The latest Rugby World Rankings

The World Cup is starting on the 7th September in France. Not long now! There's always a lot of speculation regarding the best teams and who's going to win the tournament etc.

Most people would say the All Blacks are odds on favourites, and based on their continued world dominance I would tend to agree. BUT, they haven't won the World Cup since 1987, thats 20 years for the less informed. So they do have somewhat of a 'Choker' label attached to them, and the pressure keeps adding up.

The next safe bet would have to be Australia or South Africa. Australia being one of the smartest rugby playing nations in the world, and the Springboks being incredibly powerful and good at what they do.

Ireland were looking almost unbeatable a year ago, but seem to have taken a step backwards this year.

France, the hosts of the tournament, can never be written off though. It just depends which French team arrives on the day - one that can't be arsed or a team that will display the same flair and passion as they did in '99 when knocking New Zealand out in the Semi Finals.

All in all, it's going to an interesting tournament and I personally can't wait.

The World Rankings, according to the IRB, going into the tournament are as follows:

Rank Team

1 New Zealand

2 Australia

3 France

4 South Africa

5 Ireland

6 Argentina

7 England

8 Wales

9 Italy

10 Samoa

11 Scotland

12 Fiji

13 Canada

14 Tonga

15 United States

16 Romania

17 Georgia

18 Japan

19 Russia

20 Uruguay

21 Spain

22 Portugal

23 Korea

24 Namibia

25 Chile

26 Germany

27 Moldova

28 Czech Republic

29 Ukraine

30 Netherlands

31 Kazakhstan

32 Poland

33 Latvia

34 Hong Kong

35 South Korea

36 Sweden

37 Switzerland

38 Armenia

39 Lithuania

40 Malta

41 Andorra

42 Croatia

43 Arabian Gulf

44 Hungary

45 Serbia

46 Denmark

47 Norway

48 Austria

49 Bulgaria

50 Slovenia

51 Sri Lanka

52 China

53 Singapore

54 Taiwan

55 Luxembourg

56 Malaysia

57 Finland

58 Israel

59 Thailand

60 India

61 Bosnia

62 Azerbaijan

As of 29th Aug 2007.

Anyone have any predictions?