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Fiji - just one of the RWC 2007 success stories
The 2007 World Cup in France is down to the last eight and there is a few famous names missing from the line-up this year.
Wales and Ireland have already been sent home with Fiji, and to a lesser extent, Argentina, the surprise quarter finalists.
Miles Harrison will clock is on duty again this week in the commentary box for ITV - on loan from Sky Sports - but before he set off around the grounds, he gave his thoughts to us on the World Cup so far.
So we are down to the last eight then Miles. Where would your very hard earned money be at this point?
MILES: If I was forced to I would put it on our first ever World Cup with four semi-finalists from the southern hemisphere.
It is the first time all four pools have been won by southern hemisphere sides and that is where the domination lies.
Of course this is Cup tie rugby now in its most stark form now with the stakes as high as they could possibly be for any player. That can some players to go beyond their limits and others to freeze - we have seen it all happen before in World Cups.
By no stretch of the imagination can I say that these four sides - New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Australia - are going to win, but in answer to the question, my money would be on all four of them in the ties this weekend.
It was going to happen to someone out of Pool D, but in the end it was Ireland. What are your thoughts on their World Cup?
MILES: I feel dismayed, as I am sure all Irish supporters are, with the fact that this World Cup will always be looked back on now as under-achievement by their team.
In the fullness of time a clearer picture will emerge of why it happened and why it went wrong but all we can say at this point is that this is a side that should have done a lot better than it did.
Only a year ago they were beating South Africa and Australia and it really shouldn't have come to this, but it has.
I don't think they were helped by being in that pool, but they knew for a long time that was the case, and of the three major sides in Pool D, they were conclusively the one that deserved to go.
That is based on the fact that they lost to the other two, of course, but also on the way they played against Namibia and Georgia. Argentina and France put up much better displays against those teams as well.
Taken an as a whole, I don't think there can be any complaints but it was very disappointing from an Irish perspective.
Of course it wasn't only Ireland as Wales are out too. Do you think they may have been a but hasty sacking Gareth Jenkins?
MILES: Well, Gareth Jenkins did say, 'Judge me on the World Cup'. That is what has happened; they crashed out of the World Cup and he lost his job.
Clive Woodward famously once said the same thing about the 1999 World Cup but he wasn't judged on that tournament as it turned out. He was given time in the job, time to develop the team and ended up a World Cup winner four years later.
We will never know if that could have happened to Jenkins now. He is an honourable guy and a good, honest man. He knew his fate and you could see it the immediate, post-match interviews after the Fiji game.
The whole atmosphere surrounding Wales was that if they didn't reach the quarter finals, then the coach was going to lose his position.
From a Welsh point of view it was a desperately disappointing way to go out, although a memorable game to be involved in. Of course that won't be any consolation to Welsh supporters.
Now that the pool stages are over, what is the success story of the World Cup so far for you?
MILES: I have two answers to this question. The first answer is the sheer response to the tournament by the French public.
It has been magnificent as has been shown by sell-out crowds and the kind of response that we have had all around France. It is the same as Australia, four years ago, and you can say already that this is in the top three World Cups so far because of the atmosphere created by the fans. It is in there with South Africa in 1995 and Australia 2003.
The crowds and the atmosphere will only get better, because even in the French are knocked out, I think the crowds will stay with this.
The common denominator is that all three events have been played in all in one country - except for a handful of games this time around. I have sampled the matches in Cardiff and Edinburgh and they felt like one-off Test matches and on the outside of the event.
That has just hammered home the point that World Cups should only take place in one country from here on in. They do not work spread around too thinly.
I think we have just about got away with it in terms of what has happened with the format, although some might say that is not the case with France playing their quarter final Cardiff, but there is a certain irony there for the organisers.
The Cardiff occasion will be great this weekend, but over the whole of the tournament, the successful aspect has been the public's response.
The second answer, and a major reason for the success of the tournament has been the performances of teams like Fiji, Tonga, Georgia and the other 'smaller' nations.
It has been a good tournament for the underdogs, and they have had their day at this World Cup. They have enjoyed victories and gallant defeat and it is a message the sport should heed.
Hold your nerve, you have a global game. Now is not the time to go shrinking the number of teams that compete in future World Cups.
