2023 Rugby World Cup Tipping Competition

First topic message reminder :

POOL A
Fri 8 Sept France v New Zealand (8.15pm, Stade de France, Paris)
Sat 9 Sept Italy v Namibia (noon, Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Étienne)
Thu 14 Sept France v Uruguay (8pm, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)
Fri 15 Sept New Zealand v Namibia (8pm, Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse)
Wed 20 Sept Italy v Uruguay (4.45pm, Stade de Nice, Nice)
Thu 21 Sept France v Namibia (8pm, Stade Vélodrome, Marseille)
Wed 27 Sept Uruguay v Namibia (4.45pm, Parc OL, Lyon)
Fri 29 Sept New Zealand v Italy (8pm, Parc OL, Lyon)
Thu 5 Oct New Zealand v Uruguay (8pm, Parc OL, Lyon)
Fri 6 Oct France v Italy (8pm, Parc OL, Lyon)

POOL B
Sat 9 Sept Ireland v Romania (2.30pm, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux)
Sun 10 Sept South Africa v Scotland (4.45pm, Stade Vélodrome, Marseille)
Sat 16 Sept Ireland v Tonga (8pm, Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes)
Sun 17 Sept South Africa v Romania (2pm, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux)
Sat 23 Sept South Africa v Ireland (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)
Sun 24 Sept Scotland v Tonga (4.45pm, Stade de Nice, Nice)
Sat 30 Sept Scotland v Romania (8pm, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)
Sun 1 Oct South Africa v Tonga (8pm, Stade Vélodrome, Marseille)
Sat 7 Oct Ireland v Scotland (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)
Sun 8 Oct Tonga v Romania (4.45pm, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)

POOL C
Sat 9 Sept Australia v Georgia (5pm, Stade de France, Paris)
Sun 10 Sept Wales v Fiji (8pm, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux)
Sat 16 Sept Wales v Portugal (4.45pm, Stade de Nice, Nice)
Sun 17 Sept Australia v Fiji (4.45pm, Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Étienne)
Sat 23 Sept Georgia v Portugal (1pm, Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse)
Sun 24 Sept Wales v Australia (8pm, Parc OL, Lyon)
Sat 30 Sept Fiji v Georgia (4.45pm, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux)
Sun 1 Oct Australia v Portugal (4.45pm, Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Étienne)
Sat 7 Oct Wales v Georgia (2pm, Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes)
Sun 8 Oct Fiji v Portugal (8pm, Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse)

POOL D
Sat 9 Sept England v Argentina (8pm, Stade Vélodrome, Marseille)
Sun 10 Sept Japan v Chile (noon, Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse)
Sat 16 Sept Samoa v Chile (2pm, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux)
Sun 17 Sept England v Japan (8pm, Stade de Nice, Nice)
Fri 22 Sept Argentina v Samoa (4.45pm, Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Étienne)
Sat 23 Sept England v Chile (4.45pm, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)
Thu 28 Sept Japan v Samoa (8pm, Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse)
Sat 30 Sept Argentina v Chile (2pm, Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes)
Sat 7 Oct England v Samoa (4.45pm, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)
Sun 8 Oct Japan v Argentina (noon, Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes)

Quarter-finals
Sat 14 Oct Wales v Argentina (4pm, Stade Vélodrome, Marseille)
Sat 14 Oct Ireland v New Zealand (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)
Sun 15 Oct England v Fiji (4pm, Stade Vélodrome, Marseille)
Sun 15 Oct France v South Africa (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)

Semi-finals
Fri 20 Oct Argentina v New Zealand (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)
Sat 21 Oct England v South Africa (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)

Third-place match
Fri 27 Oct Third-place Play-off England v Argentina (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)

Final
Sat 28 Oct World Cup Final New Zealand v South Africa (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)


Pick the Winning Margin:

N - Narrow	1 - 4  points
C - Comfortable	5 - 14  points
E - Easy	15 - 29  points
T - Thrashing	30 +  points

Scoring:

25 points for picking the correct winning team
20 points for picking the correct winning margin (N,C,E,or T)
75 points for picking the correct drawn result (D)
12 points for one rung off the winning margin
 0 points for more than one rung off the winning margin... but you still get 25 points for the win.
 0 points for a 'No Result/Match Abandoned'.

Double points for nominated *Golden Match*
Note: Select only one Golden match per Group = 4 matches
Select 2 GMs for the Quarters and one for the Semis = 3 matches
The Final and the 3rd place play-off match will also be worth Double Points.

