On Sunday the GROUP STAGE of Rugby World Cup 2019 came to a close, with 12 Teams departing and only 8 Teams remaining to contest the final 3 weeks of Rugby World Cup 2019.

7 Of the 8 Teams going forward were expected to go forward but the host nation Japan added their name to the last 8 by beating Scotland and by topping their Pool overall, winning all 4 their Pool matches.

Japan is certainly one of 2 Teams at Rugby World Cup 2019 who have showed the most improvement, the other probably being chalked down as Uruguay who beat the much more vaunted Fiji and on Sunday they really showed passion, spirit, determination and lots of guts against Wales (only trailing by 1 point at the break and then going down not nearly as heavy at the end as was to be expected).

Fiji and Tonga showed some glimpses of what they could be capable of but they lacked overall poise and effectiveness during the Group Stages.

Samoa were the most ill-diciplined outfit by far in Rugby World Cup 2019.

Namibia played with spirit and guts and it is a great pity their final Pool match against Canada was cancelled due to typhoon Hagabis, which could have delivered their 1st ever Rugby World Cup win.

Canada was probably the Team who disapointed most at Rugby World Cup 2019 and their steady fall down the World Rankings over the past few years stands out as a marker against them.

Quarter Final matches:

• England vs Australia (Saturday 19 October 2019 at 09:15 SA Time, at Oita Stadium)
• New Zealand vs Ireland (Saturday 19 October 2019 at 12:15 SA Time, at Tokyo Stadium)
• Wales vs France (Sunday 20 October 2019 at 09:15 SA Time, at Oita Stadium)
• Japan vs South Africa (Sunday 20 October 2019 at 12:15 SA Time, at Tokyo Stadium)

The Winners of the 1st & 2nd Quarter Finals will then face off in one of the Semi Finals, whereas the Winners of the 3rd and 4th Quarter Finals will contest the other Semi Final, before the Semi Finals Winners will contest the Final and the Losers contesting for the Bronze medal match the following weekend.

Each match from hereon in is a knock-out match, with the Winners advancing forward towards the overall title.

Looking at  form and the way the Teams have progressed through the Group Stage, it must be said that England, New Zealand, Wales and Japan seem to be hitting peak form… all undefeated so far.

Although France is also still undefeated in the Tounament, it must be said that they have looked far from convincing so far.

South Africa lost their opening game against New Zealand but gained valuable traction in their following games.

Australia struggled a bit against Fiji in their opener but still won, then lost against Wales in a humdinger and were less than perfect in their 2 other Pool matches.

Ireland beat Scotland very well in their opener, then fell to the giant slayers, Japan, and then continued to be quite unconvincing against Russia before ending their Pool matches well with a good win against Samoa.

The favourites certainly to progress through the Quarters, seem to be England, New Zealand, Wales and South Africa. Anything can and will happen in the Quarters though and no game is a given.

The general feeling amongst scribes and the public seem to be that the Japanese fairy tale is about to end against the South African Springboks on the weekend, but with the passion, speed, handling, determination and sheer guts displayed by Japan so far, anyone writing off Japan would be doing so at their own peril.

England specifically look a far better coached and managed side compared to the under seige Australia side, coached by Michael Cheika. England’s progress is hugely touted.

The New Zealand All Blacks are ranked No 1 in the World at present, but Ireland’s recent record against them indicate 2 Irish wins in the last 2 matches. I however expect the All Blacks to have far too much in the tank for Ireland.

Wales are the current SIX Nations Grand Slam winners and with France not firing on all cylinders, I expect Wales to win. However, the unpredictable French have a great Rugby World Cup track record and sometimes the REAL French Team pitches up on the day… it could be Sunday.

The South African Springboks should beat Japan, if they play towards their own strenghts – which all starts with their dominating forwards, excellent set pieces, strong lineout mauls and staunch “In-your-face” defence. The Springbok weakness, if you ask me, is their overdoing of badly placed box kicks and continuing to do so against the hard-running and elusive Japanese runners could be their downfall. Against Japan one must play “Possession-Rugby” and “Territorial-Rugby”, starve Japan of go-forward ball or counter-attacking ball and one must cut down severely on the error base. Scotland made far too many errors against Japan on Sunday but when Scotland kept the game much tighter in the 2nd half they nearly managed to haul Japan in.

All we can do is wait in anticipation…