“The quarter-finals are always packed full of drama”
DURING ANY World Cup, it is sad to wave goodbye to those teams who have failed to make the knockout stages. Most of them would have won hearts and minds by playing well against the odds, but as they disappear the whole thing blasts off onto another planet.
The quarter-final stages are always packed full of fascination, drama, pure class or, occasionally, pure dross. With what are meant to be the best eight teams in the world involved, the quarters define the state of rugby and the current quality of play.
Later this month there will be two quarter-finals in Oita and two more in Tokyo and those four matches will set the tone for the event on and off the field.
As the action was just about to begin in Japan, we made a prediction about the possible quarter-final line-up, a pure guess in advance. It reads as follows: England v Wales New Zealand v Ireland Australia v France Scotland v South Africa.
Of course, some of the pool games threatened to be incredibly close, so it was also relatively easy to imagine this quarter-final line-up: England v Australia South Africa v Scotland Wales v France Ireland v New Zealand.
And all neutrals have been praying for Fiji and/or Japan to make the
