The halfway stage reached with every team having played two matches and it seems that in spite of the shocks of the World Cup’s first weekend natural order is being restored.

Admittedly there is no chance of the same eight teams reaching the knock-out stages as at the last tournament, but that was impossible from the time the draw was made and Pool B contained only one of those quarter-finalists.

Getting through will still not going to be easy for Scotland, however it is 20 years since Samoa contested a quarter-final, while South Africa finished bottom of the Rugby Championship for the first time this season.

However just what might have confronted them had it not been for what now looks like an anomaly in the world rankings at the time the draw was made is beginning to become clear and that, too, could work to Scotland’s advantage because in Pool A, which matches up against Pool B come the quarter-finals, three of the best teams in the world were always going to knock lumps out of one another.

For all that they were deemed to have slipped up by failing to pick up a bonus point when they met Fiji in their opening game, Australia were the main beneficiaries of Saturday’s epic clash at Twickenham that has left both the England and Wales squads injury ravaged.

Admittedly they can anticipate a frenzy when they take their turn to visit Twickenham on Saturday but they go there as the Southern Hemisphere champions physically and mentally fresh.

Whether they are in the same condition come the quarter-finals is another matter, since they will face another match of similar intensity when they meet a Wales side that will have had nine days of desperately needed recuperation the following week.

Again that would seem to favour the teams that emerge from Pool B and only at our most pessimistic would we now fear that Scotland will not be one of them. Since both quarter-finals are at Twickenham it also hardly matters whether they do so as pool winners – which would be the first time in 24 years incidentally – or as runners-up since there is no way of knowing which of the teams that have been ranked among the world’s top three in the world rankings since this tournament began, will finish first or second in Pool A.

By contrast progress has been relatively serene for the big guns in the bottom half with the All Blacks having been certain to finish top of Pool C since b eating Argentina in their opening match and those Pumas all but ensuring they will join them after beating a Georgia side that had in turn upset Tonga, while all that is left to decide in Pool D is which of Ireland and France will finish top.

Yet for all that the outcomes in all four pools are ultimately going to be very much in line with expectations and form there have been major developments in the course of this tournament.

This may yet be disproved as some of the part-timers representing the emerging nations run out of steam, but it seems that the days of teams conceding 145 points, as Japan did 20 years ago, or celebrating at keeping the opposition below 100 points, as Portugal did as recently as eight years ago, are now gone with World Rugby’s development programmes having borne fruit.

However what also seems clear is how quickly the better resourced teams have absorbed the lessons from the first weekend and, for once, Scotland seem to have led the way in that as the only team to have matched Ireland in acquiring maximum points.

What the Springboks got horribly wrong against Japan but Scotland and others including the South Africans have since got right when faced with similar half-time scorelines, is the need to be patient and controlled throughout rather than chasing big scores early or seeking quick solutions when they are not well on top early in matches.

There will be some jockeying for position yet, but eight from 10 of Australia, England, Wales, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina, Ireland and France were always going to go through.

AND ANOTHER THING

There seems to be a lack of star quality at this tournament so far.

There has been plenty fine play, but to date a figure such as Michael Jones, Serge Blanco, Grant Fox, Tim Horan, Michael Lynagh, Gary Armstrong, Jonah Lomu, Joost van der Westhuizen, Pat Lam, Christophe Dominici, John Eales, Jonny Wilkinson, Martin Johnson, Shane Williams, John Smit, Juan Martin Hernandez, Thierry Dusautoir or Richie McCaw has yet to emerge.

These things tend to be more obvious once we get to the decisive matches admittedly and it is telling there is a telling omission on that list, not even Brian O’Driscoll or Paul O’Connell having managed to inspire a truly special Irish effort at a World Cup so that is overdue.

Could this, though, be the stage for a new Scottish superstar to establish himself. Mark Bennett and Stuart Hogg have made promising starts.

GOOD DAY

For those of us who have been repeatedly disappointed by the unwillingness of Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, to trust in the maverick talent of James Hook.

