Being in the position of having recently been within the coaching structure of two of this year's World Cup quarter-finalists, Eddie Jones seems ideally placed to cast his eye over the form guide.
Of the first of the knockout matches he is emphatic but thinks at least twoothers will not proceed as smoothly as predicted. "Look, I think Australia will be too strong for England," said Jones, in Marseille.
Next his mind travelled to Cardiff, where he is genuinely unsure what to expect.
"It's really hard to say because France have had a hard pool and look like they're improving whereas New Zealand have had an easy pool.
"They haven't played that starting 15 together so if France could put them under a bit of pressure I think it could be interesting."
You can take it with some certainty that the former Wallabies coach is a little perplexed by some of Graham Henry's selection decisions.
"Yeah, but the only thing I know is that Graham Henry is an experienced coach and knows what he's doing. I'm sure they've trained endless sessions together against a lot of competitive sides."
While everybody is picking an easy victory for Argentina over the Scots, , Jones is not so sure.
"I think it is going to be a lot closer than people expect. You've got two very similar sides whose strengths tend to cancel each other out. It might be down to the bounce of the ball."
We don't need Jones to tell us the result of the final quarter-final. That has been pre-ordained, apparently, with only the most optimistic Fijians giving themselves a chance against the Springboks.
"Everyone is telling us that, but the reality is we've got to play a good 80 minutes on Sunday, a good 80 minutes hopefully next week and that will put us where we want to be," he said.
