Japan face a big test, as do Scotland!

 Israel Folau

There are a few matches this week, starting with Japan – everybody’s new favourite team (apart from ME where they don’t make my top 5) and the surprise package of the World Cup, who get to take on Scotland. It’s an acid test for the Japanese to see if their win over the Springboks was a flash in the pan. For the Scots, if they are going to have any chance of making it of group B they really have to win this match. I would say Scotland are going to win, but let’s see.

Australia make their debut with a match against Fiji – It’s a must win game for the Wallabies given their group.  They have the potential to win the World Cup, with stars like Israel Folau who are relatively unknown over here, and what do they say well started half done. I think they should win this without too much trouble.

In the last match today, France get to soften up Romania for us on Sunday, the lower ranked teams don’t get the rub of the scheduling do they?

Finally, New Zealand entertain Namibia –as expected the All Blacks field their squad players, and are captained by flank Same Cane, the heir apparent to Ritchie McCaw. Liam Messam, the other flank, had this to say about the comparisons between Cane and Richie McCaw, Messam: "They have got the same haircut. “ Could be a contender for biggest loss of the World Cup.

Rugby World Cup
Wednesday, September 23
Scotland vs Japan    13:30
Australia vs Fiji    15:45
France vs Romania    19:00
Thursday, September 24
New Zealand vs Namibia    19:00

Ireland to upset the odds, Wales to dogfight it out - bring it on!

Ireland expects...

Samoa 49 - 12 Namibia 

Tonga 20 - 25 Canada 

Scotland 15 - 6 Georgia

Samoa, the potential dark horse of the tournament, made short of Namibia. Canada produced a minor upset, overcoming the more fancied Samoa, while Scotland failed to impress in a drab victory over Georgia. It was pretty much a Scots B team though.

Fri - 16th Sep 11  

09:00 New Zealand  vs Japan

Sat - 17th Sep 11  

04:30 Argentina vs Romania
09:30 Australia  vs Ireland
07:00 South Africa  vs Fiji

Sun - 18th Sep 11  

09:30 France  vs Canada
07:00 England  vs Georgia
04:30 Wales  vs Samoa

Japan, the Brave Blossoms, are likely to wilt in the face of an All Black onslaught. Ouch is probably going to be the best way to describe this match.

Ireland v Australia is the plum match of the weekend. Australia are ranked 2nd in the world, Ireland a more modest 8th, although in fairness we did fall like a stone from 4th in our less than successful run up to the World Cup. I’ve heard people claiming that we are, to use the technical term, about to be ‘hockeyed’ by the Wobblies. Oh ye of little faith! On Saturday, Kidneys master plan will be revealed, as Ireland go from chumps to champs and sort out the Antipodean giants. And our sheila’s are better looking! I don’t have the stats or the logic to back this up, this is a more primordial pit of the stomach based assessment of our chances. We’ve got the players to do the job, all we need is belief, and in fairness a bit of luck, and we can do it.

There are a couple of key players that are going to have to really perform, none more so than Johnny Sexton who needs to show the form that helped deliver the Heineken Cup for Leinster. Gordon D’Arcy is another that owes us a big time, his most useful contribution to date would have been to pull his socks down and try and blind the opposition with his legs, but he can and will play to his potential. The loose trio of O’Brien, Heaslip and Ferris need to dish out a performance that will be the stuff of legends, getting the ascendancy in the loose and disrupting the awesome Wallaby backline. Donncha O'Callaghan needs to much more than just ballast in the scrum, and Eoin Reddan is going to have to match and better Will Genia. We don’t have anything to lose in the match, the pressure is all on the Aussies, everyone’s expecting us to lose. ‘mon Ireland!  Is feidir linn!

The Springbok Fiji match also looks pretty interesting. The Boks were under serious pressure at one stage the last time they met Fiji in the World Cup, but then they pulled themselves together and won easily in the end. This is a new gentler, kinder set of Boks, none of this ‘Kill’em all and let God sort them out!’ approach any more. Fiji are not the team they used to be either though, and I think the South Africans are still big and beefy enough to squash the Fijians.

Wales and Samoa is the last match of the weekend, and one of the most intriguing. Wales came into this tournament with a young team and high hopes. And they came within a whisker of a major upset of the current World Champions last weekend. But they have to suck up the disappointment of that loss and really concentrate, because one more stumble and they’ll be on the plane home. Samoa showed in their defeat of an admittedly weak Aussie selection in July that they are no pushovers. They’ve beaten Wales before in the World Cup, and have another chance to carve out a bit of history for themselves. They’ve got all at the moment, size, skill and experience. I think Wales are going to win, but not by much more than they lost to the Boks.

Wins for the Barbarians, Springoks and Australia

Saturday , June 5


Australia 49 - 3 Fiji

Wales 31 - 34 South Africa

Friday , June 4

Ireland 23 - 29 Barbarians



Friday night saw an experimental Ireland side take on the Barbarians at Thomond Park in Limerick. The Barbarians were in much better from than against England, and looked like they could run away with it at one stage. The injection of a little bit of quality near the end told for Ireland as the class of Tommy Bowe and Tomas O’Leary made a big difference, and if the match had been 5 minutes longer…Ireland could have won. Alan Quinlan playing for the Barbarians was a walking penalty and yellow card opportunity, high tackles, lying all over the ball and coming in from the side – he must have a real puppy dog look every time the ref speaks to him to stay on the field. So not the result Ireland wanted but it wasn’t their best team anyway. Sean Cronin is going to have to learn to throw in straight if he want’s to make the side on a regular basis, while John Muldoon took a big step up, and could be in contention against the All Blacks.



On Saturday, Wales came against the Boks at the millennium stadium with all the predictions being for a Welsh victory. The Boks obviously hadn’t read the script, and if this thrown together side can come up with a win like that, the rest of the world should be scared for their main team, as the Boks stamped size 12 boots all over the match in a 40 minute spell in the middle of the match. Wales , who in fairness have some big names missing, played in fits and starts, and again if the game had been 5 minutes longer, could have come up with a win. Wales just don’t seem to be able to close out the big ones. Several of the fringe Boks held their hands up, with Dewald Potgeiter and Juan de Jong in very good form. De Jong has a brilliant step, a big heart in defense and a big future with South Africa.



Australia came away with a easy win the end over Fiji, depite only leading 14-3 at half time. Their main concern will be losing prop Ben Alexander to injury.

International Warm Ups- Barbarians, Wales, Springboks,Fiji,Australia, Ireland

Ireland Vs Barbarians


This is real experimental Irish team with 4 new caps and it’s hard to know what to expect as the Barbarians looked like they weren’t quite up for it last week against England. Well ,the atmosphere at Thomond Park will be a lot cosier than at Twickenham, so let’s hope we get the real spirit of the Barbarians coming out and see some good running rugby.

Australia vs Fiji

Australia have named a strong team for this match, practically full strength apart from star player Will Genia who’s out injured. I don’t rate Luke Burgess, and he won’t have played much with Quade Cooper, so that may disrupt them a bit but they should still be way to strong for Fiji. Fiji has increasingly better players but coaching and playing time together are big issues

Wales vs South Africa

This is the pick of the weekends matches. Wales are on a high at the moment with the Amlin Cup and the Magners League trophy in the Cabinet. They are looking good as far as injuries go, and there is so much potential in this team it has to come out some time. The South African side is pretty experimental, consisting mainly of overseas based players and fringe players from back home. However, these are all big strong men, and are going to be ‘bringing the pain’ in their own inimitable style. This could be a lot of fun, and Wales should get one over the Southern Hemisphere as the half the Boks haven’t even met before.