We all love an underdog story: Sunderland winning the 1973 FA Cup Final thanks to that Jimmy Montgomery save, Greece shocking us all to win Euro 2004.
The list is endless and nothing gets the sporting world’s juices flowing more than a good against-all-odds story.
If that’s what you’re looking for, the Rugby League World Cup perhaps isn’t for you.
Fourteen teams take part, but only three have a realistic chance of winning the tournament and of those three, there is one stand-out favourite.
Australia have the world’s best players right through the spine of their team: Billy Slater at full back, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk in the halves and skipper Cameron Smith controlling things from hooker with his metronomic kicking game.
England bring their threats: the likes of Sam Tomkins, Kevin Sinfield and the Burgess brothers are among the world’s best, whilst a New Zealand side with Sonny Bill Williams in it cannot be discounted either.
In short, it can be safely predicted that one of these three sides will win the Rugby League World Cup, but what of the rest?
With three of the four semi-final spots as good as filled already, who will take the last? Who will be “the best of the rest”?
Having watched Fiji comfortably beat Ireland at Rochdale’s Spotland Stadium the other night, I feel inclined to say that they will be the favourites.
They seem to have the all-round game that will trouble sides in this competition, striking the balance between defence and attack perfectly.
Ireland had numerous sets in the Fiji 20 in the last twenty minutes of the first half, but the Bati restricted them to just one try in that period, which is not bad for such a long period of incessant pressure.
In James Storer, they have a nippy and creative hooker who carries the ball at pace to put defences on the back foot, in the same way that James Roby is capable of doing for England.
When a try-scoring chance was created, in Akuila Uate they have one of the deadliest finishers around.
The flying winger, who has won the NRL Winger of the Year award three times in the last four years, grabbed a hat-trick to ensure that Fiji won comfortably, despite a late Ireland flourish.
For the record, I cannot see Ireland making a sustained impact on the tournament. For me, they were too slow at the play-the-ball and their defence of their own line was very patchy.
I would expect England to put at least 40 points on them in Huddersfield on Saturday, but I’m sure the Wolfhounds will be eager to prove their critics wrong!
As for the rest of the competition, I’ve been surprised by what I have seen from tournament newcomers Italy and the USA.
The Italians shocked England in a warm-up game and followed that up by outclassing Wales in front of a stunned crowd in Cardiff. Winger Josh Mantellato is one to watch after he scored a hat-trick and kicked two goals.
The USA, whose team has been together for only two weeks, rallied to beat the Cook Islands 32-20 last night in their first competitive rugby league match.
Fans of the Wigan Warriors will be interested to know that Eddy Pettybourne, their new signing for 2014, played in the front row for the Tomahawks and put in a solid performance.
France will be expected to perform after reaching fourth in the world rankings, but from what I’ve seen of them I’m not convinced they will have enough to beat the likes of Fiji.
Full-back Morgan Escare has star quality, but as a team I think Fiji will be too strong for them if, as anticipated, they meet in a quarter final in Warrington in two weeks.
With so much of the action happening in the Manchester area (Salford and Wigan are hosting games and the final is at Old Trafford) the time for Manchester, and the rest of the country for that matter, to wake up to rugby league is now.
Image courtesy of Reporters Academy via YouTube, with thanks.
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