The smaller teams have gone home, having produced very few surprises.  The one thing I do notice is that obviously these teams come from countries where they cannot afford to take weeks off for the purpose of rugby, and once they are in a World Cup environment, as the weeks go on, they certainly do get better. 

If I had to choose as a coach, when to play the minnows, it would be towards the beginning of a tournament and take the bigger game, such as our game against Wales, later in the tournament.  The problem with rugby is that only 5 or 6 nations really play rugby competitively at the top level, and so the tournament only begins when we get to the quarter finals.  The fact of the matter is that none of the minnows can actually go on to win the tournament and one would be shocked if they even got to the quarter finals, let alone the semi-finals. 

Cricket seems to have more upsets, and soccer, probably because it was played by far more nations around the world, throws up the most.  When it comes to the FIFA World Cup, you know from the very first game that shocks and surprises are possible, and no team is guaranteed to get through to the next stage, whereas in this Rugby World Cup, for example, we have all known that Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will automatically go through to the next round already.