Australia are the odd top team out when it comes to the objective of building confidence by getting a solid win behind them on the opening weekend. They won’t be in action until Wednesday, when they face a Fiji team that should have had some of the freshness sapped out of them by their appearance in Friday night’s opening game against the hosts, England, at Twickenham.
Unlike a soccer World Cup, which often delivers early surprises, it should be pretty easy to predict how the opening weekend of the rugby version will go. The exception to the rule of big teams coming up against minnows is the final game of the weekend between New Zealand and Argentina at Wembley, and France’s clash with Italy in the late game on Saturday.
But while those games pit regular competitors in the respective big annual international competitions, the Rugby Championship and the Six Nations, against one another, it still shouldn’t require much thought to pick the All Blacks and the French respectively as the winning teams.
There is some sentimental support for Fiji, who did do well in the last World Cup to be played in the northern hemisphere, as they face up to England. A lot of Fiji’s players work most of the year in England or France, so there shouldn’t be too much fear factor, and their physical approach could give England some problems. It seems fanciful though to suggest Fiji as possible winners. It would require a big blow-out from the hosts, and that is not likely to happen in the big occasion opening match.
