Rugby League
9 hours ago
"Bloodbath central": Townsend and Smith's dire prediction for Week 2
By Nicholas Quinlan
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In the opening week of the Rugby League World Cup, we saw a wide variety of results: Australia narrowly beat New Zealand, Samoa demolished France, and Tonga pulled off an upset against England.
But Chad Townsend and Jimmy Smith fear that this week’s matches will highlight the gulf between the top nations and the rest.
For the five matchups of the men’s tournament this week, there is an average difference of eight ranking spots, with the clash between World No. 5 Tonga and World No. 23 Lebanon being the most significant gap.
RLWC men’s matches for Week 2
Tonga (5) vs Lebanon (23)
PNG (6) vs Samoa (4)
England (3) vs France (11)
New Zealand (2) vs Cook Islands (8)
Australia (1) vs Fiji (7)
Having looked ahead to the games on SEN’s Kick Off, the two co-hosts believe the favourites in each match will score and win big.
Townsend: “These games this weekend, none of them are gonna be close.
“Every favourite is going to score more than 50 points, in my opinion.
“Samoa could put 50 on PNG; PNG could score 20.”
Smith: “England are going to pump France.”
Townsend: “England are going to score 50+.”
Smith: “New Zealand (vs) Cook Islands, that'll be a bloodbath.”
Townsend: “I'm telling you, it's bloodbath central this week in the Rugby League World Cup.
“If you look across the games in detail (with) the team lists, most top teams, we're seeing a couple of different faces for the Aussies, some different faces for the Kiwis.
“Obviously, (Isaiya) Katoa being rested for Tonga, so this is the week where it's a bit deflating.
“Week One was great, awesome matchups, and next week, we know, headlined by Tonga and Samoa, and we can't wait for that.”
The Rugby League World Cup continues on Friday night with Tonga facing Lebanon at CommBank Stadium from 8:05pm AEDT.
SEN League will be calling three games from Week 2 across our radio network and on the SEN app beginning on Saturday, with Papua New Guinea hosting Samoa at Santos National Football Stadium in Port Moresby from 3pm.
