FROM THE MOMENT unheralded and unfancied Russia set the nerves jangling for the host nation on Friday, this Rugby World Cup successfully hit full throttle and took off at terrific speed.
The Super Saturday that was day two of the competition was one of the great rugby viewing parties. Between a seismic clash for the upper hand in Pool B and a fantastic start from Fiji, France and Argentina delivered an added-bonus epic of a game where they obligingly took turns being the team grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck before reverting to throw-it-away mode.
In a shallow talent pool like rugby, though, there are not all that many evenly-matched contests to go around. And when Ireland had fully forced Scotland’s face to the mud midway through the first-half in Yokohama, it felt like Christmas had come early. In a bad way.
In the way you gorge on delicious roast turkey-and-all-the-trimmings in the middle of the day, take on wine, a few extra spuds, a beer you think might feel refreshing and a few deep dives into the tin of Roses. You’re full, immobile and though all the same ingredients are still left front of you, none of it is quite as appetising as it was a day or two earlier.
In the Rugby World Cup, that means Super Saturday was followed by one-way traffic on Sunday and Monday. And if it’s only Titanic Tier 1 contests you’re after, Sunday’s meeting between Australia and Wales must feel a long way away.
Ireland play Japan before that, of course, the weekend’s next most appetising fixture.
If Joe Schmidt’s men maintain anything close to the form shown on Sunday then Pool A will be signed and sealed. The chasm that exists between the sport’s top tier nations and those who have been left outside the major annual tournaments, coupled with the premium placed on physical endurance, means that shocks are a precious rarity.
Nobody will argue that Pool B remains up for grabs after New Zealand saw off the Springboks. Pool D ought to be sorted by Sunday lunchtime once the Wallabies and Wales provide one another’s litmus test.
And if we can assume that France can avoid losing to Tonga again, but don’t pull off a massive shock by beating England then we’re getting very close to seeing the make-up of all four quarter-finals – which still won’t happen for four weeks.
Yet before we go trying to figure out whether it’s Wales, Australia or France who will join the winners of Ireland-South Africa in a semi-final on 27 October, there are a few loose threads worth watching get tied up as we go freewheeling towards the knockout round.
Will Scotland now crumble altogether? Or rebound in time to burst a Japanese bubble in the final pool match?
The host nation’s broadcasters may well be digging out the ROG-cam after out-half Yu Tamura’s very shaky start to the tournament and the assured cameo from his replacement Rikiya Matsuda.
Are France the Les Bleus who set the tournament alight in the first 40 against Argentina, or are they still the side that has recently blighted the Six Nations?
Will referees begin enforcing the high tackle laws again?
We’ve just come through another weekend in which Tier 2 nations had cause for grievance over the way they were refereed. The tournament, though packed with quality so far, could do with a shock result to break the feeling that the die in most pools has already been cast.
Perhaps even less than a shock would do. A good healthy scare that lasts longer than Russia’s moments of dominance against Japan would be a welcome scenic route, because there’s an awful lot of road between here and the business end of this tournament.
