Pool A
This pool comprises of England, Australia, Fiji and Italy.
England - the Champion last year - beat Italy by 63-3 and looks like they are being one of the real competitors in the tournament. They will have to battle it out with Australia who beat Fiji by 36 -17 to see who will be top of the log on Friday. Australia's forwards look strong and it will be a real battle - that one.
Pool B
This pool comprises of Wales, France, Ireland and Fiji
Wales - the runners-up last year - beat Fiji comprehensively (48-19) and is at present top of the log. France - the winner of the Under 20 competition of the Six Nations battled bravely to beat Ireland 19-14 and in this pool is second on the log.
France looked vulnerable up front and they will have to improve their scrumming if they want to make an impression against Wales. Either France or Wales will win in this pool So it is likely that the outcome in this pool will be decided only in Round 3.
Pool C
This pool comprises of South Africa, New Zealand, Samoa and Scotland.
South Africa beat Scotland 61-5 and New Zealand beat Samoa 48-12. These two tams meet on Friday and the log leadership will be decided in that game. Since members are mostly interested these two teams I will give a brief summary of my impression of the performances of the two teams:-
South Africa
The scots put up a serious challenge in the first half and the half time score of 14-5 reflected that. There were minor problems in respect of line out play and the scrummie was decidedly sub-par.
The situation changed completely in the second half when the SA Youngsters start to use the backline more frequently and they were deadly in attack. All of Pollock, Jesse Kriel and Greeff put in star performances. Very speedy and good in carrying and handling balls and really a star performance. The problems in the line outs was sorted out and the scrummie was slightly better - both the weaker players were replaced around minute 60 in the second half and that add value to performances.
New Zealand
New Zealand was leading 22-0 when the Samoans started to fight back and the halftime score was 22-7. Thereafter the New Zealand had to battle on for almost the whole of the second half and they only gained the real upper hand late int he second half when handling errors by the Samoans gifted them 3 tries.
There backline looked fast and dangerous and like any New Zealand team they are god in ball handling. However, they are not particularly strong ball carrier s and that can cost them dearly against SA. Their defense was good when the Samoans keep pressing them in the second half and despite pressure manage to limit the Samoa tries to only 1 during that period.
I am not really impressed by their forwards - especially their tight 5's and they are going to struggle with that throughout the competition. In essence I think that would be their main problem against SA and I do think SA will win on Friday.
