World rankings as of today:
1) New Zealand
2) Ireland
3) Australia
4) England
5) South Africa
6) Wales
7) France
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
It’s hard to pick a winner at this point. The All Blacks remain the favourites (pending tomorrow night’s clash with the Wallabies), but having lost last week, who knows? We’re definitely a little long in the tooth – I didn’t expect Carter, McCaw or Nonu to still be around for this World Cup. The experience is great to have, and they won’t feel a fraction of the pressure they did playing for the title at home in 2011, but the fact remains that we have a good chunk of our team that are clearly past their best. Only thing is, nobody has really stepped up as a clear favourite. Ireland are as high as the rankings as they’ve ever been, and if the Aussies win tomorrow, that will give them a big psychological boost, but I’m not convinced by either yet. As always, if the All Blacks can’t do it, I’d love to see Argentina somehow pull it off.