Rugby World Cup: Pool A - What it all means

There remains two more crucial encounters in pool A featuring Wales, Australia and England. Photos / AP

Pool of death seems about right. Whoever makes it out of Pool A isn't going to have much left. It's been brutal, sapping and demanding and there's plenty more to come.

Wales looked like a team that had been taken to the edge of their physical and emotional capacity just five days earlier. They got the job done but it was a struggle.

Captain Sam Warburton reckoned he was running through treacle for most of the game. He couldn't remember Fiji scoring a try while fullback Morgan came off with double vision related to exhaustion.

A five day turnaround after what Wales went through at Twickenham was a big ask, made so much harder by the ferocity and excellence of Fiji who once again have been dumped on from a great height.

They have had to play England, Australia and Wales within 13 days. It has been suicidal schedule, one that even the All Blacks wouldn't have been able to handle. Throw in the fact they had to play Wales in Cardiff and it's just a nonsense. An absolute travesty they were treated like that.

Somehow, for the third consecutive test they found a way to stay in the contest when it was threatening to get away on them and while it won't change a thing in regard to their progress, they should be proud of their resilience and character which has been exceptional.

Fiji more than any other side have been the victim of World Rugby's stupidity in holding the draw years before kick off.

Throw Fiji into Pool D and they might just have got out of it. Pool B and they almost certainly would have found a way into the last eight. As it is, they have played a significant role in the knockout rounds, by taking lumps out of England, Australia and Wales.

They out scrummaged all three of them, especially Wales who were battered in that department. A long way second and if they make it to the last eight, that will be an area others will look to exploit.

And whether they will make it to the last eight is the question everyone at this World Cup is asking. Pool A is intensely fascinating and Saturday's clash in London is the game that will have enormous sway on this World Cup.

The answer to so many questions hinges on the result this weekend - the entire draw will be affected and never in the history of the World Cup has a game this early in the competition carried so much weight.

If England lose they are out - it's that simple and the World Cup will move into unprecedented territory of seeing the host eliminated in the pool round.

Nothing emotional on this, but the All Blacks will be quite happy to see the hosts eliminated on the basis that they would fancy England could be a handful if they survive.

They'd probably also be delighted to see Wales top the pool with the Wallabies finishing second. That would mean that if South Africa win Pool B - they would clash with the Wallabies in the quarters and boom...another seriously good team will be gone.

The All Blacks won't be too worried about how Pool A works out, though - they will play the cards they are dealt in the final eight.

But what they will be more than happy about is the level of fatigue and carnage that Pool A has inflicted. Whoever makes it out may have almost nothing left.

- Gregor Paul in Cardiff