After four years of waiting, it had seemed of late as if one of the biggest sporting events on the globe was the world's best-kept secret. But here it is at last, 600 of the world's best rugby players from 20 different nations about to embark upon 41 games at 18 different venues in five countries to decide who is the finest rugby team on the planet. Worth the wait.

Quantity doesn't always equal quality of course, but this time it just might. The numerically biggest World Cup also looks set to be the most competitive.

New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England head the betting, and all of them have the credentials to win it. There are another foursome of the old Five Nations order for whom their wildest dreams might also include conquering the world. And there are 16 nations or so who are entitled to entertain notions of reaching the semi-finals at least.

This is good, and reflects the expansion of rugby as a world sport. Sixty-nine Nations started out on the qualifying route, and the William Webb Ellis Trophy might still end up where it rested after the inaugural 1987 tournament - , yet compared to the innaugural 1987 event, but this time the All Blacks will have to dig a good deal deeper.

Where then the All Blacks were one of the few professional squads, now even the likes of Ireland have the will and the resources to prepare and plan along similar lines. The gap is narrowing. Now what sets the All Blacks (and perhaps the Springboks) apart is heritage and tradition.

Imagine if Irish rugby incorporated Gaelic football and hurling, was the talk of the towns, enjoyed a celebrated pre-match tribal war song and it's elite All-Green 15 were the equivalent of royalty - then we might have a sense of this background. Hence the All Blacks remain the standard bearers. To beat the world, the winners will most probably have to overcome the All Blacks.

That's what Australia did in '91, and that's what South Africa did in '95. Fours ago the All Blacks played the best rugby of the finals, yet there were ulterior forces at work back then, such as Nelson Mandela, destiny and maybe even a dodgy South African chef. Because of all that, the All Blacks have a whiff of cordite in their nostrils.

The All Blacks may not even be as breathtaking as the team of four years ago, yet they might still be good enough to win. They don't have a domineering tight five (does anybody?), yet even last season's Tri-Nations whitewash and the recent defeat to Australia seem, in their separate ways, like perfectly-timed wake-up calls.

You also sense we ain't seen nothing yet: that the All Blacks and their inventive coach John Hart have a host of back-row moves, line-out variations and back-line moves up their sleeve. Also, there'd somehow be something wrong with the way of things if the world's most penetrative gathering of strike runners, Christian Cullen (who may play at outside centre), Jeff Wilson and Jonah Lomu didn't have a World Cup in them.

The only country to rival this cutting edge, in the form of Joe Roff, Matt Burke, Ben Tune and co, not to mention probably the best scrum-half in the world (George Gregan), are the Australians. And they also have a comparable bedrock defence and a capacity to attack in waves and at pace.

Unlike New Zealand, South Africa peaked about a year ago. They have regrouped, and Joost van der Westhuizen's return as captain along with the recovery from injury of Henry Honiball is timely, but perhaps not in time to win the tournament. They seem limited in playing scope, and divided, without the settling and unifying influence of Gary Teischmann, although van der Westhuizen has a religious zeal to his captaincy. On the risky presumption that the Springboks will eclipse the dastardly Scots (the European champions deluding us all again with their low-key warm-up) South Africa's World Cup hinges largely around their quarter-final against the runners-up from the New Zealand-England pool. Victory in Paris in this game and suddenly the Boks will be stubborn in their defence of their crown.

The Northern Hemisphere will be more competitive against the three Southern Hemisphere giants - and three previous World Cup winners - than ever before. Not only are they now truly professional, but they are at home. England are the best equipped of the Europeans. Somehow, out of the wreckage of England's post-professional, club-v-country civil war, they are probably the best-prepared English team of any sport at any time.

They also have a juggernaut of a pack, the best attacking back row in the world game (including a man on a mission without the burden of captaincy in Lawrence Dallaglio), a potential World Cup sensation in Jonny Wilkinson, and a dymamic midfield. Their outside three are, however, potentially vulnerable. Their Pool B clash with New Zealand should be the most seismic of the 30 first-phase games. The winners will most probably not have to face another Southern Hemisphere team until the final. The losers will probably have to beat South Africa and Australia just to get there. You sense England need that pool win more.

Wales, with the Redeemer (Graham Henry), a rejuvenated pack, the world game's supreme points' gatherer in Neil Jenkins, their winning run and the momentum gained from the opening of the Millennium Stadium, could be anything. They could blow up spectacularly, but they could have their first ever genuine shot at it. France are in disarray and dangerous while more than ever before, it is the supposed lesser nations who will add lustre to the tournament. And what of Ireland?

This team's best might still be in the future. Built on solid foundations, their build-up to the tournament under Warren Gatland in the last 21 months has been hard-working, gradual and generally encouraging. They're well prepared, they've rarely had so many world-class forwards and now have a couple of creative backs to broaden the scope of their game.

What Ireland don't have is serious strength in depth. All the key men (Wood, Clohessy, O'Kelly, O'Cuinneagain, Tierney, Humphreys, O'Driscoll and O'Shea) must healthy and in form. It's a big task, but history and a first-ever semi-final beckons.

So, the risky forecast is that Ireland, New Zealand, England and Australia make up the last four, with the All Blacks taken to win it.

The referees have conceivably the biggest chance of promoting the game. With all the match officials linked up, the increasingly rampant obstruction off the ball might be eradicated.

As much as the great teams, it is the special individuals who will set this tournament apart. Whether it be Jonah Lomu again, or Cullen, Dallaglio, Wood, Thomas Castaignede or someone new.

"Judge me on the World Cup," coaches and players have said. And we will. The next month is going to make or break reputations. There'll be slaughters as well as epics. New names will come to the fore, old ones will confirm their reputations, others will bid farewell. The World Cup is going to provoke debate, controversy and greatness.

It's going to be great.