All Black great Colin Meads fears the All Blacks and the Wallabies have relinquished the edge to their northern hemisphere rivals by not playing any World Cup warm-up matches.
And he picks England to win the tournament.
Meads, a lock for the All Blacks from 1957 to 1971 and later an All Blacks manager, said modern players are too often wrapped in cotton wool when they needed to play regularly.
”I have a worry with the All Blacks – that is, they’re not playing,” Meads said Thursday.
”The Aussies aren’t playing either – they’re all in camps and that sort of thing.
”In my day if you didn’t play every week, it felt like you were starting the season all over again.
”When the World Cup starts, I think it’s going to be eight or nine weeks since they last played and to me, they’ve got it all wrong.
”The northern hemisphere teams are all playing and New Zealand and Australia are not playing and I think they should be.
”It’s a southern hemisphere tournament and it’s meant to suit us better than the northern hemisphere nations so from that point of view I think we’ve got it a little bit wrong.”
Meads conceded there was a risk of injury from teams playing warm-up games.
”But there’s risks in everything – one or two of our players have been injured in the training camp.”
Meads disagreed with former Wallaby coach Alan Jones and skipper Nick Farr-Jones that the All Blacks would choke under pressure at the World Cup.
He said the manner in which New Zealand came through the Tri Nations – in particular the Bledisloe Cup decider – unbeaten, showed they could handle the pressure.
But his money is on England.
”I think the hot favourites, from what we’ve seen over the past six months, are England,” he said.
”They’ve got Jonny Wilkinson, who is an excellent kicker.
They’ve got this powerful forward pack but they’re strong in other aspects. They’re quick to the loose ball, they’re big, they’re strong, they’ve got a front row who will stand up to anyone in the world and Martin Johnson and Lawrence Dallaglio are just great forwards.” — Sapa-AFP