| POOL A | POOL B | POOL C | POOL D |
| AUSTRALIA | SOUTH AFRICA | NEW ZEALAND | FRANCE |
| ENGLAND | SAMOA | ARGENTINA | IRELAND |
| WALES | SCOTLAND | TONGA | ITALY |
| Oceania 1 | Asia 1 | Europe 1 | Americas 1 |
| Repechage | Americas 2 | Africa 1 | Europe 2 |
HOSTS England were handed one of the toughest possible draws after being pitted against both Australia and Wales for the next Rugby World Cup in 2015.
Fresh from their phenomenal, record-breaking victory over New Zealand last Saturday, Stuart Lancaster's men were quickly brought back down to the earth on Monday by the draw at the Tate Modern.
For, despite their 38-21 thumping of the All Blacks, earlier defeats this autumn to South Africa and the Aussies left England in the second set of seeds.
Meanwhile, Wales - who were semi finalists at the 2011 tournament and won the Grand Slam in the Six Nations in the spring of this year - have been in even worse shape recently.
A trio of defeats on their summer tour to Australia was followed up by further home losses to Argentina, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia to make it seven reverses in a row.
That sequence meant the Welsh were knocked down into the third group of teams, giving rise to the possibility of a so-called Group of Death.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it happened - and has left England as the hosts with probably the hardest Pool stage draw since the tournament's inception in 1987.
"Pretty tough" was indeed Lancaster's immediate reaction to the draw. But, undoubtedly, Australia coach Robbie Deans and Wales' Warren Gatland were of the same viewpoint following England's display against the reigning world champions at Twickenham.
Indeed, England recorded their best victory in years to run in three tries against the under-par All Blacks.
Some accurate kicking by Owen Farrell gave the home side a 12-0 half-time lead which was made 15-0 straight after the interval.
The hosts then had to withstand an attempted comeback as New Zealand, with their team riven by a debilitating virus before the game, crossed the line twice.
However, second-half tries from Brad Barritt, Chris Ashton and Manu Tuilagi were more than sufficient to bring to an end the Kiwis' 20-match winning run.
Certainly, it was impressive stuff - and, importantly, the result and performance against the All Blacks gave a rather different sheen to the autumn series for England.
Defeat in their first match to Australia was highly disappointing considering the Wallabies arrived to these shores under pressure following an indifferent set of results in the inaugural Rugby Championship.
And it was only worsened further the following week for England when they fell one point short of a comeback against South Africa.
Skipper Chris Robshaw took the brunt of the criticism following the match against the Boks after his decision to go for goal with a late penalty, rather than aim for the try-line by opting for an attacking line-out.
However, Robshaw claimed that his difficult week simply "fuelled the fire" as England recorded their biggest of their seven victories against New Zealand from 35 attempts.
Elsewhere, the draw threw up a lifeline to Scotland despite them, like Wales, only being ranked as third seeds.
Scottish rugby has been in the doldrums for a while: the Thistles have never won the Six Nations Championship, and they were embarrassingly whitewashed in the 2012 competition.
Their ultimate nadir, however, came a couple of weeks ago as islanders Tonga triumphed 21-15 at Pittodrie, prompting the resignation of coach Andy Robinson.
Yet, despite their recent struggles, the Scots will always carry the capability of pulling off a shock, and they will quite fancy their chances against South Africa and Samoa in Pool B.
Pool C looks straightforward for New Zealand who have proven many times to have too much for the likes of Argentina and Tonga but Pool D is more intriguing.
It is, in effect, a mini-Six Nations with France pitted against Ireland and Italy. The French and Irish should progress but, then again, Ireland do not exactly have a perfect record for qualifying from World Cup Pools.
Moreover, the Azzurri will have been pleased to avoid New Zealand this time, having drawn them in five of the seven previous World Cups, and they will indeed fancy their chances against familiar opposition.
However, it is difficult to make a proper assessment of the teams with still over 1000 days to go until the tournament kicks off.
And it really does beg the question why the draw has been made quite this early, even before the minor nations have actually qualified.
The official explanation, according to Telegraph rugby correspondent Brendan Gallagher, is "money and commerce".
Gallagher wrote: "The associated travel companies need to know where the 'big' teams and more importantly where their travelling supporters will be to reserve all the hotel rooms in the area. It's not an awful lot more complicated than that to be honest."
But that argument does not really hold that much water, considering the much bigger football World Cup only confirms its finals draw six months before the opening match.
Frankly then, at this stage, it is somewhat difficult to get too excited about World Cup 2015 when, in the meantime, there are three Six Nations Championships, three southern hemisphere Rugby Championships and a Lions' tour next summer.
Nevertheless, that has not stopped an amusing stand-off developing with Wales making a cheeky offer to use the Millennium Stadium for the clash against England.
In fairness to the Welsh, their national stadium has made the controversial shortlist of available venues for the 2015 World Cup.
But it would be highly surprising if the tournament organisers denied England the opportunity to take on their opponents at Twickenham when they make their final decision in March.
IRB RANKINGS
03 December 2012
| Rank | Rating | Autumn series (Tries) | |
| 1 | NEW ZEALAND | 90.08 | WWWL (17) |
| 2 | SOUTH AFRICA | 86.94 | WWW (4) |
| 3 | AUSTRALIA | 86.87 | LWWW (3) |
| 4 | FRANCE | 85.07 | WWW (6) |
| 5 | ENGLAND | 83.90 | WLLW (10) |
| 6 | IRELAND | 80.22 | LW (7) |
| 7 | SAMOA | 78.71 | WL (5) |
| 8 | ARGENTINA | 78.71 | WLL (6) |
| 9 | WALES | 78.39 | LLLL (3) |
| 10 | ITALY | 76.24 | WLL (4) |
| 11 | TONGA | 76.10 | LW (4) |
| 12 | SCOTLAND | 75.83 | LLL (4) |
AUTUMN INTERNATIONAL RESULTS 2012
w/e 10 November
England 54-12 Fiji
France 33-6 Australia
Ireland 12-16 South Africa
Italy 28-23 Tonga
Scotland 22-51 New Zealand
Wales 12-26 Argentina
w/e 17 November
England 14-20 Australia
France 39-22 Argentina
Italy 10-42 New Zealand
Scotland 10-21 South Africa
Wales 19-26 Samoa
w/e 24 November
England 15-16 South Africa
France 22-14 Samoa
Ireland 46-24 Argentina
Italy 19-22 Australia
Scotland 15-21 Tonga
Wales 10-33 New Zealand
w/e 1 December
England 38-21 New Zealand
Wales 12-16 Australia
Summary
Northern hemisphere wins 7
Southern hemisphere wins 12
No comments:
Post a Comment