France v New Zealand looks like a mouthwatering tournament opener. Both sides should progress comfortably with Italy looking the strongest of the rest

Who’s your picks for places? World ranking currently say

  1. France
  2. New Zealand
  3. Italy
  4. Uruguay
  5. Namibia

Any potential upsets? Could see France losing the opener of the whole tournament. Could Italy pull off a France mugging off the back of that? Last fixture of the pool, and Italy have done it not so long ago in the 6n iirc

    • TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nzEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      Its an interesting one; I think the SA game was a great wake up call and typically the ABs bounce back from those in a big way (see the loss to Argentina & response last year).

      But, with Frizell and Retallick still out injured (presumably), and Lomax a casualty from the SA game (unless that cut has healed miraculously) we won’t have our top forward pack on the park.

      Over the professional era its only become more & more difficult to win games (let alone test matches) away from home so I think its one of those situations where France should be expected to win, but possibly at the same time nobody should be surprised if the All Blacks get the job done.