“The Quarter-finals Are Always Packed Full Of Drama”

With the Japan 2019 knockouts fast approaching, Stephen Jones explains why the last-eight stage of a World Cup tends to deliver defining games – and picks his best and worst throughout history

- Stephen Jones

DURING ANY World Cup, it is sad to wave goodbye to those teams who have failed to make the knockout stages. Most of them would have won hearts and minds by playing well against the odds, but as they disappear the whole thing blasts off onto another planet.

The quarter-final stages are always packed full of fascination, drama, pure class or, occasionally, pure dross. With what are meant to be the best eight teams in the world involved, the quarters define the state of rugby and the current quality of play.

Later this month there will be two quarter-finals in Oita and two more in Tokyo and those four matches will set the tone for the event on and off the field.

As the action was just about to begin in Japan, we made a prediction about the possible quarter-final line-up, a pure guess in advance. It reads as follows:

England v Wales
New Zealand v Ireland
Australia v France
Scotland v South Africa.

Of course, some of the pool games threatened to be incredibly close, so it was also relatively easy to imagine this quarter-final line-up:

England v Australia
South Africa v Scotland
Wales v France
Ireland v New Zealand

And all neutrals have been praying for Fiji and/or Japan to make the last eight to ensure there are some different faces.

The quarter-final stages have always been noteworthy, in all of the eight World Cups to date. But noteworthy in many different ways. There has been huge controversy and bitter disappointment – for those who gave up the rest of their lives to prepare. There has been brilliant play and sporting drama, but also incredibly dull games, squeezed by the pressure.

Indeed, it seems from memory that the quarter-final rounds have either been sensational or disappointing – although none have been without pure dramatics. Here are the quarter-finals ranked in order and my standout memories from each weekend…