[bismillahno]

I'm very fired up here, as is pretty much the whole country I think.

NZ go in as favourites, deservedly so with their record over the last few years and the depth of the team. Obviously lots can go wrong though, and they have a tonne of expectation on them.

Be very interested to see who emerges from the France/Ireland/Argentina pool, not least as 2nd place gets the dubious prize of meeting NZ in the quarter final.

Also really not in favour of the suggestion that Scotland aren't even going to put up their first team against NZ in the pool. One of the traditional rugby nations giving up on a big game like that seems pretty poor to me.

Picking NZ to be too strong up front for the Aussies in one semi, and the French to have too much flair for the South Africans in the other. Then NZ too strong for France in the final, really can't wait for it to get underway though.

Oh and I'm up for some small scale prop betting if anyone is interested, I'll lay 2:1 on a last longer for New Zealand vs any single country.