2-0 (10pts, 1st in Pool D)
With 13 tries, they trail only Australia on this count. But there seems to be more method and less madness to Ireland's approach at this tournament. It's tempting to lay this all at the door of new Zealand coach Joe Schmidt, so we will. A largely second-string team did enough against Romania to suggest the men in green will not suffer too much if they lose a few players. The same cannot be said for other squads. One thing they need to improve is the lineout, where they rank in the bottom five.
2-0 (9pts, 1st in Pool A)
Was anybody enjoying Wales and England knocking seven bells out of each other quite as much as Michael Cheika? Compared to the other group heavyweights, they have enjoyed an armchair ride into the tournament, meeting a Fiji side off short rest and then facing the tournament's worst side in Uruguay. So this is hardly indicative of what me might see later, but Australia's three three-quarters and fullback made a combined 424m between them against the South Americans.
2-0 (9pts, 2nd in Pool D)
Like Ireland, they ran the bench against Romania and came away with a functional, relatively stress-free victory. The Celts and the Gauls meet in the penultimate match of pool play, in Cardiff on October 12 (NZT). With Italy being so poor, there is a sense that this pool is providing nothing but a few strenuously opposed training sessions until that big date.
1-1 (5pts, 2nd in Pool C)
Los Pumas didn't have the luxury of being able to run out their second-stringers against Georgia at Gloucester, but they have a big break now until they meet Tonga at Leicester. The way Pool C was set up - with the two big guns meeting first up and three relatively weak sides - meant squad dynamics were always going to be difficult to manage. At this early stage, however, Argentina look well set up for this sort of tournament.
2-0 (10pts, 1st in Pool B)
I wrote last week that I thought Scotland would top their pool, which elicited this entirely reasonable response from reader Jim Currie: "Not sure how you came to that conclusion, Dylan. Unless you think Scotland will beat [South Africa]. Obviously if [South Africa] beat the Scots and everyone else, as they probably will, the Japanese victory, while great in an emotional sense for everyone but the Boks, won't mean much." That's the strange thing, I'm actually starting to believe in Scotland. It's a disease that's catching.
1-1 (7pts, 2nd in Pool B)
I'm not getting sucked into thinking that a thumping victory over a desperately average Samoa side represents a miracle cure for the ills of Springbok rugby, but it does make me convinced they'll escape Pool B despite the Nippon embarrassment. Still, a better side than Samoa will make those 15 penalties conceded and 11 turnovers lost count. The broken jaw suffered by Jean de Villiers, while a sad way for a classy warrior to leave the game, will not hurt the campaign.
2-0 (9pts, 2nd in Pool A)
What?! Wales win one of the great RWC contests and they slide down? But the latest World Rugby rankings have them second in the world?
Let the scorn flow down from the Valleys, while Rankings explains its logic. Wales' injury list in the backs is horrific. Jonathan Davies, Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb were gone before the tournament started, Corey Allen after the first game, and now centre Scott Williams and wing Hallam Amos are gone while fullback Liam Williams will be seeing stars for a couple more games yet. This England win, while one of the great all-time contests, was not particularly high quality, and it almost felt like Wales' final. Still, it was bloody great to see them so happy.
1-1 (6pts, 3rd in Pool A)
Not everyone else is, but I'm giving Chris Robshaw a free pass on The Decision. I don't care how well Owen Farrell's going, at that point of the match it's a 50-50 kick at best and it's chewing time off the clock. At worst he could have expected a half-decent lineout drive to earn another penalty, but this time in a more comfortable 15m in slot. What was unforgivable, was calling a front lob to two in the lineout, the easiest ball to defend. This, to Rankings, was the bone-in-the-brain moment.
1-1 (4pts, 4th in Pool B)
Their lack of bonus points will likely bite them, as will the unconscionable scheduling that had them playing their Pool B heavyweights within a few days of each other. They were far more enterprising than Scotland, despite the best blinkered efforts of referee John Lacey, until about 10 minutes into the second half when you could see all the fuel being drained from the tanks. World Rugby CEO @brettgosper needs to punch himself really hard in the face if he ever finds himself tweeting about how Japan has more rest days in this tournament than any other team.
0-2 (0pts, 4th in Pool A)
It was never meant to be for Fiji after being handed the ultimate unlucky draw and then facing a fired-up England in a home opener and then a fresh Australia on short rest. Guess who they get next? Wales, at Wales' home ground no less. However, Rankings believes they still have a big performance in them. Don't be at all surprised to see them give Wales an almighty fright, but they need to be given more licence to play their natural game.
1-1 (4pts, 3rd in Pool B)
Rankings is going to hand the Manu a partial pass for getting a six-tries-to-nil thrashing by South Africa at Villa Park. The Boks were always going to respond to their Japan humiliation and if there's one team that Samoa will never physically intimidate, it's South Africa. However, there was no excuse for rolling over and having their tummies tickled and that woeful 82.6 per cent tackle success is not going to win a lot of games.
1-1 (4pts, 3rd in Pool D)
They climb two spots on the tenuous grounds of beating Canada... and even that looked in doubt for long periods. The way they closed the game out was, in a sense, quite impressive. They have, with a bit of luck, inspirational captain Sergio Parisse to come back into the selection frame and they still have a chance of qualifying for the quarters if they can cause a massive boilover against Ireland at the Olympic Stadium next week.
1-1 (4pts, 3rd in Pool C)
If you were set up a dais and were today to hand out the medals for top tacklers at the RWC, it would be an all Georgian podium. Taking bronze with 30 would be lock Giorgi Nemsadze, silver goes to gargantuan captain Mamuka Gorgodze with 32, while openside Viktor Kolelishvili's 35 leads the way. Oh, and back Merab Sharikadze is a meritorious seventh with 27. You do wonder how long they can keep this up for, especially with the All Blacks lurking.
0-2 (1 pt, 4th in Pool C)
In nearly every statistical category apart from the one that counts most, Canada were more impressive than Six Nations opponents Italy. They made more metres, made more breaks, beat more defenders, made fewer tackles and missed way less than the Europeans, yet could not find enough finishing touches. Down by five with less than 10 minutes to go, and after a period of sustained attack, they took the wrong option in kicking for goal. They never got another look in.
The rest: 16. USA (down 2) 17. Romania (nc) 18. Tonga (down 2) 19. Namibia (up 1) 20. Uruguay (down 1)
* All stats provided by Opta
Rugby World Cup Rankings
1 New Zealand (1)
2 Wales (4)
3 Australia (2)
4 Ireland (5)
5 South Africa (6)
6 England (3)
7 France (7)
8 Argentina (8)
9 Scotland (12)
10 Fiji (9)
11 Samoa (10)
12 Japan (11)
13 Tonga (14)
14 Italy (15)
15 Georgia (13)
16 USA (16)
17 Romania (17)
18 Canada (18)
19 Uruguay (19)
20 Namibia (20)
