KUALA LUMPUR: Barring any upset, the top two positions in two of the four pools would not be altered by the time the last of all the pool games in this tournament ends on Sunday morning.
A few of the matches left would give teams like Japan, Georgia and Canada the opportunity to further convince the world of rugby that they have indeed made significant improvements in their game and thus deserve to be taken more seriously.
The very disappointing three from the Pacific – Fiji, Samoa and Tonga – have one chance each to redeem themselves, with Fiji not expected to have too much trouble against Uruguay and Tonga highly unlikely to trouble defending champions New Zealand despite the latter’s far from convincing performances in three matches so far.
On another day Samoa should not find Scotland a hurdle insurmountable but their lacklustre game so far has not convinced the punters that an upset is likely this Saturday.
Samoan rugby is known around the globe for its passion, strong running and bone-crunching tackling but the positives have been mainly missing from this Samoan side. Try as hard as you can but you will not recall even one sparkling moment from their three pool matches till now.
Tonga were within distance against Argentina for much of the first half but poor goalkicking by Kurt Morath allowed their opponents to widen the gap and run away with the game.
Morath kicked over two penalties but missed two others and two conversions, all of which were reasonably kickable. His opposite Nicholas Sanchez however was successful with eight out of 10 kicks to help Argentina win 45-16.
We hear the usual grouses from the islands’ rugby officials regarding funding from World Rugby but passion and the will to fight back is not something money can buy and the islanders on the whole have shown little of this at RWC 2015.
As a comparison one only has to look at Japan, Georgia and Canada, where domestic rugby is way behind the upper tier countries in terms of competitiveness and to a large extent, infrastructure and support, but this doesn’t seem to take the will out of their game.
Georgia play Namibia on Thursday morning and another win will only support further their claim that they deserve better treatment at least in Europe instead of perennially being asked to play in the second tier.
The United States-Japan encounter that closes the pool phase on Monday morning should be another close encounter but regardless of the outcome, Japan have already done better in one tournament with their two wins so far, compared to the previous seven put together.
So it looks like South Africa will top their group, followed by Scotland, unless Samoa play a few times above their normal selves to cause an upset.
It looks equally settled in the other pool now led by New Zealand and with Argentina second but it’s in Pools A and D where there’s still much to play for.
Australia top Pool A above Wales but both have 13 points each. They play each other on Saturday night.
In Pool D it’s Ireland who are above France, both with 14 points and separated by points difference, and if it remains this way after their clash on Sunday, this will lead to one much-anticipated tie in the quarter-finals.
This will pit France against defending champions New Zealand at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, a place they met at once before.
The two have quite a history in the Rugby World Cups, with New Zealand winning both the finals at home, in the inaugural tournament in 1987 and again four years ago.
But the French also inflicted two of the major upsets in RWC history when they got the better of New Zealand at Twickenham in 1999, scoring 33 points in a second half assault to win 43-31, and at Cardiff in the quarter-finals in 2007.
RWC 2015 may have lost a bit of excitement with host England out early but there’s still much glitter left for the diehard rugby fans.