Note:
For the 3rd Place Play-Off and the Final.
75 points x 2 = 150 points for a (D) "Draw" after 80 minutes regardless of the final score (i.e. the actual winner after extra time)

e.g.
New Zealand v Italy
"New Zealand E" GM - *Golden Match*
New Zealand wins 34 - 22 (margin 12 points = C) ... one rung off E = 37 points (25 + 12)... x 2 for Golden Match = 74 points.

Scotland v Romania
"Scotland T"
Scotland wins 53 - 11 (margin 42 points = T) = 45 points (25 + 20)

Japan v Samoa
"Samoa E"
Samoa wins 17 - 15 (margin 2 points = N) ... two rungs off E = 25 points (25 + 0)

General Notes:

Please get your selections in at least an hour before the first match kicks off. No points earned for late entries.

I know it's a bit of a task but it would be great if you can post the 40 group matches on the thread below. If there are any reasons you want to change your selection or winning margin - just post it up here and I'll give it a "like" meaning I've taken the change on board.

No problem if you only post up the first dozen or so selections in the coming days (to get the maul rolling) and then post up the rest up later on. Just be aware there's not many breaks in the fixtures so copy and paste the first cab off the rank... and don't forget to adjust the other person's selections!

Due to time differences - I'll try and get the Leader Board up asap. Might be a day and a bit delay but I'll keep you all regularly updated.

So, that's about it. I'll set up the spreadsheet and get ready for the feast of rugby.

Good luck with your picks and may your team go well!

I'll blink first:

Wales v Argentina Wal C
Ireland v NZ NZ C
England v Fiji Eng E (GM)
France v SA SA C

Good stuff, Galts.

All very interesting matches. Think I need more time to consider.

Can't believe we've only got 8 more games including the 3rd place playoff. It's all gone so quickly!

Realised as I posted that I've gone for the same 4 semifinalists as the last world cup.

This is really challenging to predict the QF's

Looking at Ireland vs NZ you have to consider how brlliant NZ could be, or how poorly they will perform under pressure, then in regards to Ireland you have to consider the injuries to Lowe, Hansen, Henshaw and forgot the other Back. Then can they sustain their momentum to win 18 straight.

So this is a pure guess, NZ N

SA vs France is equally close, do Nienaber bring back both Pollard and Am, Am's defensive organisation is better than Kriel and heis a better distributor, but do you take a chance for 80 minutes on a guy with no game time?

If you select Kriel then you need Libbok, maybe with Pollard on the bench, do you pick Willie who is a master at putting his wings into space, or do you prefer the individual talents of Willemse?

They might have togo for a 5/3 bench in order to accommodate three backs as I think the selections of Libbok vs pollard,, Am vs Kriel and le Roux vs Willemse is a conundrum, plus you need a halfback.

France will likely have their halfback star playing, but under what pressure will the Boks out him? Plus SA have a very good record vs France since 2009.

SA N

Wales vs Argentina is a matter of who will step up, Argentina couldn't beat an Elngalnd team when they were playing against 14 men, but the question should be asked whether they weren't smart enough, Ford lliterallly won that game through game management and scoreboard pressure and Argentina couldn't counter knock out rugby play. Wales havewon alltheir pool games, but were fortunate to beat Fiji, so these two teams can be equally pedestrian or solid.

Wales N

England haven't been brilliant, but they didn't need to be, they have the personnel to play proper knock out rugby, style isn't their worry, winning is. Fiji canbe brilliant or stupendously poor.

England C

This is of course all speculation and would probably be wise to make predictions an hour before each match so we have more intel.

However, its mostly 50/50 anyway. Hopefully cards won't affect the results as that throws any prediction out the window

Yeah C. Tough decisions to pick the winners, let alone the margins.

You can leave it until closer to match times to firm up the above.
Or do you want me to lock in those picks for now... and still have the chance to tweak things later?

Yeah lock them in, indecision will only make it more challenging

Galted wrote:I'll blink first:

Wales v Argentina Wal C
Ireland v NZ NZ C
England v Fiji Eng E (GM)
France v SA SA C

What's your other golden match, Galts? We have two for the quarters to put the heat on.

Old Man:

Wales N
New Zealand N
England C
South Africa N

and also your 2 x GMs too please.

Think that's the order of matches

Wales v Argentina (Marseilles)
Ireland v New Zealand (Paris)
England v Fiji (Marseilles)
France v South Africa (Paris)

Wales v Argentina = Argentina C
Ireland v New Zealand = New Zealand N and GM
England v Fiji = Fiji C and GM
France v South Africa = South Africa N

Not much faith in the northern hemisphere nations, alas.

