The Rugby World Cup Begins! A belter of an opening match followed by almost two months of the ultimate rugby festival.

The Other Hand's occasional coverage of the Rugby World Cup starts here!An ongoing conversation with Irish Times journalist Nathan Johns. Enjoy some proper rugby analysis, a little rugby banter, free of cliche and jargon, from a journalist who really does know his stuff.In today's episode we set the scene by asking whether the RWC can be as unifying a force for France as was the 1998 soccer world cup.The opening match couldn't have been better scripted: between the first and second favourites. Why are the two sides of the draw so lopsided? Could Ireland fail to get out of 'the group of death'The groups were decided years ago, to ease the travel plans of the world's prawn sandwich brigade rugby officials and their friends and familiesWill France, 'the most Unfrench team' prevail?How will Ireland do? They cant be bullied any more but lack a little depth in the event of key injuriesEngland don't even know what their team is (really)The Welsh had better watch out for FijiNew Zealand really do have weaknesses, particularly up front Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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