Australia - dark horse for the world cup?

First topic message reminder :

Looking ahead to the world cup I think New Zealand quite rightly will hold the favourites tag. There are a number of teams hot on their heels like England, Ireland, South Africa.
I haven't noticed much chat about the chances of Australia for this world cup. They have under performed over the last few years having issues around player discipline, Robbie Deans, Ewan McKenzie and a host of players being injured.
I think they could be dark horses for this world cup, they often raise their game coming into it and the players they have had long term injured are all back to fitness.

The Waratahs and Brumbies have performed very well in Super rugby and the Rebels are also doing well this season with some good young players putting their hands up.
The core of the squad will probably come from the Waratahs and Brumbies with a few from the other 3 teams.

They are no where near the finished article but think if they can get their strongest line up out in the big games then I can see them going very far in this tournament.

Looking at the 31 man squad they might pick I think it will be along the lines of this.
props
Benn Robinson
Ben Alexander
Sekope Kepu
James Slipper
Greg Holmes

Hookers
Stephen Moore
Tatafu Polota-Nau
Nathan Charles

Locks
Will Skelton
Rob Simmons
Luke Jones
Scott Fardy

Back Row
David Pocock
Michael Hooper
Sean McMahon
Scott Higginbotham
Wycliff Palu

Scrum Halfs
Will Genia
Nick White
Nick Phipps

Fly half
Bernard Foley
Quade Cooper

Centres
Matt Giteau
Kurtley Beale
Tevita Kuidrani
Adam Ashley-Cooper

Wings/Full Backs
Nick Cummins
Henry Speight
Drew Mitchell
Israel Folau
James O'Connor

LondonTiger wrote:Just for FES and GC

"He is playing too well to miss this"

Oh no you didn't Tiger, you vicious set of ladyparts.

I think the RC will be too much for Australia, NZ and SA should be stronger, but the game that really intrigues me is the Argentina game.

I see Australia being too much for them, but it'll be a great opportunity to see where Argentina can put Australia under pressure.

George Carlin wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:Just for FES and GC

"He is playing too well to miss this"

Oh no you didn't Tiger, you vicious set of ladyparts.

It's not a word of a lie when I say I could have slotted that over!

And I was a forward

Not even a Keith Wood forward

Just a regular non kicking forward!