In a recent “Pick your winners” type event, I successfully predicted that France would score 12 points or less in their match against Argentina. Go me. Unfortunately, I failed to predict that Argentina would rock the boat this early on by scoring more than France in the first match of this years Rugby World Cup.

That’s what I love about this event and the game in general - there are always surprises. My money - like everybody else’s - is on New Zealand to win again. Over the last year they have outplayed everyone and have been the most consistent of all the teams. Australia may well challenge again though - they have a habit of coming good when necessary. England are right out. I think they’ll perform better than people expect (and certainly better under Billy Ashcroft than they ever would have done under Andy Robinson) but getting to the final is a long shot.

Wales, as usual, is where my loyalty lies (but I’m not from North wales - if England do get the final then I will be cheering them. Unless it’s against the dragons army of course!) but while I think they will easily come second in their group (behind Australia and providing they beat Fiji) I very much doubt that they’ll get past the first round playing either England or South Africa.

But as we’ve seen tonight, with the host nation getting beaten - nay, humiliated (laughing? moi?) - in the opening match by Argentina, anything could happen!