New Zealand might be battered by injury, but they still look in far better shape than Argentina, who came without their best playmaker, Juan Martin Hernandez, and have since lost their best forward, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe.
On the same patch of dirt, France and England will meet 24 hours prior. Separated by just 34km of water, but by light-years in terms of culture and je ne sais quoi, England will bring winning form into the match, France the chaos. Should be a ripper, then.
Undoubtedly, though, Wellington has scooped the best of the final-eight action, with Sunday's Tri-Nations derby between South Africa and Australia shaping as an epic.
The Celtic showdown on Saturday won't be far behind. Wales may even start the slimmest of favourites because of their more potent attacking power (23 tries in pool play to Ireland's 15), but thrashing the feckless Fijians and over-matched Namibians is no reliable indicator of form, as South Africa found out on Friday.
Ireland left Pool C as top dog because they outmuscled Australia in Auckland and did enough to overcome Italy. They're a team comfortable in their green skin.
They're not going to blow teams off the park, but they're more than happy to wear them down.
They started with a snap and crackle, quickly putting three on the board before Italy had a chance to engage them at scrum time, the set-piece where they expected to find most joy.
Gnarly prop Martin Castrogiovanni hinted that he was up for a big one during Saturday's game of inter-squad touch footy after he got into a stoush with luckless reserve first five-eighths Riccardo Bocchino. It was a horrible mismatch in any language, but captain Sergio Parisse was confident the frayed nerve was a window into Italy's desperation.
As it was, Castrogiovanni left his best shots on the training field. After 35 minutes he was gone, clutching a hamstring and carrying with him Italy's hopes.
Ireland were unlucky to be just three up at the break, they had a try to Tommy Bowe ruled out that could just as easily have been awarded.
Their dominance started to pay dividends in the second half. An early penalty was followed by a moment of rare fluidity. Bowe drifted left, beat his man and found his captain, O'Driscoll, trailing down the middle.
If the game wasn't safe then, it was minutes later, when D'Arcy bumped off Bocchino, to give the Irish the platform to eventually put Keith Earls in at the corner.
Last night's test was the last of the tournament under the roof of Stadium Otago and attracted a near-capacity crowd of 28,000. The stadium has been one of the success stories of the World Cup.
There are those here who will grumble to their deathbeds about the high-price the city had to pay for such a facility, but the din of the happy crowd is drowning them out.
Ireland: (Brian O'Driscoll, Keith Earls 2 tries; Ronan O'Gara 4 pen 2 con, Jonathan Sexton pen con)
Italy: (Mirco Bergamasco 2 pen)
Halftime: 9-6
