The Rugby World Cup 1st Weekend

Here we go ladies and gentlemen. It has been a long four years since the last Rugby World Cup. The wait is over and so is the first weekend of action. Then the first game was Japan V Russia. Everyone taught Japan would run away with this from the start. Russia had other plans and came out all games blazing in the first half. Russia put on pressure from the kick off forcing a turn over.

Round Up

Russia kept the pressure on and were rewarded with the first try of the 2019 world cup. The second half was a different story with Japan upping the tempo with Russia unable to keep up them as the man of the match Kotaro Matsushima scored 3 of Japans tries. The Final score was 30-10

Saturday

Saturday was stacked with some great games, and first up was Australia V Fiji. Australia went into this game as favourites but Fiji put up a good fight with the final score 39-21 to Australia.

Next up was France V Argentina. This was a great game with 2 equally matched teams. Argentina opened up scoring with a penalty in the 14th minute. France answered back with a try each from Gael Fickou and Antoine Dupont and converted by Romain Ntamack. The first half ended with France in the lead 20-3 Argentina came out strong in the second half with tries from Guido Petti Pagadizabal and Julian Montoya. with the Conversion added on by Benjamin Urdapilleta. France took the 4 point after a drop goal from Camille Lopez in the 69th minute.

Up Next was New Zealand V South Africa. This was the game of the weekend that everyone wanted to watch and it lived up to the hype with the 2 tams giving everything. South Africa started strong beating the All Blacks into their 22 for the first 20 minutes. After a penalty each it was all leave until a mistake by Faf De klerk lead to George Bridge picking up a loose ball and running the ball in under the post. The game went back and froth with the team treading tries and penalties with New Zealand coming out on top winning 23-13

Sunday

Sunday was an other big day with Italy playing Namiba. Italy proved to strong for Namibia with Italy coming out on top 47-22. 

Next up was Ireland V Scotland which name were saying the team that wins this game wold win their group.

He got the Irish score right.

I could get into a in-dept analyses on this game, but it was really a one sided game with Ireland winning 27-3. the try scores was James Ryan, Rory Best, Tadhg Furlong and Andrew Conway. The main talking point about this game is Peter O’Mahony and Bundee Aki were forced off in the first half with head injuries. There is still hope that they will be fit for the next game this coming Saturday when they take on the host Japan. This is not going to be an easy game as the host are in great run of form. 

The Last game on Sunday was England V Tonga. England was always going win this game. It took a while for England to break down Tonga as the game went on England kept up the pace and out playing Tonga.England won 35-3 .This morning Wales opened their world cup with a 43-14 win over Georgia.

Here is the groups after the first weekend.

Video by Neil Donaghy