Rugby World Cup 2023 predictor: Watch Brian Moore choose his winner

Hello everyone and welcome to Telegraph Sports' Rugby World Cup

predictor

with me, Charles Richardson, a

rugby

reporter for Telegraph Sport and our columnist and former England and Lions international Brian Moore, welcome Brian, hello, hello, so let's get right to it and then go over the group scenarios here and we'll start with group a, which is kind of a death group, not a bona fide death group, Brian, you wouldn't say it, but it's complicated, terrible phrase , it is, but not that good, yes. Yes, look at New Zealand and France, the pressure that France will be under if they don't perform well could be inhibiting, however, if they play well, even if they lost the first game, the groundswell of opinion in France supports them. them would be a very stimulating factor, so in the long term the

winner

s or losers of this group are not necessarily as important as the others.

Absolutely and obviously, France's favorites with the bookmakers, but New Zealand are looking very good at the moment, very good nickname. and obviously they're always dangerous as underdogs, which they will be with The Bookies, I think at that first moment completely, but if you look at the first two, probably almost certainly the first two there, Island, it's a choice which one you'd like to play as. anyway, so, um. in a sense, as I said normally, it is very important if you come first or second, in this case you will have a very difficult game anyway, so it's probably when things change later, it could be an advantage, you know?

It's very difficult to get to the other side of the group, which is second place rather than first, so in the opening game, then the state of France, New Zealand against France, the

winner

will top the group. Who are you going to look for fronts to win that first game? Okay, so we'll say New Zealand will be Italy and the rest will come second, yes, okay, Italy will beat the rest and come third, yes, and then Uruguay against Namibia, well, again, it's total, but by when you get to the end. tournament at the end of the group stage there will be injuries, there could have been disciplinary issues, who has the bigger team, so it's almost impossible, yes, it's probably water, yes, I mean, Uruguay has a fantastic scrim up front.

Santiago erratic, okay, Group B. now another horrible sentence but it's South Africa Island Scotland Port Tonga poor Romania how do you see this Brian I have learned to my cost not to bet against South Africa they are very malicious Ireland could be what I could know the walk-on candidate previous and hopefully if you're Irish the World Cup they perform in because if you look at their previous World Cups in relation to their strengths before the World Cup their comeback has been really poor yeah never You will be below the classifier, no. exactly um and again you know it all comes down to which of these you want to play nor do you want to play no if you want but I put South Africa first island second South Africa first island second and Scotland so as not to upset the apple cart probably not, although if the game goes well in South Africa's way, then Ireland, Scotland becomes quite interesting exactly and you know, there's a lot of pressure on Ireland, if Finn Russell comes along and starts pulling the strings, it might get a bit nervous, I mean.

Rhode Island could really, um, okay, Group C, you just don't want to be on that side of the draw, no, it's their face, no, no, no, we're on the much more comfortable side of the draw now, right? relatively relatively well Wales Australia Fiji Georgia and poor Portugal, but well, look, I mean, Georgia Georgia will be good from the start, those are the ones that would take them a certain way, however, there is a lot, there is a lot to do at this point particularly

rugby

, it's not really possible. Get a score and then defend, you know, for the rest of the game and get lucky, yeah, if you're not good enough up front and you get beaten in the scrum, the starting line and whatever you do, then you'll pay, yes, because he scrums the penalty players etc, so you have to look at the people who at least have that now.

Wells. Normally I would think the

world

will do pretty well with his form unless he is extraordinary before the tournament starts. I would still put Australia even though they didn't perform as well in the rugby championship before them because Australia's record in the World Cup is actually very good, they were never eliminated, they didn't get out of the stages, no, and They will become very difficult to beat. I don't think they will go all the way, but I think in this group, which is not a strong group, I think they will reach the top in a second.

They've had a tough time in the rugby championship, but Eddie Jones, of course, likes it. You also said that he also likes the World Cup, very good for a World Cup and I agree. I think Australia have one or two players who are above the

world

standard 15 and I think their first team at full strength could cause problems for anyone on the day. You know, I mean it's almost like England. I have this feeling about England on the day that they could beat anyone, but can they make it four in a row, which is the quarter-final of the last group game?

That's a doubt, yeah, okay, then and then. Second place in that group will come down to where the Whales can beat both Fiji and Georgia. I think they were and the reason I think someone will have them well enough organized and attribute it again to Fiji, our Fuji is from Five good enough, you know how to withstand the pressure in the scrum, win your consistent lineup or we know what they can do in the field. Georgia, they will be consistent in the scrum and line outs, but if they have the overall style, they probably won't if it is reduced. to a game that maybe was very close, but if you have a great prediction and I still put those two first, I would probably put Fiji in third, okay, Georgia, Georgia, fourth, and Portugal, okay, that will be our first disagreement, I think, but obviously. you're the boss Brian uh I think Fiji will beat Wales uh that's why this gate is really good yeah okay Group D England have talked a little bit about them there's a bit of an unknown how do you see them ?