I think Argentina are on the up and will score plenty against Wales, who won't be able to hold on.

Ireland's QF record will haunt them again, against a New Zealand probably angry to still be going under the radar.

England and Fiji have both been poor recently. England only just doing enough to beat Samoa, and struggled against Japan before they tired, but Fiji are another level again, if they can reach the performance they showed v Wales and Australia, which I think they will.

France v South Africa was, I thought, going to be the final, but Ireland have meant that it's a QF instead! I'd favour France if they had a fully fit Dupont, but they don't, so I'll narrowly go for the champions.

But all four QFs are close, it should be a great weekend, and I wouldn't be surprised if the SF line-up was Wales/Ireland/England/France!

Cheers, PJ, I'll choose Wal v Arg as my second GM.

Gm's for me, I think France vs SA and NZ vs Ireland are too close to cal, so my GM's are

England vs Fiji and Wales vs Argentina

Wales v Argentina Wales N
Ireland v NZ Ireland C
England v Fiji England C Golden Match
France v SA France C Golden Match

Going for all Northern Hemisphere winners - bold or daft ? Or maybe just to be contrary to Duty

Argentina N
Ireland N GM
England E GM
France C

Tom, I have changed my mind, after discussing Dupont's return I have convinced myself between the home crowd, the hero image of dupont and any contact near the proximity of his face, the referee and TMO will fold under the pressure of boos and screams from the home crowd.

Chances that SA come out of that match without a card is very very small.

France to beat SA.

Old Man wrote:Tom, I have changed my mind, after discussing Dupont's return I have convinced myself between the home crowd, the hero image of dupont and any contact near the proximity of his face, the referee and TMO will fold under the pressure of boos and screams from the home crowd.

Chances that SA come out of that match without a card is very very small.

France to beat SA.

What's your margin? France N?

Yes please

Wales v Argentina N
Ireland C v NZ (GM)
England C v Fiji (GM)
France N v SA

Thanks again

4 really interesting games and I have no confidence in who is going to be the winner any of them, never mind the winning margin:

Wales v Argentina - Wales C
Ireland v NZ - Ireland C Golden Match
England v Fiji - England C Golden Match
France v SA - France C

Wales v Argentina. W-C
Ireland v New Zealand. I-N
England v Fiji. E-C
France v South Africa. SA-C

westisbest wrote:Wales v Argentina. W-C
Ireland v New Zealand. I-N
England v Fiji. E-C
France v South Africa. SA-C

Your 2 golden matches, wesitisbest?

Pal Joey wrote:

westisbest wrote:Wales v Argentina. W-C
Ireland v New Zealand. I-N
England v Fiji. E-C
France v South Africa. SA-C

Your 2 golden matches, wesitisbest?

Ireland v New Zealand
France v South Africa

Argentina C
New Zealand E (GM)
England E (GM)
France C

Wales N
New Zealand N
England C
France N

doctor_grey wrote:Wales N
New Zealand N
England C
France N

Please nominate your 2 x GMs, Doc.

Pal Joey wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:Wales N Golden Match
New Zealand N
England C Golden Match
France N

Please nominate your 2 x GMs, Doc.

Thanks, boss!  

No confidence in my picks.  These could all go either way.  On the other hand will make for a good weekend in front of the tv....

doctor_grey wrote:

Pal Joey wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:Wales N Golden Match
New Zealand N
England C Golden Match
France N

Please nominate your 2 x GMs, Doc.

Thanks, boss!  

No confidence in my picks.  These could all go either way.  On the other hand will make for a good weekend in front of the tv....

Join the club.  My safest picks are Wales and England to win even though Eng lost their last game against Fiji and the last three Wales Argentina results have been a win either way and a draw.

Wales v Argentina - Wales C GM
Ireland v NZ - NZ C
England v Fiji - England E GM
France v SA - France C

Wales v Argentina - Wales C GM
Ireland v NZ - Ireland C
England v Fiji - England C GM
France v SA - SA C

Well that's the first of my safe predicitons f*cked.

