2019 Rugby World Cup predictions

[Last of the V8s]

Thoroughly overexcited over here, not a betting man, would love it to be England or a rank outsider, but also delighted if it's the All Blacks as their play is so beautiful.

[ruthwithers1980]

~snip~

Thanks for sharing these great inforgraphics. Best of luck to your fave team. Mine's NZ, though. Next is SA. Gotta keep placing bets. The World Cup is about to start!

[bryant.coleman]

In my opinion, the Rugby world cup is probably the most diverse global tournament as far as any sport is considered. In no other competition, you can find the largest countries in the world (Russia, Canada.etc) competing against the smallest nations (Tonga, Fiji, Samoa.etc). Also, unlike the FIFA world cup and the recently concluded FIBA world cup, none of the continents are over-represented. All the continents are represented, although I would have hoped for the inclusion of China and at least one team from the South Asia - Southeast Asia region. Too bad that they couldn't qualify.

Talked to 2-3 friends and all of them are supporting New Zealand. I am not rooting for any team in particular, but would prefer NZ winning this tournament. Anyway, it is great to have this world cup expanding to 20 teams, as earlier Rugby was considered as a sport which was limited to a certain geographic range. As per odds checker, NZ is having the best odds at 6/4, with South Africa and England some way behind at 9/2. Ireland and Wales are ranked 4th and 5th respectively.

[Last of the V8s]

China are 80th in the world at rugger - bunch of poofs.
Taiwan are 65 - well it's a small place.
Hong Kong are 24th - very very respectable.
https://www.world.rugby/rankings/mru?lang=en

[Chrystora123]

snip...

today (20/9/19) is the opening day of the rugby world cup, and tomorrow (21/9/19) is the match of 2 favorite team champions (New Zealand vs South Africa).  it's like remembering their final in 1995  

[Vishnu.Reang]

Watched the opening match between Japan and Russia. Japan had an easy win, with Russia losing 10-30. But while Russia was fielding a 100% native side, the Japanese team was mostly of foreign origin, with most of the players either having an oceanic ancestry (Will Tupou, Timothy Lafaele.etc) or originating from South Africa (Lappies Labuschagné, Wimpie van der Walt.etc).

I am not against teams fielding players of foreign origin. But in my opinion, it should not be to the extent that the majority of the team is composed of foreigners. Look at the recently concluded FIBA world cup. They had a limit of just one naturalized player per team.

[Ayiranorea]

Rugby is much dominated by the Western nation, from the ranking table itself we can get a clear visual about the leading teams. Among the top ten teams Japan seems to be the only Asian country to get tenth position. In the first match Japan has started its winning rally, somehow finally it'll be taken by New Zealand from my view.

[bryant.coleman]

Rugby is much dominated by the Western nation, from the ranking table itself we can get a clear visual about the leading teams. Among the top ten teams Japan seems to be the only Asian country to get tenth position. In the first match Japan has started its winning rally, somehow finally it'll be taken by New Zealand from my view.

Rugby is not very popular in Asia (at least not as much as the case in Oceania and the British Isles). However, the governing body (World Rugby) has taken a lot many progressive steps to make the sport more popular in countries where it is not being played on a large scale, with a lot of success. The reaction of the Japanese public to this tournament have been overwhelming.

A number of high-octane matches are scheduled for today, with one very exciting match ongoing right now (Australia vs Fiji). At half-time, Fiji is leang Australia by a slim margin of 14-12. Considering the fact that Australia is one of the favorites to win this world cup, it will be a major upset in case Fiji is able to hold on to the lead. BTW, later today we have the NZ vs South Africa match (the top two ranking sides).

[Last of the V8s]

..the top two tipped sides akshooly
the top ranked side is Wales whoops ireland add ana extra lol
lol
lol
lol
not a chance

[Vishnu.Reang]

Out of the three matches today, the first two ended with expected results. Australia managed to defeat Fiji 39-21 (after trailing during the half time) and France edged out Argentina by 23-21. The match between two of the top-ranked teams is ongoing now, with New Zealand currently on the top with a 17-10 lead against South Africa. A win by NZ will confirm their invincible status in rugby.

[virasog]

Out of the three matches today, the first two ended with expected results. Australia managed to defeat Fiji 39-21 (after trailing during the half time) and France edged out Argentina by 23-21. The match between two of the top-ranked teams is ongoing now, with New Zealand currently on the top with a 17-10 lead against South Africa. A win by NZ will confirm their invincible status in rugby.

NZL is playing with good momentum againist South Africa and is leading by 17 -10 in the 58th min of the match.
I think NewZealnad team to be super favorites to win the tornament. In the last two world cup in 2015 and 2011, NZ were the winners and they are the only team to win two consective world cups.

