“Everyone out of the pool”

So now the tournament moves on to the knockout phase where every match is one-and-done and the time for experimentation is over.

The results of the pool phases have, for the most part panned out as expected; the top 4 teams in the world are through and the other four contestants are not too surprising, although Scotland and Australia, already on their way home must feel some remorse. Scotland, having been drawn in the same pool as Ireland and South Africa; and Australia having had a dismal tournament. Among the qualifiers, England must feel a sense of relief having looked remarkably unconvincing in their pool matches. The magnificant semi-final against the All Blacks in 2019 in Japan seems a lot more than 4 years ago.

However, the winners and runners-up of Pools C & D (Wales; Fiji; England & Argentina) have a wonderful opportunity to advance in this tournament further than perhaps they deserved or expected. The ramifications of the Pool selection process held in December 2020 are in full view - the top 4 teams - Ireland; South Africa; France; New Zealand - have to play each other in the Quarter-Finals with only 2 advancing to the Semis. It is possible that those 2 may meet again in the Final but two teams from the other half, perhaps Wales and England have a chance too. In a perfectly seeded competition, the top 4 teams would meet in the Semi-Finals and sadly, that cannot happen in this competition.

Saturday, October 14 sees Wales play Argentina’s Pumas in Marseille at 5:00PM (local) and Ireland play New Zealand’s All Blacks at 9:00PM in Paris.

Sunday, October 15 sees England play Fiji in Marseille at 5:00PM and hosts France play South Africa’s Springboks at 9:00PM in Paris.

A fine weekend of rugby that will select the 4 Semi-Finalists: the October 14th winners will play on Friday, October 20 and the October 15th winners will play on Saturday, October 21, heading for the Final on October 28th, all at Stade de France in Paris.

Enjoy!