Rugby macrocosm Cup couple Profiles - bundle B

Argentina- Los Pumas

Argentina played its first international rugby match in 1910 against a touring British Isles team, as of March 2011 they rank 8th in the world by the IRB. They have competed at every Rugby World Cup staged since the inaugural tournament of 1987, and while football is still dominant the interest in rugby grows impressively year on year. At the last World Cup held in 2007 Los Pumas finished the competition 3rd beating the hosts France and remaining unbeaten in their group before losing to eventually winners South Africa. Since the turn of the millennium Argentina's impressive form have now merited them inclusion into an expanded tri nations from 2012. With a ferocious hard tackling pack and star players like Felipe Contepomi keeping the game flowing with their kicking, Argentina should again prove to powerful for teams like Romania and Georgia. England and Scotland will go looking for a result against the Los Pumas but they have a game on. Both will have this down as their toughest pool game. Head Coach: Santiago Phelan

England- Red Roses

England has contested at every Rugby World Cup since it began in 1987, reaching the final three times and winning it once. England are current holders of the six nation's tournament recently winning this for the first time since 2003, also the year they last won the World Cup. Despite not being considered potential winners back in 2007 England managed to get to the final losing against South Africa 15-6. There is wide spread belief that England performances start to peak around the World Cup and current form suggests this is the case. Young players like Chris Ashton have set the rugby world light with scintillating recent performances, and England's big name players have started to deliver. It's expected that if the red roses continue their positive momentum going into the tournament they will up there as favorites once the first tackle hits. Star Player: Toby Flood. Head Coach: Martin Johnson

Georgia- The Lelos

Rugby union is one of the most popular sports in Georgia yet the IRB class Georgia as a third tier rugby country. In the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Georgia performed strongly, holding Argentina 6-3 at half time and in the next match did even better, just losing to Ireland 14-10, a controversial disallowed try, three missed drop goals; Georgia spent the last 5 minutes just metres from the Irish line pushing for the win. In 2007 Georgia secured its first World Cup win with a convincing 30-0 victory over Namibia. Georgia are going to this World Cup as current European Nations Cup champions, buoyed by a clean sweep of results seeing them fail to loss a tournament game. Pool B will be tough for the Lelos to even register a win out of; but if they take heart from the last World Cup performance than a result is not unlikely against Romania even on a very good day running the Scottish very close. Star player: Iraki Abuseridze (c). Head Coach: Richard Dixon

Romania - The Oaks

The Oaks of Romania have qualified for every world cup since 1987; failure to get out of the group stages though has been the underlying theme throughout. Romania generally win the solitary game in their group and expect the 'derby' against Georgia the one they realistically look to win. Romania like Georgia is the dominant team in European rugby outside those who compete in the six nations often trading winning the European Nations Cup with each other. Romania have a long rugby heritage and while their current team is not quite up there with that of 1980's one, expect a tough test for the other teams in pool B with Scotland and Argentina wary of the Oaks. Star Player: Sorin Socol (c). Head Coach: Steve McDowell

Scotland - The Thistle

Scotland has competed in every Rugby World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1987. Their best finish was fourth in 1991, since then they have qualified from the group stage of every tournament but have never gone further than the quarter finals. Scotland are a team that have been in transition for the past few years, recently though they have started to show glimpses of past performances recently recording there first win against Australia for 27 years. The recent close games against the old enemy England in the Six Nations are further evidence to back this up but despite some strong performance Scotland failed to challenge again.