Johnno gets early Christmas gift
MARTIN Johnson's Autumn has been a sobering experience but he has received an early Christmas present.
For some insane reason the draw for the World Cup took place yesterday - even though the tournament does not start for something like 140 weeks.
And the draw was kind for Johnno and his boys.
England were not among the top four seeds after being rated at six behind New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina and Wales.
So potentially we faced the possibility of drawing either the All Blacks, Springboks or Wallabies in the group stages, which though not the end of the world would have damaged our prospects (if indeed we have any).
But we avoided one of the big three and drew two of our historical enemies, Argentina and Scotland.
With no disrespect to the land of Taggart, we should murder the 'sweaties' and our record against the Argies is decent - and I'm not just talking about the result from the Falklands/Malvinas.
Oops. My boss told me not to mention the war.
Eighty-two sides are currently engaged in qualification for the other places and England's five-team group will be completed by two of those countries. Someone easy like the Faroe Islands and the Vatican would be nice.
We should reach the last eight as group winners and if we do, we would play a runner-up in the quarter-finals.
The World Cup will again feature 20 countries - the IRB shied away from increasing it to 24 - and this is how the groups look following yesterday's draw.
Pool A - New Zealand, France, Tonga, Americas 1, Asia 1
Pool B - Argentina, England, Scotland, Europe 1, play-off winner
Pool C - Australia, Ireland, Italy, Europe 2, Americas 2
Pool D - South Africa, Wales, Fiji, Oceania 1, Africa 1
While we were fortunate with the way the balls came out, if you pardon the expression, one question must still be posed. Who decided to have a World Cup draw now?
The International Rugby Board claim they need plenty of time to get things organised.
Yet, FIFA manage to get the football World Cup groups, venues and dates sorted out in around six months.
Kit McConnell, head of Rugby World Cup 2011, said: "The draw is very important for us because from there we can develop the match schedule, we can select team base camps and we can also develop the ticketing strategy for the tournament."
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Weather for Hartlepool
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 2 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 3 C to 9 C
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Wind direction: North west
