after round 1 who's Impressed you the most ? Outside of the big 3.

[Irish-bulldog]

Just finished watching france and Lebanon game on delay, what a cracking game. A few mistakes yes, but in my opinion a decent standard of football. The frogs ripped in and tried to put some points on, just lacking in size and class. Lebanon have great direction and a great kicking game, with enough big bodies willing to rip in. Will be interested to see how much they push England.

Ireland played well as a unit and crushed a decent Italy team. I was actually surprised at how easy Ireland won the game, not sure if they will hold up against the big islanders.

Png slaughtered a terrible welsh team yes, but clearly they have made great strides in professionalism. Home crowds, they will take some beating.

I thought Samoa were decent in the first half against the kiwis. Tonga were dreadful for 40 and brilliant for 40. I'm not sold on the Tongans, thay have zero discipline and are just flat out stupid in how they play. All the natural talent in the world but yeah....I'm not sure AF helps them . What a dumb footballer.

Fiji I would of picked at the start of this World Cup to be the best of the island nations but injuries are crueling their World Cup, getting thin in the forward pack. Not sure they have enough to make the semis, but the future is bright with Fiji.

I'm just proud of the Americans, heavily dominated domestic team, having a crack and hopefully moving the game forward.

Scotland and wales Jesus, from countries who have rich World Cup history, f**king disgraceful effort preparing for this World Cup. I'd rather have Canada and Jamaica getting flogged.

 

[Pedge1971]

I think NZ had the best tier 2 performance after tier 1 heavyweights Tonga, England and Aus..

 

[Irish-bulldog]

I think NZ had the best tier 2 performance after tier 1 heavyweights Tonga, England and Aus..

Haha Nz still well ahead

 

[titoelcolombiano]

The Pacific sides' professionalism has really impressed me, these national teams have really come along since 4 years ago.

Also, special mention to Ireland - great job

 

[Emu01]

Ireland was excellent against Italy. I couldn’t believe how well they played against Italy considering how many nrl players Italy had.

I give Ireland a massive chance at beating PNG. The heat is the only factor that might bring them undone.

 

[Force]

Lebanon v France the best game of the round for me. With this win I take it Lebanon will automatically qualify for the next World Cup, if so, good on them. They should've been included at the last World Cup too.

The best performed team for me would be Ireland against a team who had some very good players and some rather average ones. The worst performance would be Wales, they just looked clueless.

Standout players so far for me are David Mead, Wellington Albert, Michael Jennings, Jason Taumalolo, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Joseph Tapine, Mitchell Moses, Liam Kay, Dane Gagai, David Klemmer.

 

[grouch]

PNG and Ireland.

The Irish halves controlled the game so well, and the forwards battered their more highly fancied opponents. Was a classy display.

PNG were utterly unstoppable but also showed skill and speed.

Looking forward to these two matching up this week

 

[Hawkins]

Tonga looked good. So did Fiji... I heard they picked up a kid from the NFL.

 

[Albert Rosenfeld]

France performed well considering that they were missing 5 key players, including game breaking full back Morgan Escare and game breaking centre Tony Gigot.

 

[siv]

Kiwis were the biggest surprise for me

Expected them to drop but they rose to a new level

Samoa maybe sliding back though

 

[Springs09]

Papua New Guinea were the best I've ever seen them

Samoa I thought were the better team in the first half against NZ. If they had a proper spine they would have been in front. NZ's style of play was impressive.

Ireland were fantastic. It's a shame only one of them and PNG can go through.

Tonga impressed me not by their performance but more that they were average and still won easily. If they get the errors out of their game they could really push the big 3.