I've realized people aren't used to Canada being this good and are vastly overrating how their teams should perform

England v USA in women's = New Zealand+5 vs Japan in men's

Australia v Samoa = Italy vs Hong Kong

Wales v Scotland = Japan v Georgia. However, Wales.

Canada v Fiji = Ireland v Hong Kong

France v Italy = Australia v ... Italy

Ireland v Japan = Italy v USA

South Africa v Brazil = USA v Madagascar

New Zealand v Spain = South Africa v Chile

11 pointd maximum difference South Africa with a negative Point difference and win for each team what a start to the rugby championship

Match Thread - New Zealand v Spain | Rugby World Cup 2025

Venue: York Community Stadium, York | Weather: 23 C, Clouds

Officials: Ella Goldsmith, Kat Roche, Amber Stamp-Dunstan, Quinton Immelman (tmo), Andrew McMenemy (fpro)

Match Page: https://www.rugbybot.com/match/5586

Match Threads: https://www.rugbybot.com/mt

Time

Lineups

RugbyBot

RugbyBot was made by /u/paimoe. PM or post in /r/RugbyBot for assistance.

Match Thread - South Africa v Brazil | Rugby World Cup 2025

Venue: Franklin's Gardens, Northampton | Weather: 24 C, Clouds

Officials: Hollie Davidson, Holly Wood, Jess Ling, Ian Tempest (tmo), Rachel Horton (fpro)

Match Page: https://www.rugbybot.com/match/5585

Match Threads: https://www.rugbybot.com/mt

Time

Lineups

RugbyBot

RugbyBot was made by /u/paimoe. PM or post in /r/RugbyBot for assistance.

The Boks have really "dropped the ball" with their handling skills.

We must have the most amount of knock-ons in TRC.

Anyone got official numbers of handling errors per team in TRC?

My guess in order of best handling is:

1) Australia 2) Argentina 3) New Zealand 4) South Africa

the meme potential of after this years poor performance it was time to consider NZ and SA,s time in the RC.

also if ra and los pumas havent already arranged japan fiji mini cup for japanese tv money while ns and sa are off on a date their boards are idiots

The intentional, instinctive, knee nudge to collect the ball is one of the best pieces of skill I've ever seen in rugby.

Match Thread - Ireland v Japan | Rugby World Cup 2025

Venue: Franklin's Gardens, Northampton | Weather: 21 C, Clouds

Officials: Clara Munarini, Precious Pazani, Amelia Luciano, Matteo Liperini (tmo), Andrew McMenemy (fpro)

Match Page: https://www.rugbybot.com/match/5584

Match Threads: https://www.rugbybot.com/mt

Time

Lineups

RugbyBot

RugbyBot was made by /u/paimoe. PM or post in /r/RugbyBot for assistance.

Obviously it would be horrible if this actually happens, but given teams like Worcester need to put a squad together, it could be a chance for some players to stay employed. I noticed quite a few Welsh lads in the ProD2 already and given the unpleasant circumstances they'd probably be easier to hire on cheap contracts compared to signing the usual southern hemisphere players who would go for a higher premium.

In the case of the ProD2 they wouldn't always be taking a pay cut either, since the WRU proposed £8 million budget for the regions is about the same as clubs at that level, with the bigger ones like Brive going as high as €19 million (about €5 million on player wages).

Right now we are looking at the strongest comp we've seen possibly ever seen in the south? This decision is looking more and more stupid every week.

