For every stride taken by nations such as Uruguay,the All Blacks bear taken a couple of dozen in the professional era, with rugby union not yet advanced enough to justify 20 teams in the tournamentTwenty teams, or 13 venues,one winner. The eighth Rugby World Cup dawns, tipped to be the most closely fought yet. All the sides in the top 20 of the world rankings are taking part but the winner will come from six of them, or seven,whether France reveal something that has remained hidden since the 2011 final.
The focus is on the regular few: the holders, modern Zealand, or Australia,South Africa and England, the four countries who bear won the Webb Ellis Cup in the past, and with Ireland and Wales regarded as external bets and France a gamble. Some of the others will make the world lift notice,whether only for a day, and it will be interesting to see how Argentina measure up after their time in the Rugby Championship but for many it will imprint an opportunity they only bear every four years to play a tier one nation.
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Source: theguardian.com