Irb rankings and 2015 RWC seedings

Bearing in mind the IRB rankings this autumn will determine seedings for the World Cup, do you think Wales should pull out of this summer's 3 test Australia tour citing mass outbreak of chicken pox?

To get in the top 4 theyll have to beat some teams in there. Its there best chance of a win on a SANZAR tour in an age, and theres almost no chance theyll end up in pot 3 even if they get spanked in all the games.
They have nothing to lose by going there ( considering theyll have to play the AIs anyway)

If anything its a good opportunity for them to get a rankings boost and play see if they are anywhere near good enough to be in with a threat of doing anything of not at the next wc anyway.

If Wales can win in Aus they will pick up lots of point.

If they can win twice and do ok in the AIs, then they could get into 4th before the seeding.

Anyone know where France are touring?

When do AI's get announced? Would like to see us attempt to beat SA again...

Morgannwg wrote:When do AI's get announced? Would like to see us attempt to beat SA again...

Its been so close recently, we have to do it eventually.

Im hoping for an All-Blacks game - I think Wales can beat them in Cardiff this year if they can keep up their improvement, NZ peaked before the WC (in fact they peaked in 2010 3N) and I they could slip a bit more with players retiring, and no Graham Henry - 4N will be interesting.

The best thing for Wales this Autumn is our secret sleeper weapon in the NZ camp.

If Ireland beat France, England and New Zealand away (once) they will be a top seed.

Easy.......................

Autumn internationals have been announced for Scotland, we play NZ, SA and Tonga. I'm sure every team has them arranged, there must be an announcement somewhere.

Here are the 2012 Autumn Internationals fixtures, featuring all the top teams from world rugby.

Saturday 10 November 2012
France v Australia, Stade de France, TBC
England v Fiji, Twickenham, 14.30
Scotland v New Zealand, Murrayfield, TBC
Wales v Argentina, Millennium Stadium, TBC

Saturday 17 November 2012
England v Australia, Twickenham, 14.30
Scotland v South Africa, Murrayfield, TBC
France v Argentina, Stade de France, TBC

Saturday 24 November
England v South Africa, Twickenham, 14.30
Scotland v Tonga, Murrayfield, TBC
France v Samoa, Stade de France, TBC
Ireland v Argentina, Lansdowne Road, TBC

Saturday 1 December
England v New Zealand, Twickenham, 14.30

RubyGuby wrote:Here are the 2012 Autumn Internationals fixtures, featuring all the top teams from world rugby.

Saturday 10 November 2012
France v Australia, Stade de France, TBC
England v Fiji, Twickenham, 14.30
Scotland v New Zealand, Murrayfield, TBC
Wales v Argentina, Millennium Stadium, TBC

Saturday 17 November 2012
England v Australia, Twickenham, 14.30
Scotland v South Africa, Murrayfield, TBC
France v Argentina, Stade de France, TBC

Saturday 24 November
England v South Africa, Twickenham, 14.30
Scotland v Tonga, Murrayfield, TBC
France v Samoa, Stade de France, TBC
Ireland v Argentina, Lansdowne Road, TBC

Saturday 1 December
England v New Zealand, Twickenham, 14.30

I'd just like to get in now and say:

10 November 2012 : Wow! What a performance, England should be world champs in no time. Farrell really is the new JW, and it's great to see Ashton in such fine form! Slump Over! Bring on the world cup!
17 November 2012 : Well another encouraging performance! A narrow defeat to Australia is no humiliation, given the number of youngsters in the team and given that we were so rusty playing in the off season. Bring on the world cup!
24 November 2012 : South Africa would have beaten anyone playing like that! What a performance from them. It's a shame we had so many injuries from last week, the season is so long these days and our players need a break.
1 December 2012 : When will the IRB and RFU realise that our season is far too long. The players never get a break. I'm not reading too much into this result given how exhausted our players are. It's just not fair trying to play the world champions at this stage of the year when our guys minds are already on holiday and their bodies are all but hospitalised.

RE: Scotland I think a clever set of fixtures almost identical to 2 years ago. The only gripe I have is why we're not playing Tonga first - yes we might be rusty but we should be backing our squad to beat that team as a warm up to NZ, not the other way round (getting thumped by NZ as preparation for Tonga?!)

Anyway, as far as rankings go we'll be playing all of the Pacific Islands this year as well as South Africa again who have traditionally found us tough. You never know, we might make it back into 2nd tier if we have an even moderate 6N next year.

Do Argentina start in the tri nations this year? That could really affect their rankings either way and make them unassailable by Scotland or a target (I think them or Ireland or England are the 3 teams we could leapfrog to the top 8.)

So Wales only have Argentina confirmed :/

Heres hoping Argentina have a successful 4Ns so we can knock some points off them

miteyironpaw:

You missed out poor ref, touch judges and video ref!

RubyGuby wrote:Here are the 2012 Autumn Internationals fixtures, featuring all the top teams from world rugby.

..and Wales too

Are they really only playing one AI or are the others not confirmed yet?

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

RubyGuby wrote:Here are the 2012 Autumn Internationals fixtures, featuring all the top teams from world rugby.

..and Wales too

Are they really only playing one AI or are the others not confirmed yet?

The WRU won't have them play 1 game - There will be 4 at least...