Finally out of alternatives as injury has followed injury to leading Welsh backs Gatland recalled him to the squad this week and has included him in the 23 for tomorrow’s meeting with Fiji which could pretty much see Wales secure a quarter-final place.

The way the 30-year-old has been marginalised by the international team management has perhaps been understandable given his unwillingness to play his rugby in Wales and the quality of the options available in his preferred role at stand off in particular where Rhys Priestland and Dan Biggar seem more trusted in terms of following the gameplan.

However it is still staggering to think that a player of his capabilities has started just three Tests since the last World Cup, none of them very significant against the Barbarians in summer 2012, Tonga in an autumn Test that year and Ireland in a warm-up match that Wales lost last month.

His versatility could yet prove vital to them and all Wales will be hoping that, just as happened when Shane Williams, previously on the periphery of the Wales squad, seized his chance at the 2003 World Cup 12, this tournament will be the moment when Hook reinvents himself at the highest level.

BAD DAY

For Wycliff Palu, the veteran Wallaby No.8 whose involvement in his third World Cup and international career looks to be over after he was ruled out of the rest of this tournament as a result of aggravating a hamstring problem during his side’s 11 try rout of Uruguay.

“Wycliff has been a very, very remarkable player for Australia and it’s more than likely the last game he’s played for Australia. So it’s a sad day in that regard," said Michael Cheika, Australia’s head coach

"The way he came back from injury to play in this tournament has been very special for the players. He’s got a quiet but strong influence in the team and he’ll be sorely missed."

His departure almost seems to have drawn a declaration of intent from Cheika who opened the tournament fielding twin openside flankers in David Pocock and Michael Hooper and could be seen to be ever more committed to that strategy having chosen to replace Palu with James Hanson, a hooker.

Lock Will Skelton has meanwhile also been forced out of their squad with a chest injury, to be replaced by Sam Carter.

WHAT’S ON TODAY?

Another quiet one amidst this strange calm before the expected storm of a weekend that will almost certainly prove decisive for the hosts, with no matches scheduled.

Teams will, however, be named by the All Blacks and Georgia for their meeting at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on Friday.

SCOUTING REPORT

This time around Tonga were not to be resisted. Undaunted by the late withdrawal of their record try scorer Fetu’u Vainikolo they arrived with what looked a similar gameplan to that which backfired in their opening match against doughty Georgia 10 days earlier, in other words one that was close to indiscernible, but Namibia’s greater desire to combat it by taking them on at a similar game counted against the African side.

Exhilarating as watching this sort of rugby is for neutral spectators there have to be times when their committed supporters or their coaches are tearing their hair out in frustration at the way the Tongans in particular approach the game.

At times the way the ball was being flung around had the feel of sevens and, for all their explosiveness and skill they boast it remains all too obvious why teams that are prepared to maintain defensive discipline and apply pressure to them in the right areas can pick them off.

Yet it seems rather churlish pointing all of that out because they are simply a joy to watch when in full flow, so why not just revel in the fact that in spite of again making umpteen sloppy mistakes the reward was there for the outrageous risks they are prepared to take to keep the ball alive.

A couple of tries in the first 12 minutes, Vainikolo’s replacement Telusa Veainu squirming over for the first and flanker Jack Ram the second gave them additional licence and meant that even after they took one chance too many, allowing Namibian winger Johan Tromp a moment of ecstasy as he got on the scoresheet, they could continue to play their natural game.

Not that it felt as if they were ever inclined to do anything else and when Latiume Fosita broke through for their third try with just 25 minutes the bonus point win became all but inevitable.

It looked to have come in the last move of the half when a flying Veianu, horizontal to the turf managed to dot the ball into the corner, but had a fingernail of his non-scoring hand in touch, however his break and 40 metre burst soon after the break secured it as he put Ram in for his second.

The warrior who is Jacques Burger, Namibia’s captain, typically responded byu forcing his way over for a brace of tries, but they sandwiched the excellent Veianu’s second and the outcome was never in doubt as, with a 35-21 win, the Tongans gave themselves a glimmer of a chance of salvaging a campaign which began so falteringly.