Rugby World Cup: Joy, Frustration and Triumph (1987-2023) +198 View more
This means there will be two big quarter-finals next week, with world leaders Ireland taking on three-time champions New Zealand, while hosts and the second-strongest team on the planet, France, will take on reigning world champions South Africa.
Before the match, three teams from the “group of death” had a chance to enter the quarterfinals. It was enough for Ireland to prevent Scotland from winning by more than seven points to reach the quarter-finals, but Scotland needed to win by at least eight points to reach the quarter-finals and leave the Irish behind. On the other hand, DĀR had to hope that the Scots would not be able to win with a difference of more than 21 points and that both national teams would not get a bonus point, in such a situation the third place would already become the world champions.
Unfortunately, those who were looking forward to this game and rightfully hoped for a fierce battle with intrigue, had to be disappointed. Ireland clearly showed from the first seconds who is the owner here, scoring the first touchdown in the first minute and earning a bonus point for four touchdowns by the break, although the fate of the game was already decided much earlier.
James Lowe, Ian Henderson, Dan Shean, Gary Ringrose, Hugo Keenan scored twice for the winners and Johnny Sexton had three successful kicks.
Evan Ashman and Ali Price each carried the ball into the end zone for Scotland, while Finn Russell added four more points with two spot kicks.
First place in Group B was taken by Scotland with 19 points in four games, which faces New Zealand in the quarter-finals. DĀAR ranked second with 15 points, Scotland has ten points, but Tonga and Romania, who have played three matches each, have not got any points.
This means that Ireland will play New Zealand in the quarter-finals for the second successive World Cup finals. Four years ago, Ireland were also world leaders at the time, but they also failed to achieve their first play-off win in World Cup history as the All Blacks unexpectedly dealt with them easily.
True, the Irish can be encouraged by the fact that since 2016, when Ireland beat New Zealand for the first time after 111 years of effort, they have won four times in the following seven games, and last year for the first time not only celebrated a historic victory in New Zealand, but even won a three-game series . And also – the last two meetings in Europe have ended with Ireland’s victory.
Just a small problem – Ireland at the World Cup NEVER won a playoff game. In 1987, the Irish lost to Australia in the quarter-finals in Sydney (15:33), in the quarter-finals in 1991 they lost again to Australia (18:19) in their own stadium in Dublin, in 1995 they lost to France in the quarter-finals in Durban (12:36), in 1999 in the play-off for entry sensationally lost to Argentina in the quarter-finals in Lance (24:28), lost to France in the 2003 quarter-finals in Sydney (21:45), in 2007 in France did not get out of the group at all, losing to the hosts and Argentina, lost to Wales in the 2011 quarter-finals in Wellington (10:22) , in the quarter-finals of 2015 in Cardiff again lost to Argentina (20:43), but in the quarter-finals of 2019 in Tokyo, they fell under the road roller of New Zealand (14:46).
On the other hand, in the quarter-finals against South Africa, France will hope to continue the positive trend that began in Marseille last fall in the series with a 30:26 victory, ending a streak of seven losses since the distant 2010. The truth is, South Africa was forced to play in the minority for a large part of the game. With France playing so well this year, maybe it’s finally time for the Gallic rooster to sing a victory song after three failed finals?
It should be noted that in the World Cup play-offs, France already met DĀR once, when it made its debut in the tournament, returning to the international sports arena after the fall of the apartheid regime. At that time, the 1995 semi-final in Durban was played in extreme conditions after tropical rains. A week later, the whole of South Africa rejoiced when they beat New Zealand in the final in Johannesburg.
14 October 18.00: 1st quarter-final Wales – 2nd place in Group D (Argentina or Japan)
14 October 22.00: Quarter-final 2 Ireland v New Zealand
15 October 18.00: 3rd quarter-final England – Group C 2nd place (Fiji or Australia)
15 October 22.00: Quarter-final 4 France v South Africa
20 October 22.00: 1st semi-final (winners of 1st and 2nd quarter-finals)
21 October 22.00: 2nd semi-final (winners of 3rd and 4th quarter-finals)
27 October 22.00: game for 3rd place
28 October 22.00: final
The World Cup takes place in nine French cities for more than a month and a half, with 20 national teams fighting for the prestigious trophy. In the first stage, the national teams play a one-round tournament in four subgroups, with the best two advancing to the quarterfinals.
The owners of the first three places in each group will secure tickets to the 2027 World Cup.
France hosts the world championship for the third time in history and for the second time – as the sole host. Out of the nine held tournaments, the champion cup, named after William Webb Ellis, has been lifted three times each by New Zealand and South African rugby players, two titles are for Australia and one for England.
Four years ago, the World Cup held in Japan was won by DĀR, which prevailed over England in the final with a score of 32:12.
2023-10-07 21:45:49
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