Artificial intelligence may eventually render us all obsolete, yet when asked who will win the Rugby World Cup, it sat on the fence.
Opta’s supercomputer simulated the tournament 10 million times, taking into account form, history, and other factors. Nonetheless, it was unable to seriously separate a quartet of competitors.
Ireland, the defending Grand Slam champions and historic Kiwi conquerors, were tipped to win the William Webb Ellis Trophy on October 28 with a 21.7% chance.
France, brimming with optimism and a feeling of destiny, was on 21.4%.
South Africa, the defending champions, and perennial powerhouses New Zealand were close behind on 20.5% and 20.2%, respectively.
They are a powerful foursome. Never before has a World Cup hung in the balance so precariously. As the megabytes expended demonstrated, you can build a strong argument for everything, but there are no promises about what comes next.
Ireland has cohesiveness and cleverness, which is backed up by Andy Farrell’s playbook, which is as dense, elaborately structured, and full of trickery as a Dickens novel.
Johnny Sexton, Ireland’s 38-year-old icon, is dancing for the final time, his rugby career ending when Ireland’s campaign concludes. With Dan Sheehan, Hugo Keenan, Caelan Doris, Mack Hansen, Garry Ringrose, and world player of the year Josh van der Flier on his side, this is unquestionably his best and final opportunity at gold.
There is no clear weakness other from a lack of experience at the business end of this competition – Ireland, for example, has never advanced past the quarter-finals in nine prior seasons.
