Fortunately, it will be Japan’s performances which will be remembered when their progression to the quarter-finals will be retold, with victories over Ireland and Scotland the highlights.

Had the tie not taken place, there would have been an unwelcome asterisk attached to their appearance in the knockout phase at their home World Cup.

Obviously, there are bigger issues at play, considering the impact of Typhoon Hagibis as it passed over Japan, and it would have been irresponsible for matches to have taken place in the circumstances.

Yet there has been some understandably criticism aimed at World Rugby over their contingency planning, with cancellations having led to three fixtures being cancelled entirely and 0-0 draws awarded.

You could argue that organisers would have felt relieved the most pivotal of the matches at risk went ahead, with Japan securing their 28-21 win over Scotland.

Italy could still rightly complain that they had a chance, no matter how small of beating the two-time defending champions New Zealand, wiped out by the weather.

Italian captain Sergio Parisse fired a barb at World Rugby for their contingency planning.

"They think this game has no big influence," Parisse told reporters in Japan.

"Of course, safety is the priority, but maybe they say: 'New Zealand versus Italy, eight million times New Zealand are going to win'. Maybe one time in eight million that will be different, but we don't have an opportunity to try. This is why we play."

The Italian suggested had the tables been turned and had New Zealand had required a victory to advance, the situation may well have been different.

His statement obviously hypothetical, but simply cancelling fixtures and awarding draws seemed an unfortunate way to qualify and an even worse way to go out.

France could potentially also feel aggrieved should they make a quarter-final exit, having progressed as runners-up to England in their group due to their head-to-head being cancelled.

It is a tournament first for World Rugby to have to call off matches and one you suspect will be reviewed for months to come by the governing body, with the possibility of finding better contingency planning for the future.

The Rugby World Cup is not the only major tournament this year to have seen the weather have an impact on the outcome of a group stage.

In fact the Cricket World Cup, held in England and Wales, saw fans questioning a near identical system to the one operated by World Rugby over in Japan.

Teams were forced to share points in the group stage in the event their match was abandoned due to weather.

This particularly had an impact for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as their fixture in Bristol fell foul to the elements, with both teams having been desperate for a victory after indifferent starts to the competition.

It was one of two matches Sri Lanka saw abandoned, with their team ultimately finishing sixth in the pool and failing to reach the semi-finals.

In fairness to organisers of both events, it is hard envisage ways they could fairly decide a result in the event matches could not be rescheduled, which could easily have knock-on effects to the remainder of the tournament.

Another international cricket tournament impacted by weather was the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, when Kuwait’s Group B match with Nepal was abandoned.

With a result required to determine which team would reach the quarter-finals, a coin toss took place between the two captains.

Kuwait ultimately won the coin toss and advanced. The Maldives may have watched on relieved after they were spared the chastening experience the Kuwaiti team suffered against Bangladesh.

Having been set a target of 225 to win their T20 match, Kuwait were skittled for a mere 21 runs.

Coin tosses have also been used in football, including during the Fairs Cup - a tournament that was a predecessor to the UEFA Cup.

Strasbourg were the first to advance from a tie due to a coin toss in the competition. It took place after a two-legged tie against Barcelona ended 2-2 in 1965, with a further playoff match then unable to separate the sides.

As if to prove the 50/50 nature of the coin toss, Strasbourg lost a coin toss the next edition of the tournament to AC Milan. The Italian outfit themselves suffered the same fate against English side Chelsea later in the competition.

The 1967 tournament featured a final between two sides to have benefited from winning coin tosses earlier in the event, with Dinamo Zagreb ultimately emerging as the champions.

The best example in football came during the 1968 European Championships when hosts Italy progressed to the final of the competition after winning a coin toss against the Soviet Union in the semi-finals.

It was certainly a way of backing up Italian coach Ferruccio Valcareggi’s assertion that the Soviet Union team were "not unbeatable", but perhaps not in the way he thought.

The coin toss took place off the pitch, with Italian captain Giacinto Facchetti ultimately left with the responsibility to inform a home crowd at the Stadio San Paolo of Italy’s victory.

"I went up with the Russian captain," Facchetti told UEFA. "We went down to the dressing rooms together, accompanied by two administrators from the two teams.

"The referee pulled out an old coin and I called tails. It was the right call and Italy were through to the final. I went racing upstairs as the stadium was still full and about 70,000 fans were waiting to hear the result. My celebrations told them that they could celebrate an Italian victory."

The Italian team ultimately overcame Yugoslavia 2-0 in the final.

The addition of penalty shootouts has certainly advanced knock-out football competitions, however another odd tiebreaking method occurred at last year’s FIFA World Cup.

With the number of points, goal difference, goals scored and their head-to-head record leaving Japan and Senegal still level, the next criteria used was each team’s fair play record in Group H.

Owning to having four disciplinary points to Senegal’s six, the Japanese team opted to defend their 1-0 loss to Poland in the closing stages of their match, risking Senegal scoring a late equaliser against Colombia.

Japan’s decision ultimately paid off with no further goals or cards seeing them advance as group runners-up.

It also prevented FIFA from having to deploy the next tiebreaking criteria of drawing lots to determine the outcome.

Clearly, it is a challenge to create truly fair means of forcing an outcome when needed.