KEY POINTS:
PARIS - There were widely differing moods on Friday in the Rugby World Cup camps as the competition neared its halfway stage.
By Sunday night 12 of the 20 teams will be heading home and the eight survivors will be planning the next stages of their campaign to
reach the final in Paris on October 20.
Already through and enjoying the early autumnal weather in France are southern hemisphere big guns New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
Definitely packing their bags are Samoa and the United States from Group A, Japan and Canada from Group B, Romania and Portugal from Group C and Georgia and Namibia from Group D.
That leaves a clutch of winner-takes all key games that will be played out over the next three days.
All eyes will be on holders England against the surprise packets of the tournament Tonga in Paris on Friday, followed the next day by Wales against Fiji in Nantes and Scotland against Italy in St Etienne.
In each case the winner advances to next weekend's quarter-finals
More complicated is Group D where Argentina's opening night win over France upset the applecart.
The Pumas are hot favourites to top the group by beating Ireland at the Parc des Princes on Sunday, but Eddie O'Sullivan's men can still go through though they need to score four tries against the top defence in the tournament to date.
Barring a miracle, France will dispose of the Georgians leaving them second in the group unless Argentina collapse against the Irish. That would mean they must travel to Cardiff to take on the All Blacks in the last eight.
Typical of the mood in the British and Irish camps was that around the defending champions England.
Brian Ashton's men have been abysmal so far and are facing the prospect of losing to cocky Tonga and becoming the first defending champion to fail to reach the last eight four years later.
But a win over Tonga would salvage the English campaign and with World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson back in harness, it would be foolish to rule them out in a quarter-final matchup with the Australians.
Skipper Martin Corry believes the champions "momentum" means they can look forward with confidence to taking on the Tongans.
"We expect to win the game, that's taking nothing away from Tonga," Corry said.
"They are coming into the game full of confidence. We are a team that also has momentum. We are not looking at any negativity, we're purely positive and focused on us."
Wales also have Pacific Islanders on their minds in the unpredictable shape of Fiji and veteran flanker Colin Charvis insists they have to be ruthless or face going home in disgrace.
"We go into the game with a boxer's mentality and get the first one in. Unfortunately, in two of our games we've managed to get the next two in.
"We go into games wanting to start well. It's not a plan of ours to start poorly and lull them into a false sense of security and then run all over them.
Scotland coach Frank Hadden always knew that the game against Italy in St Etienne late Saturday would be the big one as both sides targetted second place in the group behind the mighty All Blacks and so it has turned out.
But the former schoolmaster is quietly confident that his side can reverse the 17-37 reverse the Scots suffered the last time the two sides met at Murrayfield in February and go through to a tantalising quarter-final against Argentina in Paris should the Pumas hold firm against the Irish.
"We give Italy the utmost respect," Hadden said.
"Not only did they win their last match against us but we have always found Italy a difficult side to play against. We are happy with where we are at present."
Ireland's miserable World Cup campaign meanwhile got even worse on Thursday with the mystery illness that sent prop Simon Best to hospital and an upset big win over Argentina looks increasingly improbable.
- AFP