Rugby World Cup: Quarter finals kick off

Would you Adam and Eve it? It is entirely possible that by the end of the coming weekend there will be four Northern Hemisphere sides in the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup. That would be unprecedented and would guarantee the first European winner of the tournament since England’s triumph in Sydney 20 years ago. 

Hosts France join the unlikely duo of Wales and England in the quarters, both struggling desperately in the run-up to the tournament, and Ireland whose ascent to the summit of world rugby’s rankings has been built on turning Dublin’s schools into a geographic centre of excellence with Leinster as its university. 

Each play southern hemisphere opposition and all are capable of winning.

Scotland are the exception among the home nations, having failed to get out of a group comprising Ireland and South Africa, the current and three-time champions.

There’ll be a piper’s lament for the luck of the draw that saw a decent Scottish side so condemned. But unfortunate facts must be faced. To be the best, you have to beat the best as they say in boxing and against South Africa they lost on power. It’s an old Scottish failing, struggling against the big boys, not just in ranking terms but in sheer physicality.

Against Ireland last Saturday they climbed into the ring with an opponent of a different stamp. Not just power but pace and power. Ireland were over the line for their first try in just over a minute and, though Scotland rallied, wave after blue wave simply broke on the green rock of Irish defence. 

With battered and bewildered captain Jamie Ritchie, injured early and looking on, Ireland were 36-0 up by the hour and the game was effectively over. Little summed it up more than the imported muscle of Scottish wing Duhan van der Merwe being held at contemptuous arm’s length by 100 cap back rower Peter O’Mahoney after an all-in shoving session. 

Scotland remains a mid-table Six Nations side whose tactics of getting the ball wide early and relying on the intermittent miracles of Finn Russell at fly half have simply run out. This is not the stuff of European champions let alone winners of a Rugby World Cup. It’s “homeward tae think again”. 

Not that “the auld enemy” should gloat. England are in the quarters for the opposite reason that Scotland are out. They’ve played nobody of note. Equally bereft of genuine world-class, their one performance of note was a back-to-the-future defiance of an over-emotional Argentina, with George Ford dropping the goals à la Wilkinson.

Everything since has been dire, predictable or predictably dire, culminating in a one-point last-minute squeaker against mighty Samoa last Saturday. 

For that, they had veteran scrum-half Danny Care to thank, the 36 year-old scoring the clincher then putting in a try-saving tackle at the other end almost as the clock went red. He and young Harlequins teammate Marcus Smith looked like the only creative sparks in a collection of damp squibs. So much so that England fans could be heard singing “allez les bleus” in support of the ferocious Samoans. 

England have real troubles. The pack is a pale imitation of the reliably powerful forwards of yore. They can’t produce quick ball and haven’t done in years. This leaves the pedestrian pairing of Farrell and Ford, an unspeakable mess to which coach Steve Borthwick has returned like either a fly or a dog, struggling and to incremental effect for those around them whether they pass or, more often, kick.

This week, Farrell plays alone and Smith takes on the playmaker role from the unfamiliar position of full back. 

Meanwhile, Borthwick’s always odd post-match interviews – in which he sounds like something has possessed him so over-scripted are they – are becoming increasingly irascible in a way that suggests, like the prison warden in Cool Hand Luke, that “what we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” An exasperated belief that we’re all recalcitrantly refusing to understand.

But we do, Steve. We do.

England face Fiji in the quarters, their conquerors in the warm-up matches and victors too over Australia in the tournament group stages where Eddie Jones now works his particular brand of magic. Or trickery.

In the past, England would have looked to their forwards to strangle the life out of the free-running Fijians. Only the South Sea Islanders now seem better at that than the North Sea ones. It’s nip and tuck. The flaky Fijians, who contrived to lose to rugby giants Portugal in their final group match, and England, the fallen mighty and struggling to find their backside with both hands let alone each other with a pass. 

To lose would be a mercy killing. What might happen at the hands of the winner between South Africa and France, their opponent in the semis, might well resemble one of those wagon trains found a day too late by the cavalry. Nobody wants to see that. But they’ll probably nick it.

Meanwhile, the compare and contrast with Warren Gatland’s Wales is not a good one. If possible, le quinze du poireau, as the French sports papers rather comically dub them, were in an even worse state than England in the tournament run-up.

A scandal-ridden union, no coach, dreadful results and a raft of veterans either jumping or being pushed. Swirls of mystery surround quite how Gatland the crafty Kiwi returned to guide Wales as great redeemer and whether others were pipped at the post, but he has and to some effect. Undefeated in their group, they joined a less-than-exclusive band who handed Australia a serious hiding by 40 – 6 and edged past Fiji somewhat controversially. 

However, they’re in the quarters with increasing confidence, some great individual game-changers and a return of Gatland’s trademark structure and rigour. They face the bathetic Argentinians looking once again to get to the semi-final. Another toughie to call. Cymru am byth or all over by Saturday?

Quarter-finals (ALL GAMES SHOWN ON ITV)

Sat 14 Oct Wales v Argentina (4pm, Stade Vélodrome, Marseille)

Sat 14 Oct Ireland v New Zealand (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)

Sun 15 Oct England v Fiji (4pm, Stade Vélodrome, Marseille)

Sun 15 Oct France v South Africa (8pm, Stade de France, Paris)

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