The first instalment of our 2015 Rugby World Cup guide takes in Pool A – the bona fide pool of death, containing hosts England as well as their fierce rivals Wales and Australia, Pacific Island flair-merchants Fiji… and Uruguay.
AUSTRALIA
World Ranking: 2nd
Strengths
If they can make their mind up over who their first choice half-backs are, they will probably be the only team to have a back-line as good as the All Blacks. Pace, power, vision – they’ve got it all, and they’ve got an overabundance of play-makers that means they’ll always be able to bring someone off the bench that could change a game.
Weaknesses
Traditionally, the front five has been their main area of weakness. While the scrum has looked better in the recent Rugby Championship, the line-out was still a niggling issue and it has led to Dean Mumm and Kane Douglas being parachuted back in despite plying their trade in Europe for the last few years. There are also concerns over the form of their half-backs, specifically fly-half duo Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley.
Key player: Matt Toomua
Incredibly, he hasn’t always been first choice under Michael Cheika, and yet it seems obvious to most on-lookers that Toomua is one of the smartest midfield operators around. He has that priceless ability of being able to see the space around him in slow motion.
Unexpected genius: Mario Ledesma
If the Wallabies can continue with the scrum parity that they found in the Rugby Championship, they will make it deep into the tournament. If they can’t, they will be found out by England and Wales and could go out at the group stages. That is why scrum coach Mario Ledesma could be the most important part of their World Cup effort.
Do say: “Israel Folau is simply majestic under the high ball, isn’t he?”
Don’t say: “Why isn’t Steve Walsh at this World Cup? How are we going to win now?!”
Prediction: 4th place (loser of Bronze final)
ENGLAND
World Ranking: 4th
Strengths
The mobility of this England team is impressive. Almost to a man, they are proper athletes. Guys like Tom Youngs and Joe Launchbury in the front five cover just as much ground as the workhorses in the back-row. After some flashes of brilliance in the last year from the likes of Joseph, May and Watson, there is also finally the belief that England have players that can conjure tries from nothing.
Weaknesses
Inexperience. Without going into the detailed mathematics of it, this England squad must have fewer caps than most, if not all, of the other true contenders for the trophy. James Haskell has the most caps, and he won’t be in the first choice line-up. Injuries to front line players like Tom Youngs or Brad Barritt would leave international newbies as first choice starters.
Key player: Tom Youngs
He’s been mentioned already, but in Dylan Hartley’s absence, Youngs must step up this World Cup. His work in the loose (where his mobility and handling immediately belie his former status as a centre) is second to none, but will his darts hold up to Welsh and Australian scrutiny?
Unexpected genius: Henry Slade
Regular watchers of the Premiership will know how good the Exeter play-maker is – this could be his chance to announce himself to the rest of the world. An unpolished diamond, for sure, but certainly one of the most gifted players in this England squad.
Do say: “The work of England’s supporting cast at the breakdown is superb – who says you need a true ‘fetcher’ in the number seven shirt?”
Don’t say: “Wouldn’t Sam Burgess be better as a flanker?”
Prediction: 3rd place (winner of Bronze final)
FIJI
World Ranking: 9th
Strengths
They will almost definitely score one of the tries of the tournament. Brought up on a diet of sevens, even their biggest men have the deftest of hands – for proof, look no further than hulking Glasgow lock Leone Nakawara, who most recently tore up the Pacific Nations Cup. If the game opens up, they have the potential to cause genuine havoc.
Weaknesses
Given their relative lack of resources and time together, it is little surprise that the set-piece and fitness are two areas where they will suffer against the more established teams. These areas require a lot of time to perfect and hone. They will play to their strengths (i.e. get it in and get it out of the scrum/lineout as quickly as possible) but if they are drawn into a tight, set-piece dominated game they will be in trouble.
Key player: Nemani Nadolo
The big man (or perhaps biggest man is more accurate) was missing during the PNC and is one of their genuinely world class operators. For such a giant frame to be able to move so quickly almost defies physics. He also has brilliantly soft hands and can put the ball on a string with his boot. The complete article.
Unexpected genius: Ben Volavola
Fiji have long lacked for half-backs that can match their undoubted talent in the outside backs, but there’s a hope that Ben Volavola’s emergence might end that. The Waratahs playmaker showed glimpses of his undoubted potential at the PNC.
Do say: “With more investment in the game in Fiji, they could be one of the best teams in the world!”
Don’t say: “Why are their backs bigger than their forwards?!”
Predicted finish: Group stage
WALES
World Ranking: 5th
Strengths
In Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric they have two of the best opensides around at the moment – the former is captain elect and a fine leader, while the latter is in the form of his life. Can they find room for them both? George North has been passed fit, and as the 2013 Lions tour proved, at his best he is amongst the finest finishers in the world. Their fitness is always a strength also.
