In Part 2 of our Quarter Final previews, former Waratahs assistant coach Simon Cron talks about the rise of the Brave Blossoms and their impact on the sport in the Land of the Rising Sun, and the remaining two clashes between hosts Japan and South Africa, and Wales and France…

The phoney war is over as the 2019 Rugby World Cup reaches the pointy end, with the eight remaining teams contesting the Quarter Finals this weekend. Former Waratahs assistant coach Simon Cron, now based in Japan, runs the rule over each knockout clash.

This was more like it, Ireland overcoming a red card to overpower Samoa 47-5 in Fukuoka last night, and put themselves back in the frame as a Rugby World Cup contender.

A devastating first half has helped South Africa towards a 66-7 dismantling of Canada in Kobe, the Springboks racking up 10 tries as they booked a place in the Quarter-Finals. Scrumhalf Cobus Reinach scored the fastest hat-trick in World Cup history as they blasted to a 33-0 lead inside the first quarter, but they were helped somewhat by a soporific

Japan’s World Cup odyssey continued last night with a hard-fought but well-deserved 38-19 defeat of Samoa in front of a jubilant home crowd in Toyota.

The World Cup dreams of Italy – and their talismanic captain Sergio Parisse who retires at the tournament’s end – have been shattered after a 49-3 humbling at the hands of an impressive and powerful South Africa in Shizuoka.

Ireland have got their World Cup campaign back on track with a 35-0 defeat of Russia in Kobe, going some way towards putting the horror show against hosts Japan to rest. But given they were playing the 20th ranked team in the world, and a Russian side forced to play for 20 minutes a man down after two yellow cards, this wasn’t quite the one-sided try-fest that was predicted, or indeed expected.