World cup week one results
The first week of the World Cup wrapped up in France over the weekend. I say World Cup without any preface, because is there really any other world Cup?
First a confession - as an armchair scrum half who travels the world to watch rugby, you might think that Rafters pours over stats and deep dives into player performance before making predictions. Rafters doesn’t. We have books to write and novellas to edit, and in the interest of complete honesty, I also only played lock in a few matches.
If Rafters did all of that research, we might have done better this week on the World Cup’s Predictor Game where we scored a dismal forty-five against the leader board’s top score of one-hundred-and-thirty-four. Congratulations to Bach.hub for a superb job.
If you’re not playing the predictor game on the World Cup app, Rafters highly recommends joining the competition with the forty-six thousand plus fans climbing out on the prognostical limb.
While the predictor is fun, Rafters focus is on how the finals might shape up rather than guessing if number-one Ireland can defeat Romania by a margin of seventy four or fifty two. Some day Rafters hopes that predicting pool play winners continues to become more and more difficult with each World Cup than it was picking some of week one’s matches.
Pool A round one match results
It’s not so farfetched that Italy leads Pool A after week one, an easy bonus point win over Namibia was a no brainer pick. But don’t expect Italy’s top spot in the pool to last.
Unfortunately Rafters believes that the semifinal seeding for Pool A was decided last Thursday, and the teams just need to complete the exercise of playing the remaining four rounds.
Italy - 52
Namibia - 08
Rafters’ Prediction - Italy over Namibia by twenty-four.
It was also not all that difficult to predict that New Zealand would blow their perfect record in pool play by losing to France in the tournament’s opener, especially after that historic drubbing at the hands of South Africa at Twickenham in warmup play a few weeks ago.
The outcome never felt in doubt, and who’d have thought that Rafters would ever express disappointment that the All Blacks didn’t make a better show of it in pool play.
France - 27
New Zealand - 13
Rafters’ Prediction - France over New Zealand in the tournament opener by seven.
Uruguay - Bye.
Pool B round one match results
The only surprise in the first Pool B match between Ireland and Romania was a try in the third minute by Romanian’s Scrum half Gabriel Rupanu. From then on it went about as fans might have expected with Ireland racking up twelve tries.
Ireland - 82
Romania - 08
Rafters’ Prediction - Ireland smokes Romania by fifty-two.
Given the quality of Scotland’s play lately, Rafters was surprised to see them so fully dominated by South Africa. The loss on Sunday will likely prove enough to eliminate Scotland from the Quarterfinal seeding.
In this case Scotlands hopes came down to the luck of the draw. In any other pool, they might have been a contender, but unless they can rally after this week’s bye, the only way Scotland goes to the quarterfinals is if they’ve buy tickets.
South Africa - 18
Scotland - 03
Rafters’ Prediction - South Africa over Scotland by four.
Tonga - Bye.
Pool C round one match results
The big game in Pool C this week was Wales verses Fiji. In one of the most entertaining matches of the weekend, the game was decided after the clock turned red.
In the last minute, Fiji rallied on the back of their ball-control magic, putting together multiple phases to drive the length of the field, but a dropped pass just shy of the five meter line that would surely have resulted in a try ended the game and likely Fiji’s hopes for a quarterfinal appearance.
Despite the heart rending loss, the Fijians walked with a losing bonus point and a try bonus point, which keeps them alive for a possible quarterfinal appearance, but they will need try bonus point wins in their remaining three matches to pull it off along with a little help. If Rafters has learned one thing, Don’t count out the Fijians.
Wales - 32
Fiji - 26
Rafters’ Prediction - Fiji by two over Wales
As expected Australia made short work of Georgia, but there were a few moments where the Georgian showed flashes of brilliance and occasionally made it look as though they might keep it tight.
Australia - 35
Georgia - 15
Rafters’ Prediction - Australia easily over Georgia by seventeen.
Portugal - Bye.
Pool D round one match results.
It’s been said that fans take out their frustrations on their home teams by seeing nothing but doom and gloom when they starts to lose. Rafters is no different.
Following England’s dismemberment at the hands of Fiji in the final warm up match at Twickenham (There’s ninety quid I’d like back.) it’s hard for England fans not to become cynical.
England’s display on Saturday came as a total surprise, stingy defense, plus George Ford’s three drop goals from midfield, and six penalties was enough for England to defeat Argentina despite not scoring a single try.
Argentina came into the game hot, and were Rafters’ pick to win the match as well as the pool.
England - 27
Argentina - 10
Rafters’ Prediction - Argentina over England by five points.
Once again the drama in the match between Japan and Chile was the score line. Japan easily takes a bonus point win and for now sits at the top of the table in pool D.
Japan - 42
Chilie 12
Rafters’ Prediction - Japan over Chile by twenty-two points.
Samoa - Bye.
Quarterfinals - as it stands at the end of week one
Quarter Final Number One (Pool C winner v Pool D runner Up).
End of Round One - England v Australia
Rafter’s pre-tournament call - (England v Australia) - England advances to Semifinal Number One.
Quarter Final Number Two (Pool B winner v Pool A runner Up).
End of Round One - Ireland v France
Rafter’s pre-tournament call - (Ireland v New Zealand) - Ireland advances to Semifinal Number One
Quarter Final Number Three ( Pool D Winner v Pool B Runner Up).
End of Round One - Japan v South Africa
Rafter’s pre-tournament call - (Argentina v Wales) - Argentina takes the win and moves on to Semifinal Number Two.
Quarter Final Number Four (Pool A winner v Pool B runner up)
End of Round One - Italy v South Africa
Rafter’s pre-tournament call - (France V South Africa) - France moves on to Semifinal Number Two.
Teams mathematically eliminated from the quarterfinals
None