Weaknesses
Recent injuries to two vital players in Rhys Webb and Leigh Halfpenny in the last couple of days is a hammer blow to their chances. Halfpenny’s metronomic boot will be especially missed. In the front row Wales are unfortunately going through a transition phase at the wrong time – guys like Samson Lee and Tomas Francis are potentially great, but very inexperienced to be the cornerstone of a World Cup pack.
Key player: Dan Biggar
Webb and Halfpenny’s injuries increase Biggar’s importance in so many ways. He’ll now be the senior play-maker, and he will also take the goal-kicking responsibilities. He is a fine, fine place-kicker but handling that pressure along with leading the back-line in the international arena will be a relatively new experience for him.
Unexpected genius: Matthew Morgan
The little wizard is in the squad as cover for fullback and given Leigh Halfpenny’s injury – and the decision to call up Eli Walker, an out-and-out winger, in his stead – he could well see increased gametime. There are few players as dangerous with ball in hand as the diminutive utility back at this World Cup.
Do say: “It’s great to see George North back from his concussion issues and playing well again.”
Don’t say: “The Wales players seem to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder… no seriously, what is that bit of yellow?!”
Predicted finish: Group stage
URUGUAY
World Ranking: 19th
Strengths
They’re South Americans bread on the great outdoors and red meat, so expect them to have some big boys in the front five. Their head coach is Pablo Lemoine, a former Bristol and Stade Français tighthead prop, so there’s every chance their scrum will stand up to scrutiny.
Weaknesses
Simply put, the vast majority of their players are amateur and are going to find it impossible to keep up with the pace of the game over 80 minutes against a handful of the best sides in the world. They would have hoped for an easy draw; as it is, they got the hardest one available and have whipping boys written all over them.
Key player: Agustin Ormaechea
The zippy scrum-half is the heartbeat of the Uruguay side and will set the tempo when they have the ball. He will have the tough job of galvanising the backline when the team is inevitably going backwards.
Unexpected genius: N/A
Let’s be honest, if any Uruguay player manages to walk out of this group with the tag ‘genius’ attached to them, we’d all be shocked wouldn’t we?
Do say: “It’s great to see smaller rugby playing nations mixing it with the big boys; it’s what makes the World Cup great.”
Don’t say: “Do Uruguayan rugby players bite people too?”
Predicted finish: Group stage
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
Take us on! Join our Rugby World Cup Predictor and RWC Fantasy games on SuperBru.
As you know by now, we are hilarious, and you should be following us on Facebook and Twitter. 
Think everyone agrees it’s disgusting seeing the Rugby Football Team of Australia in Ireland’s rightful position.
Thanks everyone for your support on this one – the decency shown to me about this on this blog is truly humbling and yes I agree with you all that we will be back up there in a few weeks time. Not a single dissenter – not even the usual suspects. Truly amazing!
DDD
Pew Pew!!
But France are the only team in your group that you can take points from. Uruguay are the only team in Pool A that the other four teams can’t take points from. Any one of Wales, England, South Africa or Ireland could pip the incumbents Oz to the title of NZ’s biggest threat come the knock out stages.
Climbing the world rankings doesn’t only rely on your results – SA rose to 3rd picking their arses!! FFS
“Any one of Wales, England, South Africa or Ireland could pip the incumbents Oz to the title of NZ’s biggest threat come the knock out stages.”
Would remove Wales from that – never been 2nd in the world and aren’t going anywhere in this WC thanks to the floating Log!
DDD
FLOATING TURD! – Should say
Fiji will leave England battered and bruised after their first game and Austrailia and Wales will reap the benefits at the English HQ. Hardest group to call IMO. No dead certs, Austrialia can beat anyone on their day so can England so it will be down to Wales to stand up and bring thier A game. Think England will get out of the group and it will be down to Wal/Aus to battle it out for 2nd.
I’m a little confused, you said Fiji will leave England battered and bruised and Wales/Aus will reap the benefit at Twickenham, if both Wales & Aus beat England they wont qualify let alone win the group. It’s possibly if the world crumbles either of the 3 losing 2 of those games could take 2nd provided Fiji/Uruguay can shock one of the others and allow it to happen on points but highly unlikely.
I really want both Wales/England to qualify and beat Aus but I doubt it’ll happen, I see it being 1/1 each, Wales beat England, Lose to Aus, Aus beat Wales lose to England etc Uruguay are likely to be kingmakers in this group, whoever they defend against best may end up missing out lol (granted I want Wales to go through unbeaten :p)
Sure you haven’t left an ‘r’ out in the spelling yr moniker?
