It was cemented in most thoughts that England and Australia will make the quarters, Wales will finish third and Fiji would win one game while Uruguay will be the punching bag of the pool.
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Wales head into the Pool A encounter facing a reshaped England midfield of Owen Farrell, Sam Burgess and Brad Barritt, with head coach Stuart Lancaster having dropped fly-half George Ford to the bench and finding himself without star-quality centre Jonathan Joseph.
“We will take it one game at a time, we will regroup after our effort and let the guys refuel the tank, clear the minds and the bodies”. But I think his presence, ball-carrying and ability to offload will end up being very important, especially against Wales.
Mr Kendall-Carpenter paid the Royal jewellers Garrards £6,000 for a silver gilt trophy – named The Webb Ellis Cup after the Rugby School pupil who is credited with creating the game of rugby.
“In the Six Nations (last season), we were comfortable for 40 minutes in that first game, and basically England then blew us away”. He can convert when under pressure so England can keep adding three points to the score and try to build up a lead.
Two years ago England travelled over the Severn Bridge with their eyes on a grand slam but on an unforgettable night they were crushed 30-3 after failing utterly to deal with the intensity and atmosphere of the Millennium Stadium.
The RFU aims to increase this to more than 700 by the time of the next World Cup in Japan.
The Farrell/Burgess/Barritt combination – the most muscular trio available to Lancaster – has been chosen in anticipation of the looming gainline war with Wales. I see players in form, I see competition in every position. Yes they challenged France in many aspects of play but have many deficiencies. It is something anyone who was there that day has never forgotten. Since his defection from rugby league, speculation has been rife over what role, if any, he would play in the World Cup.
“The Samoans could come out of the match with the Springboks bruised and battered”, said Jones.
That’s France’s problem. People think Philippe Saint-Andre’s side are ready to explode now – they might explode as individuals, but they have absolutely zero team cohesion.
“So after the ‘Boks game the Samoans will have at best the six days break compared to the three we had prior to the Scottish match, so I guess what goes around comes around”.
“We had been preparing for other players so we’ve changed our direction a bit”, he said.
“I’ve stopped thinking about that one, because I feel like I’m a rugby player”, he said. “We will need them again this week to lift the players against a tough Wales team”.
England’s forward platform was key to their victory in Cardiff this year, with Gatland saying: “We got dragged into a game that we didn’t want to do”.
“We’ve had some success going through them”.
But the 25-year-old Ospreys star says Wales are staying “in their bubble” ahead of the game.
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“Since that Premiership final, where Owen was man of the match, he’s been pushing hard”.
