The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsThe Rugby World Cup starts on the 18th September when England face Fiji at Twickenham. Then for the following 7 weeks 20 teams will battle it out for the Rugby World Cup.
There are teams that look like they could challenge for the World Cup which New Zealand won 4 years ago.
There will be under dogs that will do well, even though no one thought they would do any good. Plus there is Pool A, which has been named “The Pool of Death”. There is always one pool like this at a World Cup. Host’s England, Australia and Wales are all in this Pool and they are all in the top 5 ranked in the World. This will be an interesting Pool to watch to see who goes through to the next round.
This article will look at the teams who have a good chance of winning the World Cup.
New Zealand
Obviously the first choice for winners are the current champions and the team that is ranked number 1 in the world. They are the best and surly will look to retain their title. It wont be easy as they are the team to beat, but beating them will be hard.
New Zealand have Argentina (Currently 8th), Tonga (11th), Georgia (16th) and Namibia(20th). They don’t really have much opposition in their group.
New Zealand have only played 1 game in the warm up match period. This was a 41-13 dominant display against neighbours Australia a few weeks back. 5/5 conversions from kicker carter and 2/3 penalties scored proved that he was on top form and at the right time.
If they keep up the same form that they have had in the past 5 years, then they could dominate the tournament and easily win it. However I think that because they are the team to beat, they might under estimate some teams making it hard for them to win the games.
Pool Games
20/09-vs Argentina -Wembley Stadium
24/09-vs Namibia – Olympic Stadium
2/10-vs Georgia – Millennium Stadium
9/10-vs Tonga – St James Park
