Reflecting on tomorrow's game against the Wallabies, I remembered how much we all used to look forward to David Campese's views on such occasions and wondered what he was up to these days. His Wiki entry must be longer than that for World War II but the personal life section runs to just 11 words: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Campese
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Tokyo Calling - Rugby 2019
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- Mar 2008
- 29883
- An oasis in the middle of Somerset
- Bath City FC; Porthcawl RFC;Wales in most things.
- Fig roll - deal with it.
Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
I was right on the 8 who went through. Now we know who is actually playing each other I'm revising my latter stages predictions (because those 4 predictions are playing each other in 2 of the QFs)
England v Australia ~ England to win
New Zealand v Ireland ~ New Zealand to win
Wales v France ~ Wales to win
Japan v South Africa ~ Japan to win (why not, eh?)
SF England v New Zealand ~ New Zealand to win
SF Wales v Japan ~ Wales to win
3rd place play off - England to win
Final New Zealand to win
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In a land of megaopolii (sp?) Oita seems to be a relatively small place for a World Cup QF. It's not small exactly - it would be the second city in Ireland, Wales, NZ etc. But in Japan it's not in the top 20 by population. Like England hosting a QF in Northampton.
Anyway, England to win comfortably. 32-17.
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As with Japan-Scotland last week, England's attacking left flank is too good for Australia's lumbering defence.
It will be interesting to compare this England performance if the All-Blacks later. Australia have had territory but couldn't execute. The AB's would execute, you'd assume. To repeat the above, we are seeing why Australia have been poor for several years now.
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The left flank has profited because England have quickly switched from attacking down the right to the opposite side of the pitch, stretching the defence. For May's first try it ended up as backs against forwards. Australia aren't doing the same when they have possession, slow predictable going along the line.
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Without ever being obsessive about the sport I have watched RU for long enough to think I should have some sort of idea about the 'dark arts' of the front row at the scrum and how a referee manages them. However fifty years on and I realise I'm still struggling with it.
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In this case, Australia are targeting Sinckler's questionable technique looking for penalties and a yellow card. It's dull rugby.
Japan's attacking scrum is usually a model of swift simplicity but they do sometimes use resets to run down the clock when leading late on, though I didn't notice it against Scotland.
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