Pool matches - the final weekend

With the majority of pool games complete, the tournament moves into the final weekend with some interesting outcomes yet to be decided.

France and New Zealand emphasized their superiority in Group A with emphatic wins over Italy and Uruguay respectively but Pools B, C and D have yet to determine who will fill out the remaining slots in the Quarter Finals.

Both of Pool B’s representatives could be decided by the result in Saturday night’s Ireland vs. Scotland game which promises to be a thriller for just about everyone, including South Africa. It doesn’t seem likely that the Springboks can fail to move on although there could be a 3-way tie on 15 points if Scotland win a bonus point victory, and Ireland score a loser’s bonus point. That would invite comparions of point differentials and head-to-head results to decide the outcome. Slightly more likely (although against the grain of Ireland’s performance thus far) woud be a Scotland 5-point victory elimiinating the Irish.and tossing them out of the competition. For Scotland, that is the only meaningful result.

In Pool C, Wales are already through but Australia must wait to see what happens between Fiji and Portugal on Sunday. A win or a draw is enough for Fiji to eliminate the Wallabies who must be mightily disappointed at their performance in this World, Cup. But while Portugal only have a draw to their name in the first 3 games, their performance has been robust and they have enough power in their game to make the Fijians a tad nervous.

And in Pool D either Japan or Argentina, tied on points and who play each other also on Sunday, could join England in the Quarters. Winner takes all but a draw favors Argentina who have a better point difference.