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'It's hard to beat' - Wallabies great Phil Kearns believes two teams can prevent an All Blacks World Cup hat-trick

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

It’s the new age Rugby World Cup which poses one of the sport’s oldest questions – will a good big man beat a good little man?

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Hulking packs and rushing defensive lines are being touted as the recipe for success at the first tournament staged in Asia, where an attack-minded New Zealand will pursue a third-successive Webb Ellis Cup.

Wales and Ireland have emerged as genuine contenders to win a maiden title, the former having bludgeoned their way to Six Nations glory while the Irish are affixed with the world No.1 ranking.

However, former champions South Africa and England are being given the greatest chance of preventing an All Blacks World Cup monopoly this decade.

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Former Wallabies great Phil Kearns rates the Springboks and the English his co-favourites in Japan on the basis of their ferocious forward play.

Kearns believes coach Eddie Jones has got England peaking, with recalled midfielder Manu Tuilagi adding menace to complement their mammoth pack.

South Africa impressed in claiming the Rugby Championship although Kearns reckons their campaign could be on shaky foundations given the cloud over talismanic lock Eben Etzebeth.

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Former skipper Etzebeth is being investigated by prosecutors over his involvement in an alleged assault and racial abuse during a bar brawl last month.

“With South Africa, I think Etzebeth is a critical player so depending on what happens with him will be important for their chances,” Kearns told AAP.

“But I just think the size of England and South Africa is going to be a difficult thing for teams to overcome.

“Both of them aren’t lacking pace either, so when you’ve got those physical capabilities it’s hard to beat.”

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Veteran coach Steve Hansen believes his All Blacks can overcome the inevitable suffocating defensive screens their opponents will erect.

He has played two trump cards in the lead-up, fielding dynamic pair Beauden Barrett and Ardie Savea out of position at fullback and blindside flanker respectively.

Both are potential tournament stars in a team whose high octane game plan has been designed with the firm grounds and hot conditions in mind.

“I think there’s definitely been a swing or bias towards defence,” Hansen said before his team left for Tokyo.

“But someone’s going to crack that nut – the defensive nut that needs to be cracked – because history tells us that will happen.

“When it does then it will open up the floodgates for the attacking game to become strong again.”

The size versus speed debate will get an early airing when the All Blacks and Springboks meet in Yokohama on Saturday in a highly anticipated pool opener.

Some patchy All Blacks form over the past two years has stripped them of the top ranking and eroded the aura they enjoyed at the 2015 event.

For that reason, the tournament is rated the most open in recent memory, with regular visitors to the knockout stage such as Australia, France, Scotland and Argentina also among those who can’t be discounted.

The dark horses are Fiji and Japan, with the hosts handed the sort of stage World Rugby has craved as it battles to expand its footprint in a potentially lucrative marketplace.

AAP

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Let's be real about these All Blacks

I didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.


What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.


Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.


There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..

Whilst these All Blacks aren’t blowing teams off the park like during the 2010s, they are nuggety and resourceful and don’t wilt. They are prepared to win the hard way, accumulating points by any means necessary.

and..

The other top sides in the world struggled to put them away. France and South Africa both could have well been defeated on home soil.

I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍

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