This may well be one of the groups with the most depth, even though defending champions South Africa are not likely to face too much of a challenge for the first spot in the group. That said, the defending champs have had a less than stellar build-up to the tournament, fielding a B side in their away games of the Tri Nations tournament, then losing on home turf to Australia before taking a win over what was effectively a New Zealand B side.
However, in spite of this, Richard Adams believes the team will not face too many problems in the pool.
“Again South Africa you would expect to be able to walk that pretty much hands behind their backs, Fiji just came off a relatively bad loss, Namibia we have not seen much of, and of course Wales are a complete unknown at this point, we just have no idea what we’re going to see from Wales,” he said.
However, the case for second place is not quite as clear cut.
“I think Wales will probably have enough to come through over Samoa and Fiji,” said Mr. Adams.
“The unknowns in pool D are Fiji and Samoa, but I think Namibia are the whipping boys in that pool.”
Fiji was the big surprise in the previous World Cup in France in 2007, progressing to the quarter finals at the expense of Wales, so the Welsh will be eager to prevent a repeat, while Samoa made life tough for the members of their pool in 2007, with South Africa being at the receiving end of some very hard play by the Samoans, so they will be wary of the punch this small island nation packs, especially after Samoa scored an upset win over Australia recently.
Grizz’s picks: South Africa and Wales
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