It seems odd to describe a 40-0 and a 55-12 scoreline as poor, but in all honesty they were. The All Blacks and Australia will both look at the matches and wonder why the scores were not far more one-sided.
The All Blacks could easily, should even, have scored another 6 or more tries. Australia should have scored 3 or 4 more, and not conceded at least one of the two that they did. South Africa, of course, came even closer to the brink.
It would be easy to start screaming "choker" at this point, and I'm sure the coaches will have things to say, but I wonder if the format of "7 important games in a row" is actually too much. In that time the odd poor game is going to sneak in. Will having them now, when there's still a match before the quarter-finals will give the coaches a sneaky sigh of relief, because they've got a stick as well as a carrot and they'll be thinking they've got the "bad game" out of their system.
You'd have to say that, despite the stutters, all three of these sides will win their quarter-finals, probably at a canter. They'll play better against each other than against their lesser rivals when in the semi's too, I'm sure. So, unlike France, not a disaster, but still an odd weekend.
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