@squid

• All the games were bangers, scorelines notwithstanding
• Honestly I don't know why people are complaining about all the scorelines being unbalanced so much. It's the first round of pool games in a seeded tournament. That's how these things are meant to go. Balanced games are for finals.
• Australia v Samoa is a very prop forward game. If you're a prop enjoyer, this one's for you.
• Faliki Pohiva is gonna be the next big thing in props. Mark my words.
• Every time Caitlin Halse makes a bad kick (which is rare), she has the same expression on her face as a prop getting penalized like if she just acts confused and offended enough it'll get reversed
• Caitlin Halse: certified baller.
• Certified ballers for Samoa include 3-Glory Aiono, 11-Drenna Falaniko, 15-Karla Wright-Akeli, and 16-Lulu Leuta
• Glory Aiono gave birth 8 months ago, by the way. Probably the second most ludicrous medical recovery to make the world cup that I've heard about so far.
• Light up mouthguards go pretty hard actually. There's a moment in this game where a jackler comes up with a turnover and a massive grin and her mouth flashing and it's like ah yeah fair here's your pen now go get checked out real quick please.
• Samoa have all the building blocks of a phenomenal rugby team, but they don't have the discipline or cohesion. They can't string anything together, but anything an individual can do on her own is either top notch or illegal. My comms were talking about the coach paying out of his own pocket for some of his players to be able to afford to train and it shows. This is not a professional outfit.
• God I wish Samoa was a professional outfit.
• After the game, Em Chancellor got a whole big circle of both teams and thanked Samoa for playing and said she was proud of them for showing up and trying for the whole game and I almost teared up.
• Wales v Scotland is a really good demonstration of how far Scotland have come.
• Wales.
• Comms says the game is played a year to the day since Emma Wassell's tumor was found. Which means it's less than a year after she got her breastbone broken open to take the tumor out. She takes the cake for most ludicrous injury recovery so far in this World Cup (depending on if Raquel Kochhann can reuse her Olympic story)
• Emma Wassell, less than a year out from her sternotomy, makes the first tackle of the game
• And immediately gets subbed off for blood. There's a blood bin and two HIAs in this game. That's how you know it's good.
• First scrum takes three tries to set and ends up in a free kick because both sides are cheating so much. Dirty scrumming is almost as based as clean scrumming.
• There is nothing sexier in rugby than scrum turnovers. This is a game with scrum turnovers.
• This is also a game with penalty goals, which I did not expect to see outside of France.
• Llecu George has a cannon boot and Keira Bevan has a sniper boot.
• Wales could be so good if they were good. This is what being a Star Wars fan is like.
• This game has so many jackals, so many non jackal breakdown turnovers, and so many breakdowns that devolve into brawling. These are three of my favorite things
• Fran McGhie certified baller. You knew this already but it bears repeating.
• Canada vs Fiji has so much more balling than the scoreline suggests
• Canada's scrum dominance borders on the absurd. The first scrum looks like it has parity maybe and then Canada get a scrum they want to win and they simply do.
• Fiji do manage to hold out in defense for quite a while though
• Fiji have two things going for them: absolutely monstrous individual tackles and a knack for preventing offloads
• Things Fiji do not have going for them: conditioning, cohesion, the scrum
• Absolutely fascinating application of Fijisms in rugby there. They don't manage to string together a ton of classic Fijian tries, but they also manage to mostly suppress Canada's offloading game
• They do not manage to entirely suppress Canada's offloading game
• They do not manage to suppress Julia Schell's incredible balling
• Second half starts with a balling Fijian try. Classic Fijian behaviors. Very good stuff.
• Then Julia Schell starts balling.
• Hat trick in 20 minutes
• Then another hat trick. Just because.
• Six tries for Julia fucking Schell.
• I think Fiji beats Wales and I think they got a decent shot at Scotland too
• France v Italy
• ONLY GAME TO END WITHOUT A BONUS POINT ITALIAN MORAL VICTORY
• No but for real this is a defensive beauty
• Also one for the scrum enthusiasts
• There's a lot of knockons is what I'm getting at
• Some forced. Some.
• It's 0-0 for almost half an hour and it feels like the world's biggest 0-0 ever.
• Hey did y'all know Gaby Vernier is good at rugby?
• At one point, there's a scramble and the TMO has to go into manual zoom mode (getting real close to the screen) to call a simultaneous grounding, no try, goal line dropout, which at that point felt like it might as well happen
• At half time it was roughly 50-50 on possession with 4% of the game in the French 22
• Italy's lineout could use work
• Italy's scrum could use work
• France v South Africa is gonna be tectonic because France monstered Italy and Canada monstered South Africa but South Africa mostly had the upper hand over Canada in the scrum when they played in warmups
• Hey did y'all know Joanna Grisez is good at rugby?
• Anyway take a wild guess who my favorite scrumhalf is. Yes she has less than 10 caps. Yes she has yet to really make her mark. But consider: she's a baller. She's gonna be better than Tony Dabridge. I am sure of it.

LEAVE YOUR OWN HOT TAKES AND OBSERVATIONS TALK ABOUT WOMEN WITH ME

Each team has won and lost a game now. ABs are a bit ahead thanks to getting their bonus points, but genuinely makes it more exciting if the teams and results are this close

Viva la rugby championship.

In recent years there’s been years where Argentina have done incredibly (winning in NZ) or other upsets, but I don’t remember the last time all teams were this close

Is this the best start to a rugby championship ever? Competition is genuinely wide open…

Springboks losing is great for the comp and sport, same for all blacks. Aus and pumas on the up is a huge gain for the sport overall

29-23