It’s obviously the hardest grp, but this bizzo about Oz or England being able to ‘beat anyone on their day’ has more holes in it than a sieve.
England, over the last yr or so, have lost 6 in a row v the SH & caved v the French over there a couple of wks back.
And I think the last time Oz beat NZ was 4 yrs ago, just before the prev WC (until the recent RC of course).
Been a long time between either ‘beating ANYONE on their day’ methinks.
WTF! – Has the prince of Wales banned fishing in the Principality?
DDD
As a neutral I am REALLY looking forward to this group. Having Fiji in the mix just adds a whole new dimension to what was already a crazy group stage assembly.
Wales and Aus to qualify (prediction) Wales and England to qualify (hope) I want northern hemisphere rugby to dominate this world cup
My biggest concern (disregarding our recent injuries) is the turn around between England and Fiji.
One would assume our strongest XV will take the field against England. That leaves a 5 day turnaround for Fiji.
Also, given the fact that we’ve only taken 3 centres, one of Roberts/Williams would have to partner Allen in the centre. (assuming Gats will want to rest one or the other)
I don’t think Wales can go completely ‘2nd string’ against Fiji, by which I mean I don’t think we can risk a completely experimental centre partnership in order to rest both Roberts/Williams, and that 20 Stone centre Fiji have, worries me… Tonga aren’t shy in the tackle and he bouncing those boys off for fun..
Yes a good point and one that will truely test the depth of the squad
Fiji looking like they could be a real banana skin for someone either because they catch England cold or beat a knackered and bruised Wales
I don’t think the turn around will be such an issue if we beat England, but if we don’t Fiji will start looking an even tougher proposition!
I reckon it’s going to be close to a full strength side (stronger if we’ve just lost to England), notwithstanding any injuries, since they’ll get a long rest before Australia. At the least, I’d expect almost all (probably 20) of the players from the England game to be involved against Australia, but cycling the starting XV a bit.
I’m certainly glad the fixtures are this way around. Roberts could end up being involved in a lot of big collisions (assuming he plays – and I think he has to) against Fiji!
You must not be familiar with the Wallabies scrum now. IMO, it’s the 2nd best in the world behind France. They dominated Argentina and New Zealand in the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe. How can England beat them? Statistically the Wallabies dominated England in November 2014.
Well Oz didn’t look to dominant in Bled II to me Zebbidy!
Would that be the game in November 2014 that Australia lost? Interesting argument as you’ve pretty much answered your own question there.
I don’t doubt that the Aussie scrum has improved, if only because it couldn’t get any worse. But as Don pointed out, NZ bested them in the second Bledisloe game and earlier South Africa had them on toast before they replaced the starting front row.
Still, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Won’t be long now until we find out how improved they are.
Don’t believe that the Oz scrum is that weak, esp now, or as dominant as Zeb reckons.
Besides, the scrum is a means of setting up possession, ideally to attack with out wide . It’s not always just an end in itself. It needs to be adequate, but the breakdown is more important for me. Lose that, likely lose the game.
Don’t think I’ve been clear enough here – what I meant was that historically Aus have had a poor scrum, but I did then write: “While the scrum has looked better in the recent Rugby Championship…” & then choose Ledesma (scrum coach) as their ‘unexpected genius’!
It has come on leaps and bounds in the past year and is no longer a weakness. It is one of the reasons why other sides will be so worried, and why I think they will beat SA in the quarter-finals.
Interesting that the perception of Oz having (& have had) no front, row still persists. Looking backwards can be a disease, esp so as Oz have just won the SH Ch’ship. Maybe they suddenly ‘grew’ a new fr row to do so? Decent backs alright, but reckon Michael Cheika already knows his 1/2back combo, although Toomua might have been worth a shot @ 1st 5 IMO. Too hard to predict who will win this grp, but I’m inclined to think that the ‘big 3′ won’t win ALL of their games. So it could come down to pts diff, which makes a prediction even harder. It’s an exp team, which is unlikely to cave in under pressure & MC is a wily coach, so for me it’s more likely a ? of whether they go through 1st… or 2nd… & Cheika won’t look for the latter, more diff route.
Regarding points difference – I’ve only just realised the bonus point system is being used (I’m too used to the Six Nations), so making a prediction really is too difficult!
Getting 4 tries vs Fiji might be crucial for any of the big 3 teams (assuming they all get 4+ vs Uruguay) and if they do lose to each other, don’t get beat by more than 7 (although I can’t see this happening anyway).
