It's better to be lucky .....

Lets look at what happened in 2007 -

Pool games were  against -

*    Samoa

*    England

*    Tonga

*    USA

Thanks to Eddie Jones the English game at Stade Francais was a walk in the Park with the backline and forwards combining magnificently,   The only game the Springboks struggled against was  Tonga and they only got the upper hand in the last  10 minutes.

In the quarterfinal the Springboks played Fiji and won with ease and the semi was against Argentina - not a top rated team in sight.   Easy win against Argentina as well.

The final turns out to be a lottery -  the game plan in the English round robin  game was discarded and somehow it was decided to play he English at their own game and accordingly much more difficult to execute and error-prone.

So what will happen in 2019?

I think Japan would be beaten easily and Wales can be a walk in the park if we do not derail ourselves by changing our game plan as happened in the 2007 final.

It depends which team in the other group goes through to the final.   Looks to me as being between the AB's and England.    The faster game in Japan is likely to favour the  AB's,  To try and play England to their strength will be suicidal for any team, 

The final team we potentially may play against could be the AB's and unlike in the past the record of SA over the last year was 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw - the win ration being 50:50.      In 2015 the same figures were 1 win and 2 losses for a ratio of 67:33 in favour of the AB's,   So a much more level playing field than it used to be with the Springboks having a higher confidence level than they used to have in the past.

In 1995 we played the AB's in the final - in 2007 it was the English - in 2019 potentially  the English  or the AB's???????????   I would personally prefer the latter as it would prevent the silliness of 2007 as to changing of the game plan to fit the opposition in their style of play,           

SB

The referees will be announced this week. I think Owens will be one and Peyper the other,   I think the third one would be Berry and the fourth one Poite,     A bit of juggling would be required and my guess is that the refs would be as follows:-

*   Peyper the English - Aussie game

*   Berry the Welsh - French game

*   Poite the AB - Ireland game

*   Owens the Japan  -  Springboks game.      

Rooinek

Dave referred to what happened in 2007 - hence my comments about that series.

I agree that Japan is a much stronger and better coached team they used to be in the past  and also that Wales peaked to o early and that is a problem as well.        

There arent any easy ones at this stage. Don't get too cocky beating your chests again or else it'll all comeback to bite you in the ass... again! I can only hope I suppose, but seriously if yous lose again to Japan it'll be the funniest shit in rugby history! 

Lawrence Dallaglio claimed that England started the 2007 World Cup like a pub team, and that Ashton was a sub-standard coach. In his autobiography, he said the senior players had a meeting after the South African game, and decided to take over the game plan. And that getting to the final was the player own doing. 

Lawrence Dallaglio claimed that has apologised for his attack on England head coach Brian Ashton. The Wasps and England back-row was scathing of the preparations for the recent World Cup in his new autobiography, claiming the squad felt like a "pub team" and that Ashton "didn't have" the skills needed for his job.

England went on to recover from a disastrous start to the tournament to claim an unexpected place in the final before losing out to South Africa.

And given the current tide of public goodwill towards the national team, and the fact that the Rugby Football Union is yet to complete its assessment of the tournament – and Ashton's position – Dallaglio admits he may have been wise to hold back.

"I didn't set out in this book to embarrass anyone, to make bad comments about other people, and if that's happened I apologise," Dallaglio said. "But I think it would have been wrong of me not to finish with the 2007 World Cup the same way as I have tried to achieve through the book, which is just to be honest and open with my opinions.

*   Peyper the English - Aussie game - England

*   Berry the Welsh - French game - Berry is fair ref... hard to tell... maybe french upset

*   Poite the AB - Ireland game - Nz will win poite is an agent 

*   Owens the Japan  -  Springboks game. - Owens likes the boks boys better than the japanee they are more handsome       

Where is Barnes... by far the best ref in game... 

..a South African P. E teacher at a college i visited had a sign on his office that read "Luck is for Losers"

Strzok

I do not understand this one:-

"Nonsense Dave we played the defending Champs in their own backyard.....playing England at Twickenham was the toughest test in 2007......the ABs were certainly not a great team."

I do not understand the above statement,   SA did not play any tests against England at Twickenham in 2007.   Both WC tests against England in 2007 was at Stade d' France in Paris.      

The other problem in that series was that France was playing NZ in the quarterfinal and beat NZ narrowly,   Barnes was the referee and there was quite a scandal in that game.   France scored the winning try after a clear forward pass of which much was written about and let to a real problem of total dislike by NZ for Barnes for many years after that.   France then met England in the semi and lost the semi.   

Actually after beating England 36 - 0 in the Round Robin game - it was supposed to be a walk in the  park in the final - but it was not and the reason given by me was 100% true.   Apparently White decided before the final to play England according to the game plan that suited England best and made the winning a hard graft,

After the final John said that if England scored that disallowed try in the corner - the Springboks would have had to try and find a way to score a try themselves.   They scored 3 tries in the round robin game - why would it be so difficult to score tries in the final if the game plan was not changed by White?               

Redsman

It was my guess as to  the refs,   Barnes may come in in the Japan-SA test - but I am pretty sure that the highest rated ref for that game would be Owens,   He will not be able to referee any game involving England,   But lets see.

Anybody thinking Wales currently ranked 2 in the world is an easy game must be smoking something strong! 

Beeno

I have a feeling that Wales will lose against France in the quarterfinal.   I have seen all ther games thus far and is not convinced they will be able to win further matches in Japan,  They thrive at home and what I saw is them struggling against Australia and in the first halves of the matches against the minnow teams.    They won convincingly against the minnows in the end - but it leaves doubts as to what will happen  against stronger opposition.

Not  a walkover, but I think they will struggle against France as well as  the Springboks.         

Wales not a walk over but def easier than other side of the draw... seriously poms / irish / kiwis would all destroy the welsh... Aussies could have if few calls went their way... and aussies are ranked about 6th atm...

Beeno - saffas got a walk up golden ticket to the GF.... haha