Heading into the final round of fixtures, there are still three teams that have a chance of progressing from Pool 'B' at the Rugby World. Ireland, Scotland, and South Africa will all be hoping to have booked a place in the quarter-finals by the end of the weekend.
The Springboks are in an interesting position. Their job is done, with their 49-18 victory over Tonga last night ensuring that they will finish the pool with 15 points. They must now wait for Ireland to face Scotland on Saturday evening before they find out their fate.
All three teams could still finish anywhere between first and third, depending on how the weekend fixture plays out.
Rassie Erasmus feels South Africa are in a better position than Ireland
South Africa are in a comfortable position. While their fate is now out of their hands, it would take a very unlikely result in the Ireland-Scotland game in order for them to be knocked out.
As a result, some within the Springboks camp feel that they are in the best spot out of all three teams.
Speaking at a Rugby World Cup press conference today, Rassie Erasmus suggested that he would prefer to be in his team's position as opposed to Ireland's, despite having lost to Andy Farrell's team in Paris during the pool.
Basically, as I understand it, if Scotland beat Ireland by more than eight points and Ireland don't get a bonus point then Ireland is out. We would be first, Scotland second and Ireland out. If Scotland beat Ireland 8-0, Ireland are out.
That's how I see it. I was thinking about that a lot last night...
If I was Ireland I'd definitely make sure they beat them...
With full humbleness, and there is no arrogance saying this, but I'd rather sit here than be Ireland knowing that we've been number one in the world all the time and Scotland basically just have to beat them by eight points and they are out of the tournament.
The score could be 22-12 or 22-13 and Ireland are out of the competition if they don't get a bonus point. Of the three teams we are probably the most comfortable sitting here knowing we have got a two week rest. Look, maybe we have got six months rest if the cards don't fall our way.
We have got two weeks off where we can analyse all three teams that we can possibly play. I always thought the Ireland-Scotland game was going to be nervy.
You can see what Rassie Earsmus is getting at here, with Ireland in danger of going out if they fail to perform against Scotland.
In saying that, should they get the job done against Gregor Townsend's men, it would be difficult to argue that they would not be the more fancied side considering they would have won each of their pool games.
We will have a much clearer picture of where all three teams stand by the end of Saturday night.
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