Tokyo, Thursday

And then there were four. 

The Rugby World Cup semi-finals take place on Saturday and Sunday to determine who will go through to the championship match on November 2.

Two-time defending champions New Zealand take on England in the first semi-final in Yokohama followed by Wales against South Africa 24 hours later.

Forget “spy gate”, Eddie Jones knows full well it is England who have to come up with covert operations to deny an all-conquering All Blacks side chasing a third-straight Webb Ellis Cup and fourth World Cup overall.

England played arguably their best knockout game of rugby since destroying Frederic Michalak and his French teammates at the 2003 World Cup semi-finals in beating Australia last week.

As predicted, the forwards dominated the Australian pack, with Kyle Sinckler, described by his coach as a “runaway rhino”, leading the rampage against Wallabies caught up in England’s headlights. Courtney Lawes more than justified his inclusion from the start at the expense of George Kruis, while Tom Curry and Sam Underhill put Australia’s fabled, ball-scavenging back-row duo of Michael Hooper and David Pocock in the shade in Oita.

Jonny May got his hands on the ball three times in the opening 40 minutes and scored two tries, while Henry Slade provided the silk in midfield that had been lacking in England’s pool matches. Owen Farrell rediscovered his kicking boots, too, nailing all eight off the tee (four conversions, four penalties).

And while the English will rightly be buoyed by their impressive display against Australia, they will have been well advised to avoid watching the All Blacks in their quarter-final against Ireland straight after.

While many have been purring over Steve Hansen making room for two playmakers in Richie Mo’unga and Beauden Barrett, it’s easy to forget who the real stars of this seemingly unstoppable machine are.

There are few superlatives that adequately do All Blacks captain Kieran Read justice, to the point where we will just have to start using Superman emojis next to his name. He is a force of nature.                 – AFP