Ireland and Scotland begin their World Cup experience in Yokohama on Sunday in game that could decide who finishes top of Pool A, even.
Despite several performances that they input the World Cup as the planet’s number one rated side, although joe Schmidt’s Ireland side have endured a rotten run because beating New Zealand last November.
Their confidence was recovered by the men in green with back-to-back victories over Wales, which saw the return of a couple of important guys especially dominating World Player of the Year Johnny Sexton after being humiliated at Twickenham by England.
But before this battle, Schmidt was made to shuffle his pack to backs Rob Kearney Robbie Henshaw and Keith Earls injuries. The Jordan Larmour and Andew Conway will now get their chance to shine on the biggest stage in rugby.
The midfield see Sam Johnson and’s Duncan Taylor start together for only the second time, although gregor Townsend has gone for his attempted and tested on the entire. Much of Scotland’s success will hinge on the performances of Finn Russell, that was majestic from the epic comeback in Twickenham — he can fire then anybody can be troubled by this aspect.
After exiting the Six Nations fixture and missing the rest of the competition, Stuart Hogg is termed at full-back at a rear three which contains two Lions in Sean Maitland along with Tommy Seymour.
Conditions look set to be moist and humid and it will be interesting to observe just this is handled by two sides with contrasting styles.
My bet for this game centers around Conor Murra,y among the world, who has a fairly good strike rate against the Scots — together with three tries in seven appearances. Near the line there aren’t many better number nines at driving to score and getting low.
Given his scoring record and also the conditions, I like Murray’s sniping capability to evaluate around 5/1 and the fringes anytime appears too big when shooting his record into Consideration. ??
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