[JohnBitCo]

Today's match between Ireland and Scotland just ended and it was real entertainment. Although Ireland win this match comfortably but Scotland really played well and keep the possession of the ball in their hand but did not manage to break the defense of Ireland.
England and Tonga match is about to begin and it will be another thriller.

[bryant.coleman]

Sad to see the Bitcointalk users not showing much interest in this thread. Rugby is a great sport and it is one of the ideal games for doing gambling. Upsets are not very rare and those who are willing to take some amount of risk can get good returns if they do their research thoroughly. I made my first bet today (in favor of Samoa), and ended up winning.

On Sunday, we had the very exciting Italy vs Namibia match, in which Namibia showed a lot of heart by taking on a very strong Italian side. They went down in the end, but the match was not one-sided. Next saturday they are taking on South Africa, and I will be making a bet in favor of Namibia. South Africa is currently ranked 2, but I think that there is a strong chance of upset.

[carter34]

From the African side, I think the South Africans are strong but I don't know how they fair in the world championship. I have not been following this game in details. I just know that I have not seen a skinny guy playing the game 

[virasog]

Sad to see the Bitcointalk users not showing much interest in this thread. Rugby is a great sport and it is one of the ideal games for doing gambling. Upsets are not very rare and those who are willing to take some amount of risk can get good returns if they do their research thoroughly. I made my first bet today (in favor of Samoa), and ended up winning.

Yes, I also see that people are not very interested in this Rugby world cup here. One of the reason which I can think of is that Rugby is not being very popular in Asia so this eliminates the Asians from showing interest here. I think the viewership and interest of this sports will increase in Asia as this world cup is held first time in Japan.

[JohnBitCo]

Yesterday we witness one of the closet match between Uruguay and Fiji and probably the first big upset of this world cup.
Important to mention that this was Uruguay's first win in 16 years and only their 3rd  world cup win. Juan and his team had a memorable moment of their lives when they beat Fiji.
With this win, Uruguay move up to 3rd position in the pool D.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Yesterday we witness one of the closet match between Uruguay and Fiji and probably the first big upset of this world cup.
Important to mention that this was Uruguay's first win in 16 years and only their 3rd  world cup win. Juan and his team had a memorable moment of their lives when they beat Fiji.
With this win, Uruguay move up to 3rd position in the pool D.

Watched the match highlights after reading your post. It was a very close one, and Uruguay managed to scrape through by a slim margin (30-27). In rugby you don't expect the teams from Oceania to go down against Latin Americans. But Uruguay was able to score a major upset. BTW, today we had two very one sided matches (Italy vs Canada, and England vs USA).

[Sweetbtc]

Yesterday we witness one of the closet match between Uruguay and Fiji and probably the first big upset of this world cup.
Important to mention that this was Uruguay's first win in 16 years and only their 3rd  world cup win. Juan and his team had a memorable moment of their lives when they beat Fiji.
With this win, Uruguay move up to 3rd position in the pool D.

Watched the match highlights after reading your post. It was a very close one, and Uruguay managed to scrape through by a slim margin (30-27). In rugby you don't expect the teams from Oceania to go down against Latin Americans. But Uruguay was able to score a major upset. BTW, today we had two very one sided matches (Italy vs Canada, and England vs USA).

Most of the matches which i saw in rugby world cup till now are one sided ones. Same goes for the on-going match between ARG and TGA. TGA is losing this match by 7 - 28 and this is another example of a boring match. Maybe as the tournament progresses, we may see a close finishes.

[bryant.coleman]

Most of the matches which i saw in rugby world cup till now are one sided ones. Same goes for the on-going match between ARG and TGA. TGA is losing this match by 7 - 28 and this is another example of a boring match. Maybe as the tournament progresses, we may see a close finishes.

Argentina is currently leading by 28-12, and I won't regard this match as an one sided affair. Tonga is not a very strong side, but they put 100% effort in to this game and gave a good fight to Argentina. BTW, we have the Namibia vs South Africa match later today, and I expect it to be really close (although South Africa is one of the tournament favorites).

I agree that there were a number of one-sided matches so far in this tournament. But at the same time, we had one big upset (Uruguay defeating Fiji by a margin of 30-27). Considering the limited geographic reach of rugby as a sport, we can expect wide discrepancy in the skill levels between various nations. So one sided matches are expected, at least during the group phase. Still I would say that they did the right thing by expanding the world cup to 20 teams, rather than limiting it to a handful of nations (similar to what the cricket world cup has become).

[Last of the V8s]

Well thanks. You guys get paid and I get to just about keep up without much effort.
I'd suggest that Wales thrashing scotland might be a bit unexpected. what happened exactly? It'd be reasonable to expect the scots to put up a decent fight, if in no way to win.
Anyone know of a good youtube channel for the highlights or even just best tries? pls