Rugby World Cup Predictions vs Reality! Did I Get it Right?
It was anyone’s guess who would win the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Who did I think would take home the trophy? France? Ireland? Maybe Even Scotland!? Find out in this video, where we take a look at back at my preview video about the contenders and their chances of winning the tournament. Stay tuned to find out how my prediction turned out if I predicted who would Win the Webb Ellis Cup!!!

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before the World Cup started I took on the task of trying to predict what would happen and let’s just say it was interesting the final this will be the first one ever to be competed against two Northern Hemisphere teams let’s take a look back at what I said and see how accurately I predicted the 2023 Rugby World Cup so with pool a we’ve got France New Zealand Italy Uruguay and Namibia and in fifth I think it’s going to be Namibia they recently played against Uruguay who’s also in this group and lost to them so I really don’t think they’re going to be a banana skin for anybody in this Championship but hopefully they do make it difficult for the teams around them in their games so with Namibia I was pretty much right they were quite easy for the top three teams however they did give Uruguay maybe a bit more of a push than I thought they would H so that was quite good from them but they still didn’t manage to get that first win in Rugby World Cup in fourth I’ve gone with Uruguay they are a good side but I think they will struggle against the three tier one n ations in this pool they did have a close game against Italy last year but I think Italy will probably take them more seriously this time than they were then we’ll probably come out ahead in that game Uruguay were much better than I thought they’d be I thought they would be good but that game against France where they pushed them for so much of that game then against Italy where they were 10 points up at halftime they really did try and Target that game but they just didn’t quite have enough to get over that line and in that second half Italy really came back into it and yeah they didn’t really have enough against a pretty full firing New Zealand team but they did manage to get the win over Namibia which was good for them as I think in third place it will be Italy they’re rather unfortunate with their pool draw in another one they might have been able to finish second I do think that fransi will be close like it was in the Six Nations but I don’t think they will have enough to get past them I don’t really now think they would have finished seconding another pool that performance against New Zealand was particularly disappointing from an Italian perspective can exceeding 96 points and they also didn’t really compete with France like I said they would and then being down at halftime against Uruguay it was not a particularly good World Cup from Italy and still continue their run of never making it to a quarterfinal and I think in second place is going to be New Zealand they did win the rugby championship and have looked very very good this year but I think France being at home having the occasion and I think they’ll rise the expectations to beat New Zealand New Zealand should probably comfortably beat everyone else in this pool but that first game really should be a fantastic kick off to this rby world cup have enough to beat New Zealand and be able to get past the other teams in this pool and finish top of the pool so it’s pretty spot on about New Zealand and France I didn’t anticipate what Uruguay would do to France and stop them getting a bonus Point win in that game the France are real scare there and I also didn’t predict quite how good New Zealand would be against the other sides but France did enough in the group stage to get past New Zealand and finish top like I predicted so I got all of pool a 100% right so I skipped pool B to the end for hbe retention reasons so we’ll jump on to pool C now and we’ll come back to pool B later on but this one I remember not being particularly good please be kind now for pool C is a very interesting pool with Australia Fiji Wales Georgia and Portugal I do think in fifth place here we are going to see Portugal I do like their squad they have some very good players like Rodrigo Marta on the wing and I think they will struggle against these other teams so yeah I got that one wrong I didn’t think they’d win a game I didn’t explicitly say that but I did heavily infer that but of course they did go on and beat Fiji in that last pool match but I did call out the guy who scored the winning try as a very good player for them so that’s kind of a win next in fourth place I have gone with Georgia Georgia will probably try and Target those Wales and Fiji games maybe particularly that Wales game as they did beat them at the end of last year and would love to show up a six nations team and keep trying to prove that they should be playing in that competition yeah I got Georgia wrong I thought they would maybe be able to challenge for that second spot or that third spot they ended up finishing fifth in the pool and didn’t win a single game uh getting a draw against Portugal which they very nearly lost cuz Portugal did miss a last minute penalty in that game they really didn’t look good in this world cup and I think they’ll be very very disappointed with their performances in pool C I think Wales are going to finish third and they’re not going to get out of the pool Wales have just looked not very good under Gatland and they’ve not looked fantastic for a couple of years either under Wayne PC before that I’m really not expecting much from Wales and I think they should be more worried about finishing fourth and not qualifying for the next World Cup than they should be about finishing second I did get that quite wrong saying they’ finished third and they finished top I did not expect them to go and thrash Australia like they did but you know what I just think they got a bit lucky against Fiji Fiji dropped the ball was it three times of the line and then that Dro ball right at the end as well there was potentially four TR scoring opportunities that Fiji just completely butchered but you know we have such a low tackle success rate I think was around 65% for Fiji you can’t really expect to win games and that means that in second place I have gone with Fiji I think Fiji will be a bit of a surprise package in this pool and maybe at this world cup overall pretty confident of them beating Wales I think they might just not quite have enough to get past Australia I got this one right I I see this as an absolute win I did get the tier one wins the wrong way around I said they would beat Wales but they beat Australia and like I said I think they did get unlucky in that Wales game but they just weren’t good enough defensively and then they did lose to Portugal in