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Great so far - now the real business of World Cup Glory begins

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Betfair's Kiwi Dean Roulston assesses the chances of the teams through to the last eight.

Over the last three and a half weeks, we've been lucky enough to witness what's probably been the most exciting group stage in Rugby World Cup history. Argentina set the tone on the first night of the tournament by upstaging and embarrassing the hosts in front of their own fans. Since then, with the likes of Georgia having run Ireland close, Tonga agonisingly failing by the bounce of the ball to beat South Africa and Fiji causing the greatest of upsets by dumping the Welsh out of the tournament, the rugby public worldwide has been treated to some fantastic entertainment.

The tournament minnows and so called second-tier nations have all had their moments against the much bigger sides (who will forget US speedster Takudza Ngwenya absolutely skinning Bryan Habana for arguably the try of the tournament?), making calls to cut the number of teams at this event from 20 down to 16 seem premature.

Of the major unions, the Southern Hemisphere sides have dominated throughout with Australia and South Africa hardly breaking into a sweat, whereas the three Northern Hemisphere teams to make it to the knockout stages have all been beaten and looked lacklustre against teams they would be expected to put away with ease. No team has ever lost a game in the group stages and gone on to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy! As for Wales and Ireland, they looked as though they would have struggled against a NZ club side.

The All Blacks meanwhile have simply gone about their business without getting out of first gear. Not once have they been put under any sort of pressure as they broke all sorts of records scoring 43 tries and racking up more than 300 points in their 4 games. It is a worry that the All Blacks go into the knockout stages without having been involved in a real contest, but this is a lesson that has been learnt in the past - along with not underestimating teams they're expected to beat - so I can't see it being an issue for this All Black team. And besides, if they fluff their lines in this one, they won't be allowed back home.

They say defence wins World cups, and in this respect, the ABs under Graham Henry have been fearsome - something which is perhaps overlooked due to the spectacular attacking prowess the team possess. Their performance against Scotland has been much maligned because of a spate of handling errors. However if we gloss over those for a second, you will see the most comprehensive and powerful defensive display in the World Cup so far. Not once did Scotland threaten the All Black line (or 22 for that matter).

There will be no repeat of the French heroics at Twickenham in '99, and I predict the All Blacks will replicate the 40 point pastings in Paris (2004) and Lyon (2006) when the two teams meet Cardiff on Saturday. With this in mind, I'll be steaming into the close-to-even money available on the All Blacks giving a 13.5 point start.

From there, they should meet a dangerous Australian side in the semis. On form, the Wallabies should account for England, but they do have a few injury worries, and their tight forwards are a massive area of weakness, so there is definitely some trading potential laying the Aussies in the match odds. The other side of the draw seems more predictable on paper, South Africa will ease past Fiji, who have done exceptionally to qualify. If Argentina continue in the vein that saw them top Group D, then they'll coast through to the semis where they can cause South Africa no end of trouble.