1) Injuries will not dampen Wales spirits after win over England
The investigation into the collective strength of the pack will presumably be serious and the search for replacements will be even more earnest but for the moment nothing will dampen Welsh spirits. The spirit of Wembley 99 and Cardiff 13 lives on. Camaraderie and a refusal to buckle can take Wales a long way. Presumably one day – perhaps at this very World Cup – they will simply run out of players. For the moment it does not matter. Wales returned to Cardiff on Sunday night and took to their cryo-chambers at 3am. The show goes on, injured players in a trail waving those that remain onwards into the deep freezers of recovery. Eddie Butler
2) England will be hurting but all may not be lost
England’s Chris Robshaw takes blame but Stuart Lancaster also culpable
There are many ways to progress in the World Cup, most of them explored by France. The French mantra in 2011 was that to win the prize they had to beat New Zealand only the once. They did not quite manage it in the final but the message gave them hope. All is not lost for England. Beat Australia and their prospects are revived. They may not even have to beat Wales a second time. This is not the end – but how they must be hurting. And would they not wish now to have taken that late shot at goal? They can look ahead but will be haunted. EB
3) Ireland’s expansive game plan increases possibility of serious progress
They have been lurking on the edge of the radar for a week or so, beating up minnows, but Joe Schmidt’s Ireland are bona fide contenders, and the coach’s belief has been considerably strengthened after witnessing another expansive performance, driven by Zebo from deep, executed by Earls and Bowe on both flanks. The three-pronged speed assault that ripped Romania apart can do the same to Italy and, says Romania’s coach, Lynn Howells, France after that. If they can sustain this energy and sharpness, they will come out of the pool buzzing more than in any recent tournament. That makes them extremely dangerous. What Schmidt asks them to do at the breakdown – two-man clear-outs with just a hint of semi-legal angle of entry – is also tough to counter and requires considerable commitment and concentration. Romania had no counter to it. Kevin Mitchell
4) Scotland and Cotter have air of confidence
Supporters will be peering over Hadrian’s Wall unable to stifle their laughter. Two matches, two bonus-point victories – a feat only they and Ireland have managed – and they made a mockery of their four-day turnaround, vastly improved after the break against the USA. A refocused South Africa side await at St James’ Park on Saturday but, if Scotland can marry both of their second-half performances so far, when the error counts were far lower and all of their tries have been scored and produce it for 80 minutes, the Springboks may be vulnerable again. They will need Finn Russell fit – he went off with a knock in the second half – and they will have to take the kind of chances that Tim Visser butchered in the first half following magnificent footwork from Stuart Hogg. But their 2010 victory is still relatively fresh in the memory and Vern Cotter has the air of a man with the kind of confidence brought about by four wins in five matches, having been unable to come across any of them for nine months. Gerard Meagher
• Match report: Scotland 39-16 USA
5) USA show they can really play
One feels for Chris Wyles, Saracens’ ultra-high standards deeply entrenched inside him, but one also wonders if being so critical of his side’s performances is productive. The flip side is that it is easy to give tier two nations a patronising pat on the back for their efforts in defeat but there is middle ground and Wyles ought to be occupying it. The USA are getting better. There is no doubting that. Not long ago they were a collection of big lumps, hard in the tackle but hamstrung by an absence of knowing what to do with the ball. Now, they can play and in AJ MacGinty they have a fly-half who, with only a handful of Test appearances to his name, looks the part. The hitch is that, as their sevens programme rapidly develops with increased funding brought about by the sport’s inclusion on to the Olympic roster, their skill sets improve but XVs remains a very different game. Can they prosper in both? More likely sevens takes precedence. GM
• Read Michael Butler’s MBM report on Scotland v USA
6) Injury-hit South Africa must stay focused
So was it all just a bad dream? The authority and composure with which South Africa dispatched a dangerous Samoa cut quite the contrast with their nervousness and incoherence in the defeat by Japan – so much so, it is difficult to believe it was the same group of players. Is that it, then? The defeat by Japan (and that by Argentina in August) was just a blip? Probably. That said, Samoa were the perfect team for South Africa to face after a defeat like that. Credible, physical, capable of an upset, yet liable to suffer when the blowtorch is applied. A chastened South Africa is kryptonite to a team like that. The pressure will have eased just a little on the Springboks – or at least the opprobrium. Now they have to ensure they remain just as focused while contending with the broken jaw and subsequent retirement of Jean de Villiers and injuries to who knows how many others. Michael Aylwin
• South Africa’s De Villiers retires after suffering broken jaw
• Meyer brought to tears after his year from hell
7) Samoa play at priority
