England are out of Rugby World Cup – so who do we back now?

So for all the high hopes going into the tournament, England’s Rugby World Cup campaign has been – to put it charitably – a let-down. The alarm bells started ringing when Stuart Lancaster’s men went down to an injury-stricken Wales side, but it was the disappointing 13-33 defeat to Australia last weekend that really rubbed English noses into the dirt. There’s no time to mourn, though, because this Rugby World Cup still has plenty of thrills and spills to offer.

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Who’s heading to the quarter-finals?

As England devotees already know from painful experience, Australia and Wales have already sealed their quarter-final places by qualifying from Pool A. South Africa will also be there as winners of Pool B, facing either Wales or Australia in the quarters depending on who out of those two finishes runner-up. Scotland also look firm favourites to qualify as Pool B runners up; they just need to beat Samoa on Saturday or hope that Japan fail to beat the United States on Sunday.

New Zealand are through from Pool C and will win their group if they pick up at least a point against Tonga. If Tonga fail to get a bonus-point win against the All Blacks, Argentina will be on their way to the quarter-finals. Even if Tonga do get that bonus-point win, Argentina only need a solitary point against Namibia to qualify. Ireland and France have already qualified from Pool D, and Joe Schmidt’s men will win the group if they avoid defeat against France on Sunday.

So who do we get behind?

With the quarter-finals almost upon us, England fans now face the dilemma of working out who to support. There are always the two remaining home nations, but it’s probably fair to say there’s no love lost there – and any Englishman who saw the (understandably) gleeful Welsh celebrations at Twickenham will probably be hoping Warren Gatland’s men are dumped out at the earliest opportunity. There was also much guffawing from north of the border just last week, so Scotland probably isn’t an option for most England fans either.