Depends on what you mean by toughest pool - each game will be tougher because for Canada, there is no "weak team"; or it is tougher for the top two teams to advance?
If the former, yes, our pool is the toughest, but only because we are essentially the "weak team" therein. Tonga, France and NZ are all ranked above Canada, and Japan won the last two tests by a large margin (something like 90+ to around 20 in two games).
If the latter, I believe the SA/WALES/FIJ/SAMOA/NAMIBIA is a much harder pool - it's also been labelled the "Pool of Death" by the pundits. Any of the top four in there (less Namibia) could have been picked to win that pool heading in (current outcomes notwithstanding). The pool Canada's in will essentially be won by NZ, barring another choke vs. France. France should finish second, again if they don't choke against Canada or Tonga. Japan ran them close, which will likely motivate them for the match Saturday night. Canada's pool only seems the toughest because of our predicament - likely fighting it out to finish 3rd and automaticallay qualify for 2015.
The pool of death is tougher IMHO, because instead of 3 teams essentially playing for third place, there are 4 playing for spots 1 and 2.
Man I would love to see us put a hurting on the Frogs. The boys will have a massive NZ crowd behind them too - noone is less like in NZ rugby than France, except maybe the Aussies.
Agreed. Prior to the tournament, I could have called anybody, with the possible exception of Nambia, to win the SA/WALES/FIJ/SAMOA/NAMIBIA group. That's going to be the most exciting group, for sure.
And yep. Rugby, as a rule, is way more civilised. In the UK, you couldn't possibly seat fans from opposing sides together in the same ground for a soccer game. No problem in Rugby. I've often been at games and endured good natured heckling from opposition fans sat in the row in front of me. It's part of the experience. What is the saying? "Rugby is gentlemen acting like hooligans, and football is hooligans acting like hooligans?" At university, both the soccer and Rugby teams were well known for getting a little out of hand at end of season formals. The difference was, the morning after, the entire Rugby team would show up, hungover as hell, and apologise and help clean up. The soccer team on the other hand would deny all responsibility and consequently ended up being banned from using university facilities for social functions.
The latest scandal with the England side is awesome. In soccer, you get sex scandals, drug scandals, and players generally behaving like massive entitled douchebags. Mike Tindall? No. He was drunk at a midget throwing contest. A. Midget. Throwing. Contest. I kid you not…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/sep/15/dwarf-throwing-england-rugby
(OK, so there was a sex scandal in 2008 as well but, still…)