their last game but they got just enough to finish second so I just about got the Fiji one correct but yeah that means that I think Australia is going to finish top so they have picked an interesting Squad some quite young players and experience players but I think if I had to pick between them and Wales right now I’d probably pick them winning that game oh no I can’t believe I said the Fiji game might be a bit more interesting because I think Fiji could win that game but I just think Australia will probably just get past some yeah I got that one wrong as well quite badly wrong they were they were so bad in this world cup like so so bad sacking Dave reny is like the worst thing a union has ever done I think and I think head’s have to roll at rugby Australia for doing what they did so yeah for pool C I got one correct that’s not very good pool D consists of Samoa Chile Argentina England and Japan and in fifth place I think is going to be Chile their games will be very enjoyable to watch cuz they do play some fantastic rugby they are growing rugby Nation this should be some invaluable experience for them they will probably maybe look at that s more game as a game they can try and win so yeah Chile didn’t win a game like I said but they did have some good performances play some nice rugby and it was nice to see them at their first ever World Cup and finish where I predicted but some more have looked pretty good but I still think that they will finish fourth in this group now we did see them beats pool Rivals Japan earlier this year in the PNC but Japan were down a man for most of that game I’m not necessarily sure you can read too much into it for the next time they meet each other they do have some good players at Samoa and they’re looking like a team who could come and cause some upsets unlike they did in 2019 Samoa were probably did better than I thought they would and they finished where I said they’d finish but they played really well against England they were close to taking out Japan again so I think they should be proud of what they’ve done at this world cup it was a kind of tricky pool there were three teams who were probably you know better than them higher than them in the world rank Kings in it and so I think they have done well in their performances but they’ll be really upset with not being able to come away that win against England which is probably a good place to be when you’re upset feeling like that but a damn sight better than he did in 2019 where he just got pretty much rolled over in that tournament now in third place I’ve gone with Japan Japan have looked pretty poor this year so they’re going to need to be careful that they actually managed to finish in this top three and don’t drop down to Fourth which would mean they’d have to go through qualifiers for the next World Cup Japan just kind of continued as expected from the PNC they just didn’t really turn up in most of their games they could have very easily finished fourth in this tournament if Samoa had just been a bit better in that game but yeah it’s very disappointing from Japan H there’s rumors that Eddie Jones might be returning there so who knows if things will get better they might get worse so yeah quite a disappointing way for Jamie Joseph to end his time with Japan but at least he did qualify for the next World Cup automatically and I think it will be England who finished second England looked like a shell of the team that got to the 2019 final and they look like they’re lacking confidence while playing a system that lacks inspiration if I was an England fan I would probably be quite happy with a second place finish cuz if this Japan team does decide to turn up it could very easily be a third place finish again for England so yeah I got England wrong they finished top they really did really well in the Argentina game I thought Argentina would come in and win that even both teams being up to 15 men but the fact that England were down to 14 men for most of that game and still managed to completely destroy Argentina is really good from England U from the leadership of George Ford in that game did really well scoring three drop goals I was having a meltdown it was amazing I love a drop goal even if it is England who’s doing them yeah very poor performance in that game from Argentina and now onto Argentina and of course that means I think Argentina will finish top of pool D I think they’re coming to this world cup quite strongly had a good rugby championship by their standards now what they will be worried about was that game against New Zealand where they got very very heavily beat but they probably aren’t going to meet a team that could do that to them until a semi-final if they get there so I think they are probably the best side on this side of the draw right now I think they’re comfortably better than England and in that first game England are probably now looking like they won’t have their Talisman captain in ow Farrell but yeah like I said they were so disappointing that first game against England just didn’t turn up they were pretty poor in other pool games they managed to turn on against Japan and get out of the pool and then against Wales I think they got quite lucky against Wales with a referee change I think the way Dixon referees was much more suited to Argentina and they adapted to that change much better than Wales did and were able to come away with the win in that quarterfinal and then they got to that semi-final which calling that performance in there was charitable they did good in the third fourth place playoff even though they didn’t win it but they were on the other side of the draw they would be nowhere near getting to a semi-final and yeah they’re definitely not comfortably better than England considering they lost them twice in this world cup now pool B consists of Romania Scotland South Africa Tonga and Ireland and then fifth I think it’s going to be Romania I didn’t really say much about Romania but yeah they finished bottom like I said they would they looked really bad they got niled twice they’ve continued their form in the post Robinson era and they never really put up a fight except for a bit of a spell against Tonga yeah not good for Romania and I struggle to see how they’ll get into the next rugby World Cup and Tonga is who I’m going to have in fourth now there is a lot of hype around this Tonga team but to be honest they’ve been pretty rubbish losing all their games in the PNC and also the last time they played Romania they did actually lose this game could potentially be a slip up for a team like Scotland if Scotland don’t come in taking them seriously enough with Tonga I think they played better than I thought they would those top players definitely starting to click a bit more and they did put up a good fight in their games against Ireland South Africa and Scotland particularly in that South Africa game they had real big spells of