We look at some teams who are not favourites to win the tournament but definitely have the ability to do so.
2019 Rugby World Cup Outsiders
The Rugby World Cup is usually won by one of the favourites going into the tournament, however, sometimes there are teams that shock the rugby world and get a long way, or get further than most were expecting.
Canada getting out of the group in 1991 and Scotland getting to the semi-finals at the same tournament spring to mind. Back in 2007 Argentina coming third and beating the hosts, France, twice in dramatic fashion was very unexpected.
In fact the French have caught a lot of people off-guard a lot of the time, getting further than we all predicted.
Past tournaments have proven that outsiders occasionally do well in the World Cup so we have put together a short list of teams who aren’t favourites to win it all, but could do well in the tournament. The four teams below may not be at the top of peoples lists of contenders, but they definitely have the firepower and talent to get a long way.
It is probably a cliche to say that the Wallabies always find a way of raising their games for the Rugby World Cup, but their record speaks for itself. In 2019 they are most definitely not one of the favourites to win the trophy despite their recent victory over the All Blacks. No, the team is way too inconsistent and there are questions marks hanging over them in several ways. However they have plenty of players who have been deep into World Cups before and they definitely have a team capable of making some noise in Japan.
On their day, Scotland can beat absolutely anyone but that day only ever comes around when Finn Russell is on form. If he is not playing well then the side often struggles but if he is on form then watch out. This reliance on Russell and his inconsistency is exactly why Gregor Townsend’s team is not one of the favourites.
In short they are a team that has to be respected, but catch them on a bad day and they could easily ship 30 points quickly.
Over the past few years Argentina have slowly but surely built a very solid team. Playing in the Rugby Championship against the All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks regularly has clearly led to improvement but can they go all the way in 2019? Probably not but if their is one team that perfectly symbolises the idea of an outsider, it is the men in blue and white.
2019 Rugby World Cup Favourites
We take a look at the two teams…
Rugby World Cup Winners
We take a quick tour through the history…
Past Rugby World Cup Hosts
We take a look at the past countries…
As per usual, no one has any real clue what version of France will turn up in Japan and how far they will go. One minute they can be embarrassingly awful and the next they can look as if they are utterly unbeatable. For example during the 2019 Six Nations they got utterly smashed by the English before beating Scotland a week later. At the Rugby World Cup, they just seem to have a knack of causing serious uncertainty in their opponents and that could lead to some surprising results in Japan.
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