what makes you think its your destiny? have you been the number one team in world rugby for 30 years and not won the world cup? or have you been to a couple of finals and been denied? and as its the first of the knock out games it a bit premature to be talking of such grand things as destiny all things considered.

Ireland will also be at full strength so to offer some advice... dont cheer on the winning team until the final whistle goes eh.

3 stars for your passion all the same.

Wasnt saying it is Wales' destiny to win.. it was more of an article saying what I think could be possible, what I'd like.. But asking the question, what IS wales' destiny.

Thankyou very much...

to be fair greg before the comp began i thought a very good finish for wales and ireland would be a 3rd place play-off, similar to Argentina in the previous WC. and in line with their positions in world rugby while also conceding to the fact that the southern hemisphere were in all honesty at a far higher level.

But the way things have turned out and thanks to Ireland beating OZ which guaranteed that a northern Hemisphere side would reach the final i believe anything is now possible. Wales and ireland are the inform northern hem sides so logically speaking, one of us look set to be there. it was never really a likely thing to happen in the beginning but here we are.

Bloody exciting really!!!

Tho if any team is destined to win the WC you would have to admit that its New Zealand... I mean they have gone in to every WC as outright favourites and yet only one the very first which was an amateur competition at best. Still i would not mind upsetting the apple cart.

won the very first *

how do you work out that wales and ireland are the in form nh teams.

england have a 100 pct record where as wales have already lost a match do the maths

fairground11 -

Being on form is not grinding out wins against poor opposition whilst showing no sign of a big performance.
(England)

Being on form is scoring tries for fun and being more clinical than most other teams in the world, and at the same time having a great defense, along with almost no notable weakness, great individuals, great team, and getting better each game. (Wales)

Being on form is also beating Australia, doing a number on Italy, and winning your group whilst playing some very good rugby. (Ireland)

The big Southern Hemisphere teams on the other side of the draw would much rather face England than Wales or Ireland and that is a fact.


You do the math.. seeing as you clearly don't actually watch rugby, you merely look at the tables.

Oh and in answer to the article, I am starting to believe we can win the cup. Getting to the final is very realistic and once there anything can happen! I am very confident that we can beat Ireland, I just have this horrible voice in my head telling myself to remember our false dawns (probably a good thing, keeping my feet on the ground.)

I think the winner of this game will go onto the final and be in with a good shot. For me it will be Wales. Please, Please let it be Wales.

wales played 1 other team in the top 10 and lost.

england played 2 and won them both but i am quiet happy for everybody to keep writing england off all the way

fairground11

i guarantee Captain Hook is not writing England off, he was simply defending my original comment about the form NH sides and by the way. that comment is a simple matter of fact. Wales are playing the Rugby england can only dream of right now. Their 10's are kicking their pens and conversions another thing england are not doing, wales are winning their games easily and should have won their group but took their eye off the ball too early against SA. Everyone including most of the decent and honest lads from england acknowledge that wales deserved to beat SA and while wales lost that game SA did not win it.

Ireland (my team) are also steam-rolling along and i wont blow their trumpet to much only to say AGAIN that the form NH sides are Wales and Ireland and thats not a small margin either, they are light years ahead of England and France, and if you want to quote a silly statistic to try and prove us wrong i suggest you don't. your just making yourself look foolish and churlish but its a free world so knock urself out. (literally)

Guys really, I dont mean for aggressive arguing here, its all banter and a good discussion, but please try and keep it friendly without taking comments to heart too much.

I merely made this post just to express my feelings towards this Rugby World Cup and my desires/thoughts on how teams are doing. Please don't argue over petty things such as stats when the real goal is what's in front of your eyes, the RUGBY that is being played.

Yes Wales have a slight chance to get to the final if they manage to beat Ireland. But they would probably be playing the All Blacks in the final. And there is no way Wales will win the World Cup at Eden Park against the All Blacks.

And I'm not being biased

Haha Jono... well mate... if the word of the day is "Destiny" then it belongs to NZ
But you have to get passed OZ or SA before you realise that goal... and no disrespect but thats not going to be easy mate. Also no disrespect to Argentina but they are no a threat i see you winning that by 30+ points

Yes i agree it definitely won't be easy. I hope we play Australia in the semis as i reckon SA are more of a threat. Australia are poor atm and haven't beaten us in NZ for over a decade and the last time they beat us at Eden Park was in 1986

I hope we do thrash Argentina and more importantly Colin Slade plays well and kicks all of his goals so he can gain alot of confidence ahead of the semis.

What is worrying for the All Blacks is injuries. It won't be good if McCaw gets reinjured next match and Dagg doesn't recover in time for the semis

Jono the Kiwi -

"Yes Wales have a slight chance to get to the final if they manage to beat Ireland."

Slight chance in a one off game against a poor English or French side after dispatching the in form Irish?

Sounds to me like someone is wearing all black tinted glasses. Don't choke now buddy!

Jono

OZ went down hill after we beat them, like it was a serious body blow to lose to us, not so much because it was us but, well let me explain. I actually watched the FOX sports coverage from Australia because i was in a hotel at the time and could not get irish TV anyway, I was utterly shocked at the level of arrogance before the game, they were and im not exaggerating, but they were so disrespectful to us. they were gona slaughter us, they were gona destroy us, the pundits were overly arrogant and totally disrespectful when analysing us and sure they had good reason to believe they would win but it was really over the top and that guy (name?) who replaced pocock at 7 was being lauded like a giant among men, like Lomu reincarnated wearing 7. oh he was going to kill our back row single handed... Like some kind of Greek demigod hero! I wont lie, it pee'd me off big time. when they were finished rubbishing us the game got under-way and the rest is history.

so anyway my point is, i hope SA rip them a new A-- hole, and if not them then you lot. they bloody deserve to be taken to the cleaners and sent packing after that rubbish.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Can't believe we're taking a 7pt lead into the second half. Ireland have been by far the better team.

To answer the question I hope not. Whoever plays Wales I hope thrash them and send them with their tails between their legs back to their sad little Principality.

Tohbi

Never seen you before but that was a bitter little comment. England and France haven't been great, but England have won every game, including tough tests against Argentina and Scotland, and I fully expect us to come through against the Welsh IF we beat the French. But we will lose to any of the SH sides in the final!!!

We had better beat the French, I live in Toulouse and don't want the grief on Monday!!!

Bitter,yes. I lived in North Wales for 3 years where I was bullied very badly.1960-63 I was that "little English girl" and was badly picked on. When depressive illness set in the past was blamed.I know this is off topic. The Welsh are just as obsessed with England losing as the rest of the world so here's reciprocation and that's all.

Oh my good god that's pathetic.

Tohbi, get ready to be even more depressed in about 30 minutes time luv

No,I'm not depressed honey. I knew by England's bad scorelines that they wouldn't win the World Cup. They scored 137 points in the matches which wasn't good. Scraped by Scotland and Argentina and only 67 against Romania, a team they beat 134-0 8 years ago. I expected to beat France but I didn't expect to win the Cup. So get ready to crow everybody else. I always thought that MJ was the wrong man to lead England. So it's onwards to 2015.

Yes MonDieu,the behaviour of the Welsh ganging up and bullying an 8 year old English girl was pathetic,I totally agree with you.