dominance in that first half in that game and we’re looking quite good for it um they really pushed Scotland for parts of the first half as well as well as Ireland but sort of into those deeper parts of the second half they seem to struggle to compete with the tier one nations in this pool and they did concede 24 points against Romania which I think they will be quite disappointed with considering they had only scored seven points in the tournament before that game I mean the main talking point of this is second third place so let’s jump to the top of the pool and we’re I’m putting Ireland Scotland and South Africa will be trying to beat them and will be looking and will probably back themselves to beat them but I think they are probably the best team in this pool right now so I said Ireland would top it and they did um I think if South Africa’s kicking boots were on South Africa probably would have won that match against them but they did do enough in that game to finish top of the pool they comfortably beat Scotland and Romania and Tonga but they just can’t win those knockout games can you I think South Africa are going to finish second if he’d asked me a couple weeks ago I might have actually said Scotland was going to win but these last couple of games against Wales even though was a very heavily rotated Wales team and their performance against the All Blacks has probably made me think that South Africa are going to get through even though the Scotland team does look good and they do have a team and the capabilities to beat South Africa I just I think it’s going to be a bit too much for them so yeah Scotland and South Africa was a pretty easy prediction in the end for that second place spot Scotland did managed to stay in Touching distance with South Africa for that first half about the first 50 minutes but then South Africa managed to just pull away and their physicality was just too much for Scotland to handle and we all know what happened with them after getting out of the pool stages and going all the way and winning the World Cup I mean you’d look like a right idiot right now if you had a previous cut to your predictions video where you said SC would finish that second and South Africa would finished third wouldn’t you so my quarterfinals are France versus South Africa Ireland versus New Zealand England versus Australia and Argentina versus Fiji so for the quarterfinals I actually got seven of the eight quarterfinalists correct not necessarily in the right order but I don’t think that’s bad I think that’s all right getting seven of the eight right especially in those pools C and D were maybe a bit bit more tricky to get correct and which is where I got one wrong said a they would to get there but they didn’t and Wales did France will win this quarterfinal even though South Africa do look good their more recent performances have looked good I think this France team have shown level of quality they have over these last few games and over the last couple of years that I think they will have enough to get past them and having that big home support is going to be there to help them get in to that semi-final now for the next one which is Ireland New Zealand I think this will be a very close game but I think Ireland will come out on top and they will finally get to World Cup semi-final but I did get two of the quarterfinals wrong I said that Ireland would beat New Zealand and I said that France would beat South Africa but you know of being wrong meant we didn’t get those amazing quarterfinals or some of the best games of rugby I’ve seen and I’m happy to be wrong cuz those were some fantastic games we got I’d rather be wrong and those be those close than be right and then be complete walkovers I think the there was a key point in that France South Africa game which I think really turned the game a bit or maybe it didn’t turn the game a bit a very key point was it was really early on when ET Smith did that little slap back on his line and if he slightly misjudged that and that goes forward that’s probably a penalty try and you’re down to 14 men against one of the best teams at exploiting space in the world or I think France would have probably scored if he just stayed on his line and now of a sudden you’re 140 down and I think that really changed the game and really kept South Africa in it and then they went on and scored pretty much straight after that so they went from being potentially 14 nil down and a man down to being even with France that was a very very key point in that game from eanet Beth and Ireland oh Ireland shall we play a little game put your hand up if your team’s been in a World Cup semi-final but yeah I’ll joking aside there there really must be a curse on Irish Rugby at this point because it’s the best place Ireland have ever beaten in a World Cup they’ve beaten New Zealand how many times over the last few years but they just can’t win World Cup knockout matches it’s quite funny which consists of England versus Australia so I think Australia will progress to the semi-final and then the last one is Argentina versus Fiji I would love it if Fiji got to a semi-final and I think absolutely everybody would I think we’d also equally love to see Argentina get to a semi-final and that’s why I think we’ll get to the semi-final and the other quarterfinals didn’t happen I got those two quarterfinals like perfectly spot on um so I said it would be Australia versus Argentina and England versus Fiji so I can’t really judge them but I did say Fiji would get knocked out and they did get knocked out but England went through and I said they’ve get Knocked Up by Australia how much of a idiot was I for saying Australia would be this good in a Rugby World Cup and I also didn’t even manage to call the bronze final correct Argentina did get there but they didn’t finish third it was close though it was close and it was a good good game to be honest especially in that second half but yeah England finished third not Argentina the final France versus Ireland is my final but I think France will end their three-game losing streak in World Cup finals and lift the William web Bellis Cup on the 28th of October 2023 at the stad of France so the final was way off I mean I said the current finalists would have got knocked out of the quarterfinals but to be honest if they had gone the other way and they were very close games could have very easily gone either way this probably would have been the final so it’s not horrifically bad and obviously I got the Rugby World Cup winner wrong and South Africa were the eventual Champions who I said in a previous cut of that video wouldn’t get out the pool stages so that’s lovely but yes all joking aside South Africa have retained the Rugby World Cup and become the most successful team in the World Cup’s history and you can learn all about the history of the World Cup by watching this video right here thanks for watching