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Spiro Zavos looks ahead to the serious business of the Tri-Nations, which he believes is harder to win than the World Cup, in The Sydney Morning Herald.
"The famed Australian writer Tom Keneally once described the intense build-up to a big sporting occasion as the foreplay before the climatic event itself is played out. The June Tests in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, in this context, can be seen as the foreplay for the real rugby thing of the Tri Nations series.
"I've sometimes suggested that the Tri Nations is harder to win than the World Cup. There is an element of exaggeration in this in that by definition only three nations can win the Tri Nations. And, in theory, the 20 nations competing in a World Cup tournament can win it. In fact, only one nation outside of the Tri Nations powers has won a World Cup. That was England in 2003. And in that year, England did not have to defeat the All Blacks. South Africa won the 2007 RWC tournament without defeating either the Wallabies or the All Blacks. But to win the Tri Nations one of the teams has to defeat the other two national sides, the strongest sides in world rugby."
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