The 2013 Rugby League World Cup is off and running. The leading contenders have all played and as expected the Australian Kangaroos have beaten England. Our other tips have also panned out as expected though we did not expect New Zealand to run in so many tries. Italy had always been a bit of a dark horse and backed up their training game win against England with a comprehensive victory over Wales. Papua New Guinea was a tight affair ending in a narrow victory for France.
The opening game Australia versus England was a good advertisement for League and a good start to the World Cup campaign though we are sure England would not agree, England opened the scoring just as the first quarter was closing and stretched out to ten nil before the Kangaroos got on the score sheet. The Aussies extended their lead and went in at half-time 18-10. They extended this to 22-10 before England fought back to close it to 22-16. England needed to score next if they were to get anything from the game but the Aussies went out to 24-16. This was stretched again to 28-16. England then took the last of the points and we had the final score of 28-20. So we are up and running. New Zealand had a standard win against Samoa. Of the other teams France did for Papua New Guinea but it was tight at 8-9. Wales got thumped by Italy 16-32.
The last of the three games in this review were played out over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. With first out of the blocks Fiji versus Ireland. This was always going to be a big ask for Ireland and so it proved as they went down to a heavy defeat, 12-4 at half-time ending at 32-14. Tuesday and we had Tonga versus Scotland. This was always quoted as a Tonga win, but Scotland had other ideas and in a hard fought tight encounter they came home 24-26. It all looked done and dusted for Scotland at the break as they went in 4-20 to the good. Tonga however ran in four tries in the second period to close it up. However, Scotland posted six points of their own and they were enough to bring the victory 24-26. The last of the first round games have been played and the USA turned over Cook Islands who we had tipped to win. The USA winning 32-20 having been 10-10 at the break. The scoring does not reflect it, but it was a close thing throughout and the USA will be happy to have the win under their belts.
So we got three results wrong which is not a good start for us but they were all games that could go either way. Here are all the results:
Results 26-30 Oct 2013
Sat 26 Oct 14:30 gpA Australia 28-20 England Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Sat 26 Oct 16:30 IG Wales 16-32 Italy Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Sun 27 Oct 16:00 gpB Papua New Guinea 8-9 France Craven Park, Hull
Sun 27 Oct 18:00 gpB New Zealand 42-24 Samoa Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington
Mon 28 Oct 20:00 gpA Fiji 32-14 Ireland Spotland Stadium, Rochdale
Tue 29 Oct 20:00 gpC Tonga 24-26 Scotland Derwent Park, Workington
Wed 30 Oct 20:00 gpD United States 32-20 Cook Islands Memorial Park; Bristol
Second batch of fixtures kicking off on Friday evening and here again are our predictions as usual in Bold:
Fixtures 01-05 November 2013
All Times Local UK
Fri 01 Nov 20:00 gpB New Zealand v France Parc des Sports, Avignon
Sat 02 Nov 14:30 gpA England v Ireland John Smith’s Stadium, Huddersfield
Sat 02 Nov 20:00 gpA Australia v Fiji Langtree Park, St Helens
Sun 03 Nov 14:00 gpD Wales v United States Racecourse Ground; Wrexham
Sun 03 Nov 16:00 gpC Scotland v Italy Derwent Park, Workington
Mon 04 Nov 20:00 gpB Papua New Guinea v Samoa (20:00) Craven Park, Hull
Tue 05 Nov 20:00 IG Tonga v Cook Islands Leigh Sports Village, Leigh