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Is the World Cup definitely heading South after a dismal display from France?

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Geoff Riddle assesses the state of three of the pre-tournament favourites after their opening World Cup salvoes.

France - 4 out of 10:
On Friday, France became only the second main hosts of any World Cup to lose their opening fixture. England were the last team to do so in 1991, but the Red Rose recovered from their 18-12 pool loss to New Zealand that year to go on and make the final.
After Argentina's 17-12 knock-out blow of Les Bleus in Paris, Bernard Laporte's side are now trading at 5.2 to get back up off the canvas, dust themselves off, and march on into the tournament showpiece on October 20.
However, on the face of it, that now looks increasingly unlikely with the All Blacks looming large in the Cardiff quarter-final for the probable runners up of Pool D. France should beat Ireland - they have a solid home record against them - but since losing the 3rd/4th play-off to New Zealand, 40-13 in 2003, they've been beaten by Graham Henry's men five times (three at home) by an average scoreline of 43 points to 6.
Although there was nothing too surprising about France's defeat to the Pumas - they had lost four of the last six matches between the two - it was the manner of that defeat that was so interesting.
For a start, the French defence was actually not too bad. It was only the second time in that sample of six matches that Argentina scored less than two tries against them. The French pack showed what they had in the locker on numerous occasions in the second half as well. Two instances were particularly memorable when they steamrollered Argentina towards their own try line. They also defended Juan Martin Hernandez's drop-goal efforts superbly.
Where France looked poor was in attack. They never really looked like crossing the opposition's tryline - they've only once drawn a try blank against Argentina in that sample of six matches - and both David Skrela and Frederic Michalak missed crucial penalty attempts. Funnily enough, World Cup matches are won by scoring tries, and France need to get in the try-scoring habit against Namibia on Sunday if they are going to give both Ireland and New Zealand a proper examination over the next few weeks.

South Africa - 9/10:
The Springboks easily covered Sunday's handicap of -28.5 by beating Samoa 59-7. They also exceeded the try expectation, running in eight. Both Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha were sensational in the line-out, helping their side to win eight throws against the head. Their goal-kicking ratio was also impressive at 8 from 11. What did this performance actually tell us about South Africa's prospects in this tournament though?
Well, not much really. We knew already that Matfield and Botha are the best line-out unit in the world, and we also knew that Percy Montgomery is a reliable goal kicker. Bryan Habana took his try-scoring tally to four, and he is now 3.35 to be the top tournament tryscorer. With Tonga, USA, and dare I say it, England to come, the flying winger is likely to only get shorter, if team news goes his way.
It was a powerful performance from the tournament second favourites (6.8 to win) but we really need better opposition to find out anything new about Jake White's team. They certainly look on course for top spot in Pool A now though.

Australia 8/10:
The Wallabies racked up a decent score against Japan at the weekend and in beating the Cherry Blossoms 91-3, they confirmed their liking for thrashing modest opposition. They put 142 unanswered points past Namibia at the last World Cup and they also beat Romania 90-8 in the same tournament. Fiji and Canada had better watch out on September 23 and 29 respectively.
Both Matt Giteau and Stirling Mortlock took kicks, which should probably prevent either player from becoming top tournament points scorer, but both contributed to an impressive haul of 12 kicks from 15 attempts.
Where Australia fell short of a totally successful performance however, was in preventing injuries. Winger Mark Gerrard is out of the tournament with knee ligament damage and Adam Ashley-Cooper, who scored on Saturday, is also a major doubt for the crucial Pool clash against Wales in Cardiff this weekend. Australia are 1.23 to win Pool B.
Coach Connolly will name Gerrard's replacement from Lachlan Turner, Cameron Shepherd, Digby Ioane and Clinton Schifcofske, and if Ashley-Cooper is out for an extended period of time, rugby league convert Ryan Cross will also be considered.