Justin Marshall: The battle to the death in pool A

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 29: Israel Folau of Australia hands off George Ford of England during the QBE international match between England and Australia at Twickenham Stadium on November 29, 2014 i

When you sit down and analyse the various permutations for the knockout rounds of the World Cup, you kept getting drawn back to the bunfight that is going to be Pool A.

Most, if not all, the pre-tournament speculation has focused on this pool, which contains hosts England, two-time world champions Australia, a Wales team that has won three Grand Slams in the past 10 years and a Fiji side that looks as strong as the team who made it to the quarter-finals in France eight years ago. You have to pity the poor Uruguayans, who will be Pool A whipping boys.

How did we end up with such an apparently lop-sided draw? Australia and Wales were beaten semifinalists in 2011, so logic would suggest they would be separated but, when the draw was made in December 2012, Wales had plummeted to nine in the world rankings. Fiji had fallen so far they had to qualify out of the Oceania region.

Whatever machinations got us to this point, I have to say I think it's brilliant. The early rounds usually lack suspense because there is not yet the depth in world rugby as there is in football. Not this time.

So much of what will happen later will depend on the results of Pool A, so it gives the tournament great momentum from the opening kickoff - England meet Fiji at Twickenham.

Those Pool A teams might be cursing the draw, but they can comfort themselves in the fact the team who finishes top of the group have a relatively soft run into the final - a potential quarter-final with Scotland or Samoa and a semi, most likely, with Ireland or France.

I believe Australia are in pole position to win the pool. They showed by winning the Rugby Championship that they have improved key areas of their game.

England have not been impressive at all but the Twickenham factor might be enough to take second.

They have rotated too much, there has not been anywhere near enough consistency in their backline selection and that has prevented them getting any sort of pattern or rhythm outside halfback. The amount of outside backs they have used is just ridiculous.

That leaves Wales as my unlucky team, but it is so close. They showed real grit in beating Ireland in Dublin 16-10 recently, but I'd still back England to beat them at Twickenham... just.

Pool B looks like a soft set of matches for South Africa, although they might have looked at Scotland's recent thrashing of Italy with some interest. Still, you'd pick them to finish top with Scotland and a struggling Samoa battling for second. Japan and the US are the minnows.

The All Blacks will win Pool C convincingly and the only thing of real interest for fans here is how the selectors balance finding rhythm and getting key people enough game time.

New Zealand's toughest games - against Argentina and Tonga - are first and last respectively, so the games against Namibia and Georgia will be the last chance for experimentation and to get some game time into legs that might not be seen again barring injury.

You look at key positions like No 7, and key players like Aaron Smith and Ma'a Nonu and figure the back-ups there need game time.

Pool D hinges completely on the final game of the group phases between Ireland and France. Ireland are favoured and that throws up the scary scenario of the All Blacks returning to Cardiff to face France in a quarter-final. That didn't go so well last time.

In truth, however, this is not a great France team. They're a million miles away from the teams we used to love for their Gallic flair. I'd go as far to say they're one of the more boring, tight-five oriented teams going around.

About the only area they're not predictable is at the selection table, having invested a lot of time and energy into Francois Trinh-Duck, only to replace him on World Cup eve with veteran Freddie Michalak.