The top four teams faced off against each other on one side of the draw, while the remaining teams faced off on the other, in each of the four Rugby World Cup quarterfinal matches.
The two epic quarterfinal matches between South Africa and France and Ireland and New Zealand were decided by a total five points, making them the two best quarterfinal matches in history.
But there was one thing the weekend losers all had in common. The team with the most handling errors lost each of the four games, according to X user Just Doc.
Handling errors made in the #RWC2023 Quarter-Finals:
🇫🇷 11
🇿🇦 8🇨🇮 8
🇳🇿 1🇫🇯 8
🏴 3🏴 12
🇦🇷 10— Just Doc 🏉🎯 (@Doc_Torio) October 16, 2023
Due in part to their execution skills, New Zealand overcame two yellow cards and 20 minutes of being short a man, committing just one handling error the entire game.
Unusual and unintentional dropped balls occasionally troubled Ireland and France.
Irish No. 8One important turning moment occurred when Caelan Doris fumbled a goal-line dropout after Ronan Kelleher was stopped over the line, and another occurred when France prop Cyril Baille attempted to pick up and throw an errant pass from Antoine Dupont that resulted in a fastbreak try for Cheslin Kolbe.
Even if it’s probably a coincidence, mistakes in knockout games can result in significant momentum swings that determine games by a slim margin.
While it may not come as a surprise to anyone that the two most successful World Cup teams will play in the semi-finals, expert Simon Gleave discussed on X the historic significance of the quarter-final outcomes.
It wasn’t unusual for three of the top five most successful teams to advance to the semi-finals, but this was the first time the top two countries in victory percentage didn’t.
Ireland and France, two of the most successful teams between World Cups, created history by exiting.
As usual, 3 of the top-5 teams in the World Cup cycle have reached the #RugbyWorldCup semi-finals. It only didn't happen in 2007.
However, BOTH of the top-2 have failed to reach the semis for the first time in the pro-era.#RWC2023 #NZL #RSA #ENG #ARG pic.twitter.com/ySmODgekfI
— Simon Gleave (@SimonGleave) October 16, 2023
Ireland’s 28-24 loss to the All Blacks created unwanted history on the level of the 2007 All Blacks who were stunned by France 20-18 in the quarter-finals.
Those two teams are the only teams to not make the semi-finals after holding the highest win rate against the other top nine countries.
☘️Ireland are only the 2nd team to exit a #RugbyWorldCup at the quarter-final stage after entering with the highest win percentage against the top-9 since the previous World Cup.
🇳🇿New Zealand (2007) is the other.
Only 3 of the pro-era World Cups have been won by the #1 team.
— Simon Gleave (@SimonGleave) October 15, 2023
Only the seventh team in the history of the World Cup to reach the semifinals while winning fewer than 50% of its games was Argentina, which had just eight victories in 30 tests over the course of a four-year span.
Los Pumas have now achieved this feat three times, joining 2007 and 2015 on their list of years with less than a 50% winning rate in the top four.
After defeating Fiji to qualify, England also joined them as the eighth team in history. During the cycle, England had won 14 out of 30 Test matches.
ALL pro-era #RugbyWorldCup semi-finalists with less than a 50% win rate against 🇦🇷🇦🇺🏴🇫🇷☘️🇳🇿🏴🇿🇦🏴 in the World Cup cycle:
🇫🇷France 2003
🇦🇷Argentina 2007
🏴England 2007
🏴Wales 2011
🇦🇷Argentina 2015
🇿🇦South Africa 2019
🇦🇷Argentina 2023
The winners of 🏴England v 🇫🇯Fiji 2023— Simon Gleave (@SimonGleave) October 15, 2023
The 2019 Springboks, who are also on the list, managed to win the entire tournament despite winning less than half of their games throughout the cycle. Argentina and England should learn from their success.
🇿🇦South Africa (2019) is the only pro-era #RugbyWorldCup winner which was not ranked in the top-3 win percentages against the current Six Nations and Rugby Championship teams (bar Italy) in the 4 years going into the World Cup.
This year's top-3
☘️Ireland
🇫🇷France
🇦🇺New Zealand— Simon Gleave (@SimonGleave) October 15, 2023
