Carter on World Cup: 'Rarely do the favourites win'

SPOTLIGHT: All Black legend Daniel Carter says the favourites tag means very little when the World Cup starts.

The former flyhalf, who is a two-time World Cup winner with the All Blacks, believes this year’s tournament in France will be one of the toughest to win.

According to the bookmakers, France will start the tournament as favourites, followed by New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa.

However, Carter believes history has shown that the bookies’ frontrunners have often stumbled in the tournament.

“This is one of the most closely contested World Cups of all time,” Carter told Newshub.

“There are probably half a dozen teams that could go on to win this World Cup and there are probably 12 teams that could all beat those top half dozen teams as well.

“Obviously, the All Blacks won’t go in as favourites, but I don’t think that really matters.

“Very rarely do the favourites win the World Cup anyway.”

Dan’s message to the All Blacks

On the All Blacks, Carter is hoping his former team hits the ground running in a condensed Rugby Championship so that momentum can be built ahead of the World Cup.

After the Rugby Championship, the All Blacks will only have another two matches to prepare for the event in France. That is a Bledisloe Cup match against Australia in Dunedin and a warm-up match against the Springboks at Twickenham in London.

“They [All Blacks] want to be growing going into the World Cup, but they need to start and make a real statement right from day one – right from the very first test match,” Carter explained.

“They don’t have a long prep going into the Cup, so they need to be firing on all cylinders on day one.

“That shortened prep means there will be a lot of hard work, preparation and time within the culture to make sure they can hit the ground running and just continue to grow from there.”