Four Smaller Rugby World Cup Games Worth Tuning In For
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The 2019 Rugby World Cup kicks off next week and while everyone is looking forward to those big clashes involving the tier 1 nations, such as New Zealand v South Africa and Ireland v Scotland, we have identified a few smaller games you should watch in the coming weeks.
Georgia vs Fiji (Oct 03 — Hanazono Rugby Stadium, Osaka)
Group D alongside Wales, Australia and Uruguay
Georgia are well known to be physically domineering, hungry as hell and lastly an ambitious nation who wants to be amongst the tier 1 nations. They are a real handful at scrum time and although might not have a flair of their pacific opponents they do play a good brand of test match rugby.
Fiji has the capability and the individual quality to upset any team in the world but in the past they just haven't been able to put the full package together. This year the Islanders come into the RWC with a stronger pack and with this explosive back line we could see them score some fantastic tries.
@GeorgianRugby's Tedo Abzhandadze is set to do a RWC double 🇬🇪
He is one of the five players we have identified from Pool D in the #RWC2019 https://t.co/agCbb3Bvi9
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) September 13, 2019
Japan vs Scotland (Oct 13 –International Stadium, Yokohama)
Group A alongside Ireland, Samoa and Russia
The hosts, who have played in eight previous competitions, will be a team to watch in this year's tournament and are expected to give a few teams some issues. They won't be expected to beat Ireland but could easily cause Samoa and Scotland a lot of trouble.
The Scots face Japan in the final game in the pool and this could end up being a crucial game for a spot in the Quarter-Finals. The Japanese, who are coached by Jamie Joseph and John Plumtree, have improved tremendously over the last two years and could be in-line for another upset.
Namibia vs Canada (Oct 13 — Recovery Memorial Stadium, Kamaishi)
Group B alongside New Zealand, South Africa and Italy
The Welwitschias are the lowest-ranked team in the competition and are yet to win a game at the Rugby World Cup (lost 19 games). The African minnows have featured in the five previous editions of the tournament but unfortunately still hold the record for the heaviest defeat in RWC history, which was 142-0 against Australia in 2003.
The Canadians, who were the last team to qualify, managed to continue their record of making every edition of the tournament and will be hoping to improve their 2015 showing where they failed to win a game. The North American’s are not coming into this year's competition in great form, and we are expecting this game to be a real slugfest.
USA v Tonga (Oct 13 — Hanazono Rugby Stadium, Osaka)
Group C alongside England, Argentina and France
Tonga against the USA have been a one-sided fixture if you look back in history, with the Pacific Islanders winning 8 out of 9 games. In the last two years the USA have improved by leaps and bounds under Gary Gold and are expected to turn their poor record around against Tonga in this pool game.
Both sides are arguably playing for fourth place in this group but if either side are able to cause an upset against one tier 1 nations then this game could become crucial for a quarter-final push.
