Pool B

And so we move on to Pool B in how I think the world cup will play.  Pool B's characters are:

• Argentina
• England
• Georgia
• Romania
• Scotland

This is one of the more tastier of groups with a couple of crunch matches involving highly rated teams.

First of those matches involves two of RWC 2007's semi-finalists; England and Argentina.  Whilst it's great that Argentina continue to develop as rugby playing nation, they're not the same team that played in France.  They're missing their talismanic fly-half come full back Juan Martin Hernandez and whilst Contepomi is a good fly-half who can control a game, he lacks that spark of unpredictability that Hernandez has.  I see England winning the encounter - though it'll be a close match and I'll spend most of it on the edge of my seat!!

I also think England will beat Scotland, again it'll be a close match and again the forwards will probably dominate.  Richie Gray came to the fore in the last 6 Nations and looks to be a great player for Scotland.  Him and Euan Murray aside (though Murray hasn't been making the headlines that he once did) I think pack for pack England are better.  Behind the pack neither teams are on a par with any of the Tri Nations but England just edge it.

Scotland v Argentina then will probably be the battle for the second qualifying spot - and this is a really tough one to call.  Neither side have played many warm up games, the one result of note would be Scotland beating Ireland whilst Argentina struggled past a Worcester team.  On that you'd give it to Scotland but honestly, I'm just not sure.  I have a gut feeling Argentina might just edge it.

Georgia and Romania make up the rest of the pool.  Romania are without one of their better players after their winger Catalin Fercu didn't want to make such a long flight (a la Dennis Bergkamp!).  Romania were likely to lose every match anyway and this won't change anything.  Georgia have the ability to cause an upset - they almost did against Ireland in 2007 and there's no reason why they shouldn't challenge any of the top three.


So, with a gut feel ruling one decision I see England and Argentina progressing from this group.