Down to the last four now and had French lock Yahaamahina kept his elbow in check I would have correctly picked the four participating teams from the quarter finals. South Africa, England and the All Blacks were all easy winners but the Wales v France game was tight with France having the upper hand until reduced to 14 men for the last 30 minutes of the game and even then Wales were lucky to have the winning try awarded after what seemed a clear knock on and offside in the try scoring movement. Now to the semis.

All Blacks v England
Some scribes say that this match up should be the final but personally I don’t think England are that good. Eddie Jones talks a big game but I think they will struggle to stay with an All Black team which still has some improvement even after a dominating performance against Ireland. Charlie Saxton preached that rugby was about the 3 P’s – possession, position and pace and there is no doubt that if the All Blacks get sufficient possession the other two will take care of themselves. England on the other hand will be very conservative and look to dominate field position and give themselves the opportunity to kick goals.

I am expecting a very big game from Brodie Retallick while Scott Barrett has been selected at 6 to do a job in the lineout and around the fringes. With George Ford at 10 for England they will do a lot of kicking and readers of this blog will know how dangerous it is to kick the ball to the All Blacks.

All Blacks by 14.
Referee is Nigel Owen (Wales).

Wales v South Africa
Neither side was very dominant in their Quarter Final but I think South Africa will be too big, too strong and have a greater will to win than Wales. Players like du Toit and Vermeulan in the loose forwards are likely to over power their smaller Welsh opposites while I expect Handre Pollard to control the game far better than he did in the Quarter Final. I wonder about the pace of the Welsh team – we all know that when in New Zealnd Hadleigh Parkes was a ponderous tradesman in the mid field and last week the French No7 outpaced and ran away from George Northe to score his try.

South Africa by 16.
Referee is Jerome Garces (France).