It seems that, as a devout New Zealand rugby fan, I have been waiting for the world cup to arrive for the longest time. New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Scotland all put at least 50 points on their opponents, but it was Argentina that claims the glory from round one, toppling host nation France in the first match of the World Cup.

No-one should be too surprised by Argentina's ability to beat top nations, they have beaten Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in the past two years. They gave New Zealand a fright before losing by 6 points in Buenos Aires last year, their last outing against France in November of last year saw them go down by a solitary point, and they beat France 2 years earlier. They have proven, in other words, that they belong to the top tier nations of Rugby Union. That they defeated France in the first game of the World Cup has thrown a huge curveball on the entire competition, and the manner of the defeat was also of interest.

Argentina shut down France and gave them absolutely nothing to work with. They swarmed the French and stopped attacks before they were able to get going, and were ruthless with the few opportunities that they created. Despite this both sides weaknesses were on display for everyone to see. France has always been vulnerable to a very physical, confrontational game. Argentina has always relied on passion and adrenaline to get them through. When France slowed things down and played a structured game, in particularly mauling it up the middle, they exposed the weaknesses of the Argentinean game.

New Zealand quelled any thoughts of a similar upset 14 hours later, destroying Italy in the first 20-30 minutes of their match. Constant pressure and the ability to pounce on opportunity as it presented itself lead to the Italians being out of the game from the third minute when captain Richie McCaw crashed over for the first of his tries. To their credit Italy never gave up, but it was clear New Zealand had taken the foot off the throttle by this point. To me, that was an important factor. To win the world cup New Zealand needs to be able to play at their top level for 80 minutes.

Japan held Australia well for the start of the match, but were always going to be outgunned by a far superior Australian side. Australia is probably the most clinical side in the world at putting a side to the sword, so their ability to put 91 points on a Japanese side should not come as a surprise. Probably the most important part of this match was the injury to Mark Gerrard, which will put him out of the World Cup. That doesn't really weaken the Australian squad, as he is being replaced by Cameron Shepherd, who many felt should have got the nod anyway.

Defending Champion England showed everyone just how hard their road ahead will be, making very hard work of their win over the USA. The US team played good hard rugby and looked like they could produce the second upset of the cup, but England managed to stagger over the line. Englands form coming into the world cup has been terrible, losing 5 out of 6 matches, the only relief being a demolition job of a third string Welsh side. But they still couldn't be counted out. In 1999, France had a similar record coming into the tournament and were shaky through pull play before unleashing on the All Blacks in the second final of their semi final and eventually finishing second. England has the players to compete at this world cup and things could click at any point. however I'm picking they won't.

The hardest done by team of the weekend was Samoa. Using their trademark hard defensive style they rattled South Africa for the majority of the first half. South Africa, for their part, responded to the Samoan niggle and played what can best be described as 'stupid' rugby. Samoa should have gone to the break 14 -7 down, which would have been a fair reflection of the first half. However the referee elected to punish the Samoan stalling at the scrum by letting the clock run an extra three minutes - just long enough for South Africa to score a vital try and go into the break 21-7 up. The second half saw the Springboks play much more sensible rugby against a tiring Samoan side and come out comfortable winners in the end. England will be VERY nervous after watching this game, as both sides look more than capable of beating the champions and knocking them out of cup contention before the finals action starts.

This week sees some mouth watering games. On Tuesday Argentina looks to go clear of the top of Pool D, USA/Tonga, Fiji/Japan and Romania/Italy should all be very hard fought contests on Wednesday. On Friday is what was expected to be the deciding match of Pool C when England and South Africa face off. I suspect the decider will in fact take place on September 22nd, when Samoa plays England. On current evidence South Africa shouldn't break much of a sweat in dispatching the world champions, while with Samoa it will be a case of whether their spirit and power can get them far enough ahead of England for when their fitness runs out.