KEY POINTS:
Stan To'omalatai, twice Rugby World Cup hooker for Manu Samoa, has predicted the All Blacks will win this year's Rugby World Cup crown.
"If New Zealand is not cocky they can win the Rugby World Cup," To'omalatai said.
According to the 1991 and 1995 Samoan World Cup representative
the All Blacks need to be consistent in strength in order to win the World Cup overall.
"Usually from what I see, once the All Blacks make it to the final games, they tend to be over confident and end up losing," To'omalatai said.
But To'omalatai believes the All Blacks have the advantage of learning from mistakes they have made in the past.
"They have all the facts, stats and figures at their disposal, they can dominate the pitch play from those," he said.
Asked about his second prediction he voted for England or South Africa.
"It can go any way," To'omalatai said.
Asked about possible upsets in the lineup he said: "I am betting France or even the USA will surprise us in this World Cup."
To'omalatai, who is coaching Savaii Samoa, has identified Tonga and Samoa as the "underdogs" yet again.
"I'm convinced that Samoa has not shown all its cards yet, hopefully the cards will come out at the right time," To'omalatai said with a chuckle.
This years World Cup teams have it easy, he added.
"This is the advanced day and age of rugby, with the latest in technology acting in the teams favour," he said.
Quick game analysis, video playback and virtual game plans are some of the advantages this years players have over players from To'omalatai's time.
He said: "Now the teams can analyze their oppositions moves right after the game, unlike our time we had to wait until a week later, this should make it easier for them to predict and beat their opponent."
To'omalatai however maintains that despite the advantage of advanced technology for the richer and more developed teams the cup can go any way.
"Any team can beat any team in the World Cup, you never know."
YOUR PREDICTIONS
It's only weeks away from the Rugby World Cup and we want to hear your predictions of who will win. Who do you think will be in the final and what do you think the score will be?
We'll run your predictions online and you could be the winner by picking the right score.
The winner gets to the right to call themselves the Rugby Brain of New Zealand... and our sports team at nzherald.co.nz will also rustle up a prize for the most accurate prediction.
