It’s a big week at the Rugby World Cup in France as all eight quarter-finalists will be confirmed by Sunday night and it will go right down to the wire.

On Sunday night the Springboks returned to winning ways and put themselves in a favourable position to advance to the knockout rounds with a 49-18 win over Tonga in Marseille.

While the Boks lead Pool B after the victory over the Sea Eagles, the match between the world’s top-ranked team Ireland and Scotland will determine the Springboks fate.

The Scots have a tough task as they have to beat the Irish, but a bonus point won't be required. While it is a big mountain for Gregor’ Townsend’s chargers to climb, nothing is impossible at the World Cup.

The Springboks win against Tonga has come at a high price as the former Cheetahs winger, Makazole Mapimpi, suffered a blow-out fracture of his cheekbone, following a head-on-head contact.

The Springbok coach, Jacques Nienaber, confirmed the injury to the speedster and they may only have a better indication of the severity later today, but he is out of the World Cup.

“He unfortunately had a blow-out fracture of his cheekbone, so he'll probably go for specialist scans tomorrow morning to determine the severity of it.”

The Springboks are in a position where they have plenty of time to rest and recuperate for the potential quarter-finals as they will not be in action at all this week.

The Springboks have played for four weeks on the bounce and it will be a welcome break from the game itself, and this is very similar to in 2019 when they finished their Pool games earlier.

The important thing for the Springboks will be to hit the reset button, especially from a mental aspect.

Nienaber said they will draw on their experience from Japan four years ago as they wait to find out their fate.

“The positive is it is pretty much similar to what we experienced in 2019 when we also finished our pool quite early.

“I think we had a 12-13 day preparation break before we went into our quarter-final against Japan. It is something we have done before as a group. It worked out well for us back then so we'll give them two-three days off and then start preparing.”

Meanwhile, the week's action gets underway on Thursday evening with the All Blacks in action against Uruguay in Lyon, while on Friday evening France will tackle Italy at the same venue.

Saturday's big game between Ireland and Scotland at Stade de France in Paris kicks off at 21:00.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport