Wales were too strong for Australia in the pool stages. Photo: Getty Images/Paul Harding
For the first time in Rugby World Cup history, the winners of all four groups from the northern hemisphere will be seen this weekend.
England have already been confirmed as Group D winners, with France repeating this achievement comes with a 60-7 win over Italy on Friday night.
We will top our group if we can beat Georgia on Saturday, while Ireland, who are also unbeaten, will win Group B if they beat Scotland, who have a mathematical chance. at least finish on top, beating Andy Farrell's team.
What a game it promises to be. A head coach often doesn't have enough time to watch and participate in games that are not relevant to your team's progress. But I can't wait to watch this game at the Stade de France. It will be a titanic struggle. Scotland certainly have an attacking game that can really test Ireland and the match-up between Johnny Sexton and Finn Russell will be exciting.
Four group winners from the northern hemisphere would be a remarkable achievement given that southern hemisphere teams have traditionally dominated previous World Cups. Only England in 2003 broke their stranglehold on the Webb Ellis Trophy since 1987.
It's too early to talk about a change of power, but as Rassie Erasmus takes to social media ahead of Ireland vs Scotland and Ian Foster bets The quality of play in Ireland's win over South Africa has been questioned, and with good reason.
The suggestion that Ireland and Scotland would collude is absolutely outrageous. I don't even know how you would even try to do this! While I suppose this is simply increasing the interest in building momentum, everyone knows that won't happen.
Eddie Jones was also quite optimistic in the lead-up to our win over Australia, saying he was confident his the team will win.
I was excited to take on the challenge and decided to stand on my side and say that I thought we were confident and we were going to go out there and win. We entered the game almost unnoticed. Much has been written and said about our performance against Fiji, but 20 minutes into the second half we had completely dominated the game 32-14 before a yellow card changed the course of the game and we know what Fiji can do in this situation. . People said we were lucky to hold on for the win, but I thought we executed our game plan brilliantly in 65 minutes.
Wales beat Eddie Jones' Australia convincing Posted by: Getty Images/Chris Hyde
I made a lot of changes against Portugal and a lot of people underestimated how good they were, and then we had a great week of preparation before the Australia game and we were very clear that what we want to do, and I think the guys coped with the task.
Traditionally the last few years have been very competitive and for us a 40-6 win over one of the southern hemisphere teams gave us a lot of pride but also a huge amount of confidence. You also have to feel for the Australian team, who had to stay in France for a week without playing, waiting to find out their fate.
As I said, it was great to see so many likes. Fiji, Portugal and Uruguay put in impressive performances in France. This is really positive for the game. And the spectators at the games were amazing.
Raising the northern hemisphere sides is equally important for improving danger and excitement. I think it's great for the tournament. Has there ever been a more open World Cup?
There will be epic battles in the quarter-finals.
At the 2015 World Cup, all four semi-finalists were from the southern hemisphere – New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Argentina – despite the fact that it is held in England.
Eight years have passed and there is a possibility that all four may come from the northern hemisphere. What an achievement that would be.
One of the big improvements to the game in the northern hemisphere has been physical fitness and skill set. Once you can physically match the southern hemisphere, the fear factor will disappear.
Warren Gatland is delighted to lead Wales to the Quarter-Finals next week. Photo: Shutterstock/Chris Fairweather
I think northern hemisphere teams have also benefited from the strength of the club game in Europe, where Super Rugby used to be the dominant competition. Competing at high level competition week after week makes a huge difference.
Technology and communication also played a role. Coaches are gaining experience all over the world, and teams in the northern hemisphere have been able to identify and adapt to attacking or defensive strategies much faster than they could have done in the past.
The key to success now is to manage ours as best we can. resources.
In previous World Cups, when we reached the quarter-finals or semi-finals, we suffered a number of injuries to key players and we do not have the depth as other countries to cope with this.
That's why we're very careful about how we tailor our training. We want intensity, but we're not going to do long sessions. We're worried about players becoming heavy-legged, especially when the training fields are a little softer.
We want to make sure we get to the playoffs in the best shape we can.
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