England have home advantage which will likely help them of course. The bookies seem to think so too. The pack should be competitive enough, although they’d better hope the 2nd game v Fr was just a ‘blip’, otherwise it could be a hard row to hoe. They’ll also need to tighten up @ line out as v Ireland last up, it was scrappy @ times. It seems that the ‘collective’ @ br/down is the way fwd, but this may be exposed with the SH, incl Oz, utilising 2 No 7’s. The backs seem competent rather than frightening, relying on ‘set’ kicks or individual skills to beat the oppo out wide. With tighter defences than Ireland’s @ Twickenham, these tactics may be shut down. Ford is also competent, but not so clever under the high ball etc & England won’t want to see him injured. Should get thru, but 1 or 2?!
I think a Welshman would have to be thinking with his heart over his head to think that they will qualify from this group. Poor record at twickenham and abysmal record against Australia. Thought war burton was clutching at straws when he said Wales stand a better chance beating Wales at twickenham than the millennium.
Last 5 games at Twickenham, we won 2 of them, So 40%. Last 5 games v England, we won 3 of them so 60%. No matter how you shake it, the Wales v England record is pretty much square so theirs no clear winner. Both supporters are going into it with there heart, cos the head has to tell you either team could walk out the winner
The 08 result was a bit of a freak result tbh, the number of on field injuries saw a lock playing in the back row and a debutant fly half playing at outside centre.
In 2012, Wales took a vastly experienced side and barely beat a very inexperienced England side, rebuilding after the world cup.
Whilst both results were fully earned, it’s a bit of stretch to imply that Wales have a good record at Twickenham.
Wales can win there, but they should take nothing for granted (not saying you were but others certainly seem to be)
Stats & damn lies. Looking backwards can be a distraction rather than meaningful, esp in a WC comp. Hist shows that it defies logic @ times & when the pressure’s on, as it will surely be for Pool A’s ‘big 3′, it will all depend on the day.
Pressure will be on England as much as any team in their pool. Will THEY deal with it? Home advantage ought to count, but it can also be a double edged sword.
Judging by a couple of school boy errors England made v Ireland recently – I’m thinking of Youngs’ fwd pass to May which butchered a gold plated cert TRY(!) & also Robshaw’s fwd hand off to Wood (? I think) thereby, ditto, ought not these are BASIC errors, caused by lack of skills (in passing a ball!) & not thinking (when, er, passing/fwding a ball!) – shouldn’t these be of some concern?
Surely this ought to be somewhat worrying & shouldn’t these mistakes have been ironed, @ least in Denver, if not over the past 4 yrs? Stuart Lancaster stated recently in the S. Times that he’d found 159(?) things wrong with England when Johnno was in charge! Wonder how many Johhno’s found with Lanc’s team?
The media/pundit mood seemed to echo 1 of Lancaster’s fav mantras in that ‘England are back on track’… after that last win over Ireland.
Time alone will tell of course, but as I’ve mentioned a few before, 1 swallow & all that!
Its’ all even from Fri night & the past is just that. The past.
another way of looking at it, wales have won twice at twickenham since 1988. with the injuries wales have and the way the fixtures unfold, it will be surprising to see them leave the group, is their squad good enough to come back and beat fiji five days after England game?
Your looking at history for over 25years hell some of the squad weren’t even born back then. most of the squad was around since the last world cups so that is the record you need to consider. No point considering the record of people who wont step on the field.
Coming back to beat Fiji, same applies to England, can they beat Wales a week after the attrition games themselves?
Well if we take the last 5 years, competitive fixtures (6n) it’s 3 -2 the other way to England, your 60% win ratio conveniently included the wc warm up match win in Cardiff, and excluded the previous week’s loss to England at Twickenham and the 6n loss to England in Cardiff.
England have an 8 day rest before playing Wales. Longer than we usually have in the AIs after facing physical teams. Plenty enough time to recover and our depth is such that our forwards can be rotated or brought off early without weakening the team (though God help us if Brown gets injured and Goode starts against Wales!).
For Wales to beat England you will have to throw the kitchen sink at us and that will have an impact with such a short turnaround before Fiji. Fiji likewise have a good 8 day rest after Aus. Given the choice I prefer England’s fixture schedule to Wales.
Lets be honest, the timetable for Group A has been designed to maximise the chances of England getting through to the QF’s. No 5 or 6 day turnarounds for them, unlike every other team in the group ! they play Wales after an 8 day rest whilst Wales have 6 ? England also play the very last match vs the whipping boys of the group ….. knowing by then exactly what they would need to do to qualify, that of course is the only game not at ‘Fortress Twickenham’ !.
Fiji have 2 five day turnarounds whilst England have an 8 and three 7’s ! tell me that’s a level playing field !. How can it be that they play the first and last games of the group ? isn’t it obvious they would have had longer between games ? it’s plain maths !.
Not only do they have a huge home advantage but the schedule is so blatantly biased it’s embarrassing …… not that the RFU care of course.
Privilege of being the hosts
Always happens