World Cup quarter-finals locked in: One of top 4 to go all the way

The business end of the 2023 Rugby World Cup gets under way this coming weekend when the quarter-finals are battled out after the pool phase came to an end on Sunday with the tournament progressing largely as expected so far.

The top four teams on the World Rugby rankings, Ireland, France, the Springboks and All Blacks have absolutely dominated and it is hard to see any other team having a chance of winning the title.

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Although it is also scandalous that two of these sides will be on their way home after the quarter-finals with the hosts France taking on the Boks and Ireland up against the All Blacks.

Pool A pretty much went to script with only France really producing surprise results, with the ease that they beat the All Blacks 27-13 in the tournament opener, followed by a largely changed side struggling against Uruguay as they came away with a battling 27-12 win.

Group of death

Pool B was supposed to be the group of death, but in the end Ireland and the Boks proved that they were too good for world number five ranked Scotland.

The Boks easily brushed them aside 18-3, while Ireland ended their World Cup brutally with a 36-14 win to send the unfortunate Scots, who probably could have progressed if they had been in pool C or D, home early.

The highlight match of the pool though was the entertaining heavyweight battle between the Boks and Ireland, with the world’s number one ranked side showing why they are firm favourites with a 13-8 win.

Australia out

Pool C ended up being the pool of death as it produced the most surprises, ending with Australia being knocked out before the quarter-finals for the first time in their history, allowing Fiji to sneak in ahead of them.

It was a very unpredictable pool as Wales, who had struggled massively over the past few years, seemed to come right at the perfect time as the cruised through the pool to easily finish top.

Fiji started their World Cup in cracking form, losing a very entertaining opener which they could have won against Wales 32-26, before upsetting the Wallabies 22-15.

They then had to battle back from a 9-0 halftime deficit to beat Georgia 17-12, while they were themselves upset 24-23 in their final pool game by a jubilant Portugal, who have arguably been the most entertaining and best performing tier two nation at the competition.

Despite finishing level with the Aussies on 11 points, Fiji progressed due to the head to head rule being the first decider to split level teams.

As expected

Pool D also largely went as expected with England clinching top spot after starting their campaign with an impressive 27-10 win over Argentina despite being reduced to 14-men early on, although they escaped with a thrilling 18-17 win over Samoa in their final pool game.

The second qualification spot then went to Argentina as they took on Japan in a winner takes all final pool clash, with it firmly living up to the hype as a cracking back and forth game ended with the South Americans triumphing 39-27.

The other two quarter-finals see Wales up against Argentina and England taking on Fiji, with it an extremely weak side of the draw.

The winner of the France versus Boks game will take on the winner of England against Fiji, while the winner of Ireland against the All Blacks will face the winner of Wales and Argentina.

The gulf between the top four in world rugby and the rest of the teams is large at the moment and if the rest of the tournament goes to form and as expected it should see a final between two of the top four teams.