‘It’s all on the line this weekend at the Rugby World Cup’
This is the crunch point, where those nations who have not yet secured their spots in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup find out whether they’ve got any bottle.
Because when everything is on the line, and there is no get-out-of-jail-free card in the following week, you really see what you are made of.
There’s a couple of those fixtures this weekend, Italy versus the hosts France being one of them. But across the group stages there are straight shootout matches, as if the knockouts have started a week early.
In Pool C Japan take on Argentina knowing the winners are set for a date with Wales next weekend.
Warren Gatland and his men will be hoping it is Japan who come through because Argentina have that one performance in them that could derail the Welsh train, whereas Japan have just fallen away from the highs of their home Rugby World Cup four years ago.
Even though they are top of Pool C, Wales have gone under the radar because of the fiasco that has been the Australian team.
That said, if I wanted either England or Wales to go out and represent me in the quarter-finals, knowing it was a one-off shot at making the semi-finals, I would pick Steve Borthwick’s England.
They haven’t been perfect but I think they have been there and done it enough to know how to get a knockout result in a Rugby World Cup against fancied opposition.
Scotland and Ireland, too, is a key battle with the possibility of one of them or South Africa not making it out of their group.
It would be a tragedy for the Rugby World Cup if either the reigning champions or the world No1s didn’t reach the last eight but Scotland cannot think of that, they must go out there with the intention of winning and putting destiny in their own hands.
And in the previously touted Italy versus France match, where there is the smallest chance of Italy knocking out the All Blacks, we won’t see Antoine Dupont playing for the first time since his fractured cheek bone.
I think the injury to the talismanic No9 poses a question for rugby in that he will have had an operation, a plate fitted and returned to training within a couple of weeks despite being on the receiving end of a head shot that broke his face.
South African winger Makazole Mapimpi was on the end of the same sort of head shot but he has been sent home from the Rugby World Cup due to his injuries.
It may be great for the game to see Dupont back in action, even if it is just in training at the moment, but it does make rugby ask questions of itself over head injuries and their importance when they’re not concussion.
This has been a great Rugby World Cup and it is welcome that outcomes for the quarter-finals come down to the final weekend of fixtures.
It remains possible for all four of the semi-finalists to be from the northern hemisphere, which would be quite the feat, but to do so would require an unlikely 21-point win for Scotland or for Ireland to demolish their Celtic neighbours.
But that’s what’s exciting about this tournament, you never quite know where to look for the next surprise.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips cycled from London to Lyon in time for the Wales v Australia game to raise money for Head for Change, a charity aspiring to achieve positive change for brain health in sport. Follow Ollie on Twitter to donate.