Points Table after Match 42 (QF2)

1647 Duty
1631 Old Man
1608 doctor_grey
1586 Galted
1571 nlpnlp
1567 andyi
1566 RiscaGame
1515 Pal Joey
1511 alfie
1458 Irishhoneymonster
1401 Lowlandbrit
1232 westisbest

Average Score: 1524
Total Correct Picks: 212/515 or 41.17%

Results:
Argentina C
New Zealand N

Points Table after Match 44 (QF4)

1721 Old Man
1698 doctor_grey
1697 Galted
1692 Duty
1661 nlpnlp
1656 RiscaGame
1641 andyi
1601 alfie
1589 Pal Joey
1585 Irishhoneymonster
1475 Lowlandbrit
1351 westisbest

Average Score: 1614
Total Correct Picks: 220/539 or 40.82%

Results:
England C
South Africa N

How on earth am I still on top? Should have backed the Boks.

Old Man wrote:How on earth am I still on top? Should have backed the Boks.

You and the Doc both had Eng C GM... as did 4 others.

So the jinx on your guys paid off well, eh Corne? Well done!

That match was even better than the NZ-Ireland one, imo.
France came out of the blocks so hard and fast but SA matched it and squeaked through. Amazing game.

Only Duty got SA N bang on... but was also the only one to tip Fiji.

Galted and Irishhoneymonester were both one rung off with SA C.

Semis should be easy to tip on paper, not so sure what's been taken out of SA and NZ though. Was thinking the final might be a repeat of Ire v SA, then NZ v Fra, what's the betting it ends up being Eng v the Argies again?

Pal Joey wrote:

Old Man wrote:How on earth am I still on top? Should have backed the Boks.

You and the Doc both had Eng C GM... as did 4 others.

So the jinx on your guys paid off well, eh Corne? Well done!

That match was even better than the NZ-Ireland one, imo.
France came out of the blocks so hard and fast but SA matched it and squeaked through. Amazing game.

Only Duty got SA N bang on... but was also the only one to tip Fiji.

Galted and Irishhoneymonester were both one rung off with SA C.

I used reverse psychology and it worked mate

Old Man wrote:

Pal Joey wrote:

Old Man wrote:How on earth am I still on top? Should have backed the Boks.

You and the Doc both had Eng C GM... as did 4 others.

So the jinx on your guys paid off well, eh Corne? Well done!

That match was even better than the NZ-Ireland one, imo.
France came out of the blocks so hard and fast but SA matched it and squeaked through. Amazing game.

Only Duty got SA N bang on... but was also the only one to tip Fiji.

Galted and Irishhoneymonester were both one rung off with SA C.

I used reverse psychology and it worked mate

That's backwards logic

Don't imagine we'll see much diversity of opinion for the semi-finals. Anyway:

Argentina v New Zealand = New Zealand E and GM
England v South Africa = South Africa E

Two very one-sided games, I fear.

Being so far down I have to roll the dice :

NZ E over Argentina

(Can't quite steel myself to tip Argentina for an upset)

and England C over SA GM

Yeah I know : but I reckon I will be the only one to score points if that gets up

Argentina v NZ NZ E (GM)
England v SA SA C

Galted wrote:Semis should be easy to tip on paper, not so sure what's been taken out of SA and NZ though.  Was thinking the final might be a repeat of Ire v SA, then NZ v Fra, what's the betting it ends up being Eng v the Argies again?

54/1 double on Paddypower!!!! (other bookies are available )

Iv'e got to Gamble so:

Argentina v NZ NZ T (GM)
England v SA ENG N

NZ v Argentina. A-n
SA v England. SA- n GM.

Argentina upset………………. Why not

westisbest wrote:NZ v Argentina. A-n
SA v England. SA- n GM.

Argentina upset………………. Why not

It would be so funny if we ended up with Argentina-England.
Only a one in a million chance....

Argentina v New Zealand - NZ E - GM
England v South Africa - SA C

New Zealand C
England C GM

NZ E - GM
SA C

Thanks again

Well I suppose it is time to back my team.

SA N
NZ C (GM)

Argentina v NZ - NZ E (GM)
England v SA - SA C

Thanks again PJ

Pumas-NZ E
England-Boks E (GM)

Got it in just in time

Points Table after Match 46 (SF2)

1816 Old Man
1808 Galted
1791 Duty
1785 doctor_grey
1767 RiscaGame
1731 andyi
1700 Pal Joey
1696 Irishhoneymonster
1661 nlpnlp
1638 alfie
1500 Lowlandbrit
1441 westisbest

Average Score: 1695
Total Correct Picks: 223/561 or 39.75%

Results:
New Zealand T
South Africa N

Argentina v England = England C
New Zealand v South Africa = Draw

Both games are automatically worth double, right? Do I need to put in an ET winner, or is it just for the 80 minutes?