The mouth watering clash of the Tri Nations foes will probably be a week earlier than expected, placing both on the other side of the draw to the All Blacks.

Australia is likely to face the Springboks in the quarterfinal with the winner ending up in the semifinal with a probable showdown against the All Blacks if they are to make the World Cup final.

In the first major tournament upset, a committed Ireland succeeded in embarrassing the highly fancied Wallabies and now, due to their inadequacies, Australia confront a far more rocky road to negotiate their way through the finals, as they are unlikely to win their pool, and so will face more difficult opponents.

The critics were loud across the Tasman and bookmakers also reacted to their loss on Saturday.

Centre-bet wound the Wallabies' price out from $4 to $7.50 to win the tournament, while the All Blacks came in from $1.65 to $1.57.

The Boks were steady at $10.

This weekend's game between the All Blacks and France is a sellout, as is the Fiji vs Samoa clash on Sunday.

On Saturday at 8.30pm, New Zealand will meet France while the Boks face Namibia on Thursday at 8pm.

Story by: Dreu Vukailagi