Europe is smiling. The third round of the World Cup in France ended this Sunday with the victories of Scotland and Wales against Tonga and Australia. The tournament is halfway through and potential candidates have started to appear, reinforcing that condition through the results. In that sense, as never before, teams from the Northern Hemisphere dominated the scene. In fact, the leaders of each of the zones are Europeans.
Correspondingly, Teams from the Southern Hemisphere seem to occupy the places of distribution in this gala. In fact, in this tournament it happened that the big three lost in the group stage: the last to join this list was South Africa after losing to Ireland on Saturday.
Zone A is led by France, a team that is the best and it shows in every presentation. Almost a number to play in the decisive moment, the French team has already entered the quarterfinals, a moment in which New Zealand is a candidate to join them. The All Blacks, although they are in third place in the table, have two accessible games left between them in Italy, who are currently runners-up to Les Bleus. One is Uruguay
Ireland, which has already qualified for the next round, is at the top of Zone B, followed by South Africa, which despite the defeat of Clover also remains a serious candidate. In fact, he is the defending champion of the title. But Scotland continued to fight and after a 45-17 victory against Tonga maintained its mathematical chances, although the truth shows that for a miracle to happen the Springboks must be defeated again.
In Zone C, Wales took a big step by defeating the Wallabies with authority (40-6) and also reaching the quarterfinals. Australia, having already lost to Fiji, were left compromised and on a tight rope, almost on the brink of elimination.
In Zone D, with England already classified in the quarterfinals, all that remains to be done is to determine which team will join them in the next round.. Los Pumas’ win puts them back in the race but they have a Japanese opponent to beat to reach their goal. If there is no possibility of slipping, the Argentine team will first face Chile (this is next Saturday) to end the group stage on Sunday, October 8, against the sunrise team, in a key game, the one that determines his future.
