THE top two teams from two pools that qualify for the knockout phase have been decided, defending champions New Zealand and South Africa are also in while two more teams will be determined in the next few days.
In all likelihood it should be Scotland to join South Africa from Pool B and also Argentina from Pool C, unless the unthinkable and unimaginable happen.
In Pool A it is now a question of who will head the group, a position now held by Australia because of their superior points difference compared to Wales but a win for the latter on Saturday night will change that.
The situation is similar in Pool D, where Ireland and France have 14 points each but Ireland top due to a better points differential of plus 84 compared to France’s plus 72. They play each other on Sunday night.
New Zealand are ahead of Argentina by four points in Pool C, with the latter expected to join them in the quarter-finals unless Namibia cause a monumental upset by beating the South Americans.
Japan, one of this tournament’s surprise packages, are in with a chance but this will firstly depend on the result of the Samoa-Scotland game on Saturday.
If Samoa win or the game ends in a draw, Japan must beat the United States and also earn a bonus point to have a total of 13 points, which will put them ahead of Scotland by a point if the Scots draw with Samoa.
Scotland have been in every RWC since the first in 1987, with a best placed finish of fourth in 1991. Otherwise they have made every quarter-final except in the last tournament in New Zealand. Not a bad record for a team not known to do well in the Six Nations.
Comparatively, Ireland have been less successful than the Scots at the RWCs although the boys in green have been doing much better in the Six Nations.
Ireland have been in five quarter-finals and lost all, with the closest a 19-18 defeat against Australia in 1991 and a 28-24 defeat against Argentina in a playoff in 1999.
Which means that many results so far have buried the statistics on past internationals and also results from the warm-up matches.
If anyone had suggested before the tournament started on September 18 that Japan would upset South Africa rugby fans would have called him a nut case.
South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer did not include a few otherwise first-choice players in his match-day 23 and no one thought anything unusual about it. No one questioned his selection and no one would have questioned it had any other top tier nation coach done the same thing.
But Japan sent tsunami-like waves across the rugby world by winning 34-32 and immediately the machetes were out on Meyer’s throat, with everyone criticising his decision to leave out Willie Le Roux and Handre Pollard, for example.
One record at the RWC has been equalled and that is the most number of tries scored.
Legendary All Black Jonah Lomu scored 15 of them and the record stayed from after RWC 1999 until South Africa’s Bryan Habana, another winger, equalled that last Wednesday night following his hattrick in the game against the US.
With South Africa still in the tournament, Habana has a chance to set a new one.
Lomu managed the feat over two RWCs, the most memorable of his achievements the four tries scored in the semi-final against England at RWC 1995. Four tries and against a tier one nation like England. It cannot get that much better.
Habana has competed in three RWCs, scoring eight tries at RWC 2007, four of those in the game against tier two nation Samoa.
He followed this up with two tries four years ago and until today, five tries at this RWC.