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I agree, I believe England will beat Australia. However Australia is pretty unpredictable in my opinion, can be truly great on the good day, but they also can be completely transparent and show nothing at all during a game. Forwards-wise, England I think is more complete despite Hooper/Pocock on the other side (better bench also), Backs-wise I think England offers more options and can bring interesting things on all fronts (power, speed, kicking, set-pieces) if they're all on the same page ; Australia have quality player with Koroibete and Kerevi, and some unpredictable dangers (both for them and for the opponent) with Beale, Foley, O'connor, Genia, etc. but the latter ones seem more to be on the danger side for Australia lately.
I believe NZ despite not showing their best form will beat Ireland, and we will have ENG/NZ in semi-final.
On our side (France), I hope we win the game as I have the feeling that we can succeed against Wales when they're not at home. But if we show same high penality rate in scrum, same clumsiness to catch a ball, and same irregularity and moments of game plan absence we showed for the last 5 years even if it is better recently, we will not win agains Wales. So I guess reluctantly I will predict 60% chance Wales beat us.
Regarding SA-Japan, soooooo looking forward to this game. I genuinely can not decide on a winner, SA will try to kill the memory of their loss last RWC and will be highly motivated, they have huge forwards (a little on the opposite side to Japan) and some interesting fast players on the back, but I have the impression that they can show limited strategy sometime. On the other hand, Japan is very very fast in execution, have good strategy and are very organized and structured and play possession game. They showed to have various tools (hands, speed, kicking, etc.) to win and choke the opponent, have good adaptation but they can be tired by the pool stage and will have to deal with SA forwards which is never easy.
England/Australia and SA/Japan are the games not to miss on the weekend (desperate to say that I am not even mentioning my own country but France has been really disappointing for me for quite some time). Have a good rugby weekend you all!
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paulbiche
@Pasty_Spumante
Disappointed Ford has been dropped with Farrell at 10.
Defence - Farrell will miss more tackles than Ford, it's just he does an angry face and works so hard to get the initial big shoulder/hit in (which the carrier rides and continues) we're duped into thinking he's a big hitter.
Behind a non-dominant pack - Ford has been outstanding behind a Leicester pack that will be dominated far more than any England pack against any opposition.
Kicking - happy to be proved wrong but would expect Ford's stats to prove he's been a decent bit more accurate than Farrell off the tee in the last 12 months.
Mental toughness - being gobby and obstinate doesn't make you mentally tough. Ford goes about his business methodically and respectfully without histrionics or drama.
Like Manu/Slade and wouldn't have an issue had Farrell been showing better form
but it's just not the case.
I don't think there's much chance of Australia beating us tbh - though generally they're better than France, you know the level of mediocrity they're going to bring, and as such I'd have chosen them of the possible 6 opponents we could have faced