On Rugby: So, as expected, it's the established elite of eight, writes Gerry Thornley.

They'll be happy, the TV companies who were allowed to dictate the grossly distorted scheduling will be happy, and no doubt, with one eye on bigger profits, so too will the IRB and the Australian union which so cravenly allowed TV to do so.

Forty matches to re-establish the old pecking order then. Yet it was more fun getting to this predictable endgame than we dared hope, especially over the weekend's final round of pool games.

Thank you Wales, for exposing the New Zealand defence and set-piece, and for having an almighty go at the almighty All Blacks.

Thank you, yet again, to Samoa, whose innate ball skills and flair surely make them, per ratio of players and population, not to mention average wage, the greatest little rugby nation on the planet. They brilliantly rattled England's cage and deserved so much better than the 60-10 defeat to South Africa.

Thank you Fiji, and especially the sensational Rupeni Caucaunibuca, before being cruelly and unluckily denied a quarter-final at the expense of a stuttering, stultifying Scotland. And, bias permitting, thank you Ireland and the blarney army, for breaking free of the shackles and rattling the cage of the hosts and holders. A pity they didn't go the whole hog.

Maybe you have to be here to appreciate it, but it has been a grand oul' party getting to this point too. Not that the TV coverage hasn't been exceptionally bland, in its presentation, in its stilted studio settings, its commentaries and its uninspired post-match analysis. In Melbourne, the heartland of Aussie Rules and racing, the print media coverage has dimmed discernibly compared to Adelaide and Sydney.

Yet in all of this, television and some of the print media are out of step with their country. The 2003 RWC has been, as expected, a tribute to the progressive marketing and promotional genius of the Australian union, which has put the efforts of the home unions four years ago to shame, and their country.

They want it to be the best and even those who were in South Africa concede it is already. The friendliness of this nation has to be experienced to be believed.

Sure there have been mismatches, such as England and Australia's unsavoury centuries over Uruguay and Namibia. But the minnows have been adopted more warmly than ever. This World Cup has been a celebration of colour.

In fact, they've taken to them far more warmly than they have to the Wallabies, who - apart from Eddie Jones and players such as Wendell Sailor, Brendan Cannon and Elton Flatley - have retreated into a monosyllabic shell in the face of a lukewarm and even hostile Aussie media.

But the competition has been a template for others to follow, and the French, despite the longest lunch breaks in the world, somehow make everything work in their own, stylishly unique way. A pity, in many respects, that they don't have the whole thing to themselves, but political payback ensures the Celts will no doubt make a botch of their thankfully smaller chunk of the pie four years hence.

The competition will now, no doubt, change completely in intensity and maybe even lose some of its bonhommie as we get to the serious end of things.

The fire between the All Blacks and the Springboks is rarely friendly and the Pom-bashing will surely only intensify in the weeks ahead. A below-par performance against the Boks, 16 players briefly on the pitch against Samoa, Joe Worsley applauding to the barmy army as he was sin-binned. Any stick will do.

Yet the pool stages have highlighted that at least two of the quarter-finals are not the done deals we might have expected four weeks ago, much less the semi-finals and final. Granted, Australia v Scotland and England v Wales next weekend in Brisbane are, to borrow from Eddie O'Sullivan's lexicon, no-brainers.

But the All Blacks' clash with the rejuvenated Springboks is nothing like the expected "gimme" we imagined, nor Ireland's meeting with an in-form France.

What some of the pool stages also underlined was that some of the old tight five virtues remain alive. Any All Black pack that cannot mount a surge off an attacking lineout or be pushed off a five-metre scrum, as they were by Wales, has a weak point.

And watching Christian Cullen's two-try farewell to New Zealand rugby in Wellington's losing NPC final cause to Auckland last Saturday week was a reminder that the Super 12 doesn't really breed tight forward play for this kind of global combat. There wasn't a contest worth talking about in the scrums, lineout or tackle.

Although the loss of the brilliant Joe van Niekerk is a serious blow to the Boks, they out-scrummaged the Samoans at will and look stronger up front, while Derick Hougard's all-round play and composure is in contrast to Louis Koen.

There was a feeling in some quarters after Ireland's defeat to Australia that they'd struggle to raise themselves again eight days later, but that theory belongs to a different age.

They're fit, they're professional and because of their performance against Australia they now have a momentum going into the French game, especially here in Melbourne.

Apprehensive almost to the point of self-implosion against Argentina, Ireland were more relaxed last week and the key will be to rediscover the mindset of last week as opposed to Adelaide.

But you'd give Ireland much more of a fighting chance now against the French than you might have early last week. Either way, Melbourne is the place to be this week.