The phony pre-Rugby World Cup war will kick up a notch this coming weekend as the European sides start their final perorations. Here is my prediction for the first game.
The SANZAR teams have been playing The Rugby Championship and there has also been the Pacific Nations Cup going on as warm ups for the Rugby World Cup. Wales will host Ireland to kickoff the European warmup games.
Wales v Ireland
Whilst the Southern Hemisphere and Pacific teams have been playing the European teams have been in training camps. The different approaches have been interesting. Wales like England have home travelling and have been tweeting how hard the training is. Ireland have stayed home and been quieter. It’s all about mental games both inside the squad and to the opposition. This is so when the pressure is on the players believe they are better prepared than the opposition, so they believe they will win. Mental preparation is as important as physical.
Anyway to the game, Ireland won the 6 Nations earlier this year but Wales won when they met. That was far enough out from the World Cup that there was no thought of rotating players. Now we are very much at that stage of making sure the players are match ready in just over a months time. What I’m trying to say is that it’s a total lottery when making this pick. We don’t know how experimental the teams are going to be or how much they are trying to hide tactically. With the exception of last year, games between these two have been close recently. So I’m going with a narrow hone win. I’m expecting both sides to field experimental lineups as they check out backup combinations a head of the Rugby World Cup.
Wales by 5
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