Samoa’s coach, Stephen Betham, seemed phlegmatic in defeat. While victory would have been more than just a bonus – ask Japan – nothing about Samoa’s campaign is dramatically changed by this defeat. One sensed, not only from the body language but from the selection, that this match might not have been prioritised by them. Would Betham really have gone into a must-win game without Tusi Pusi, for example? Mike Stanley, his replacement, had an uncomfortable afternoon, falling off tackles, missing touch and throwing the interception pass around which Samoa’s promising start unravelled. Pisi came on in the second half, along with his brother George, where they joined brother Ken – the first time three brothers have played in the same team at a World Cup. Expect all three to start from here on in. There is a lot of life remaining in Pool B. Samoa will want their piece of it. MA
• Match report: South Africa 46-6 Samoa
8) Australia gamble on freshness ahead of game time
Whatever Australia’s first team turns out to be next weekend, it will not bear much resemblance to the one that cruised to 11 tries against Uruguay. Which may yet prove a problem, regardless of the injuries to Wycliff Palu, whose hamstring is the gravest concern, and Will Skelton. What is particularly noticeable going into the showdown with England is how little rugby the Australia first team has played in the past few weeks. One run-out against Fiji is pretty much the sum total of it since the second weekend of August. One might be tempted to hold that up as an advantage. Logically, they should be fresh at least but the evidence of the modern game seems to point towards match hardness as more valuable an energy than freshness. There is a balance to be struck, of course, but one game in seven weeks is not it. MA
9) Uruguay not seen to hit the heights
A perusal of the vital statistics of Uruguay’s team in the media guide suggested that their lock forwards were both 6ft 2in, with one of them less than 16st, the other a few pounds over. Surely not. A quick check on the internet revealed the same stats. So the next resort was the lineup for the national anthems. Sure enough - there was Will Skelton, towering over his team-mates, there was Dean Mumm at the end of the line doing the same, there were Ben McCalman, Rob Simmons. Australia’s tall men were self-evident. What stood out among the Uruguayans was, well, that none of them did. Their locks were indeed 6ft 2in, as were most of the rest of the team, bar a few backs (although one of the centres was the tallest of them all) and a No8 shorter than anyone. Under the circumstances, Uruguay were heroic. Australia regularly spilled the ball because of the intensity of their tackling. They did have a few problems at the lineout, though. MA
10) Romania left to scrap around for respectability
They have had their moments at international level, with scattergun wins over Wales, France, Scotland and Italy – but none against Ireland in nine attempts now and there looks little prospect of that run ending in the near- or even long-term. Still, they are a hardy lot, the team known as The Oaks, and not once did they disintegrate, even though they were under serious pressure in nearly every exchange. Theirs was the classic dilemma of teams without the resources or pedigree of those operating regularly at an altogether different level: how to find respite and inspiration in the face of an avalanche. Modern rugby is played at such an intense and damaging click that 80 minutes can fly by like Simon Zebo, at times. Now, Romania’s brief is to scrap around for respectability - and a date in the calendar to attend the wedding of their scrum-half, Valentin Calafeteanu, who proposed to his fiancée on the pitch afterwards. KM
11) Canada’s Crowley has a point
Oh Canada. Two of the best tries seen at this tournament, more territory and more possession but ultimately undone by a hit-and-run score from Gonzalo Garcia. They had a try ruled out for a forward pass, a marginal but correct call, but as Jamie Cudmore said, tongue inside a considerably swollen cheek, afterwards: “Maybe they could have just let it go for the good of rugby.” An emerging theme of this tournament is that the lesser nations, with coaches of superior calibre than their players, are hatching clever gameplans to spring one-off surprises. We saw it with Japan and again at Elland Road with Canada refusing to contest lineouts, firing the ball in and out of the scrum quickly enough to deny Italy the chance to push and relying on their considerable pace out wide. It nearly worked and perhaps would have if Canada had just a little more experience against tier one nations – just three matches between the end of the 2011 World Cup and the start of this one. It was Kieran Crowley’s chief complaint after the match and as the only head coach at the tournament to have won the World Cup as a player he is probably worth listening to. GM
• Match report: Italy 23-18 Canada
12) Brunel engineers win but receives grilling over Italy display
If Stuart Lancaster winced as he picked up the papers on Sunday morning then spare a thought for Jacques Brunel. The grilling that Lancaster received is small fry compared with that of Brunel by the Italian press, disillusioned with the side’s listless performances and more so the French coach’s aloof disposition when probed about it. One questioner went as far as to say that Italy’s problem was a lack of personality, essentially because Brunel does not have one. Harsh but, regarding on-field performances, he had a point. No Sergio Parisse means no conviction. Brunel pointed to the half-backs, Edoardo Gori and Tommaso Allan, insisting that in the interests of development they must be persevered with despite their inconsistencies. It is a valid argument but who is to say when Brunel walks away after the World Cup his successor takes a different approach and so begins another four-year cycle of stagnation and false dawns? Georgia’s claim to Italy’s Six Nations spot has rarely looked stronger. GM
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