Yeah, I mean the boss improvements have been there, but they've been uh, they've been uneven. Argentina. I have this feeling. Argentina, when you look at the championship, does well. I wonder how strong their depth is for the tournament. I'm pretty convinced that they start from 20 to 23 and are of a good level, but this is the thing about World Cups: they come every week and, you know, in the group stages there are even less than that, so no If you have time, if people get injured and it's a one or two week injury, then you have to look outside the team and that's the difficult thing, yeah, and it's really fascinating to see what people are like, how they're maneuvering their equipment. and what they chose, you know, if they chose three scrum hours instantly in England, they chose two last time, which was a mistake in my opinion and how did they come up with that, so I think I'll just put England Argentina for an England Argentina. like one and two, so England won that game first against Argentina, then Japan and Samoa, both in slightly unknown quantity, some are obviously improving a lot and have benefited from sort of the Moline Union eligibility rules.

Japan is very out of shape at the moment. minute, I don't think they won in all of 2020. They put in a lot, they worked a lot in the last tournament, obviously, yes, they did very well, but there was a lot of investment beyond the information, yes from the people of World Rugby, actually I know a lot about that, but yeah, to start doing it, so I would take a little bit more summer in Japan not to reach the Heights of 2019 and then in Chile, okay, now we move on to the fifth quarter. This is a general point.

I really hope that with the size we have put 15 we are not disrespecting them, not only that, as I said, with a game that involves power and sustained power, it is really difficult for Underdog sites, especially since this happens with lesser players . pressure they commit penalties they give you fouls, you've missed it and then they get a yellow card yes, if you're against a decent team with 14 men you're not going to win no, I mean Chile, obviously, the first World Cup is just great To

watch

them, It is not like that and I hope you can take advantage of this.

Hopefully they can score a few tries too and maybe ruffle a few feathers with Japan and Samoa, obviously Uruguay in 2003. They were kind of scapegoats in 2003, but I scored a couple of tries and the try scorers from those games are kind of now of National Rugby Heroes and I think what they will find even if we get a couple of these wrong, maybe Scotland Fiji, but these games are the introductory games between these. at least it will be entertaining oh yeah you're in previous World Cups you've had teams near the end where you thought actually no no it's not a great game you know all these all these games between what we're saying will be the third .

The players in fourth and fifth place will be decent. The players will be worth

watch

ing oh yeah well I mean Fiji Georgia Fiji Uruguay in 2019 with two of the tournament games yeah Uruguay beat Fiji and then Fiji Georgia had the right ding dong so I hope that is reflected. in

2023

. So the quarterfinals are not easy, no, they are never easy and like I said, for example, you know you have two or something like that and New Zealand, New Zealand, probably Ireland, if they absolutely play the former France , you will never be left out. muscle South Africa no, 23 is too big, but the news from New Zealand is nice and that's what they did in the championship, they moved them, they bombed them at the beginning, so I would have a simplified Australia, okay, New Zealand, England .

France is okay, and yes, you think England England will have too much for Wales, yes, I said in the quarters, okay, so the semi-finals is where it's getting interesting, so just one, yes, in this sense, if you just you go back up, yes this part is really difficult. There aren't as many difficulties where the draw goes, yes, actually, it seems to get simpler, yes, so what I'm saying is that in the first matches and then in the quarters, I go very far, so sometimes it opens up a draw for you and everything is simple. these things are very important, yes, no, absolutely, um, okay, so the semi-finals, so do you think this is more routine?

Oh, I did it in New Zealand, France, New Zealand, France, so we're booking, booking, booking, we're booking the tournament, it's going to start and end with the same thing. game and your winner, well, if France does it, I think they will win great, okay, I don't like to say that, but, as we can see, we are in the majority here, with 28 telegraph readers who agree with us, they do produce . Very good wine, I mean, that's true, so through the Telegraph sports

predictor

which will be on YouTube at the link and on our website, Brian has predicted that France will win this year's Rugby World Cup.

Many thanks to Brian, thanks for joining. us and um all that's left now is some fantastic rugby games this fall and see if Brian's predictions come true. Oh by the way. If you bet, if you met on Monday, by the way, I'm not responsible. another reminder