Following a fantastic opening weekend to the knockout stages of the Rugby World Cup that tore the emotions of fans all over the world apart with Wales and Scotland having victory ripped from their grasp whilst France and Ireland were left at a loss for words following the outstanding performances of New Zealand and Argentina respectively, we now know that the last four will not feature a team from the northern hemisphere as many believe that the gap between the north/south divide might grow even wider following the weekend’s results.
Below we select a XV of players whose standout performances this weekend were duly impressive and despite the poor performances of the home nations a few players have managed to squeeze their way into the team of the World Cup quarter-finals:
