi's and avoiding the All Blacks.
The bugger of it is England and Wales being in the same pool with Australia.
I can't see both of us beating the aussies in the pool stage, which means a chance that the loser between England v Wales will likely go out. If one of us can beat them and both of us go through however then the next step is easy
Pool B seems quite soft (only S Africa of note) so if England and Wales could get the top two spots in pool A I'd be confident they'd get through the quarter finals and into the semis
After that who knows, but we'd have a couple of chances between the three teams to knock NZ off their perch”
“Ireland (barring some French miracle) should top pool D, giving them Argentina in the quarters - a reasonable path to the semi's and avoiding the All Blacks.
The bugger of it is England and Wales being in the same pool with Australia.
I can't see both of us beating the aussies in the pool stage, which means a chance that the loser between England v Wales will likely go out. If one of us can beat them and both of us go through however then the next step is easy

Pool B seems quite soft (only S Africa of note) so if England and Wales could get the top two spots in pool A I'd be confident they'd get through the quarter finals and into the semis
After that who knows, but we'd have a couple of chances between the three teams to knock NZ off their perch”
Bolded 1- I wouldn't go that far! France have the talent to match anyone
Bolded 2- Not necessarily. Australia are more or less a perfect match up for England, i'd be amazed if they lost that. Wales have been very close against Aus of recent and are nearly due a win in a way.
Bolded 3- Think you're fairly writing off SA there! They're a good bit better than Australia for starters





