SO it’s finally upon us.

Not many players are lucky enough to have a World Cup take place in their home country during their careers, so I hope England’s players embrace this opportunity.

Things are building up nicely ahead of tonight’s first game of the tournament and, of course, everybody expects England to beat Fiji to get things under way.

The fact remains that Stuart Lancaster’s side are in probably the toughest World Cup pool ever, alongside both Wales and Australia.

But when you step back and look at it, there is a real incentive for the host nation there.

Basically, they have to look upon it that if they win their pool games, they get to stay at home - ie Twickenham - for the rest of the tournament and the way the draw has gone favours England.

You could conceivably be looking at a scenario where they, Wales and Australia each get one win from the three games involving them and then it will come down to how you fare against the rest.

In that instance, to play Fiji first and then face the minnows of Uruguay, probably knowing what they will have to do to qualify for the quarter finals, is a big advantage.

England had a similar fate in this year’s Six Nations when they just came up short on the final day.

For Wales, if they lost their first big game against England, the pressure would really be on ahead of another big match against the Wallabies.

In terms of the tournament as a whole, I keep changing my mind about who is likely to win it.

Dark horse-wise, I’ve been saying to people when have they seen France have a bad World Cup?

To win the tournament, most people are going with New Zealand but I’m not sure I see it that way.

I’d like to see England win it of course, but I go back to what I said a few months back - that I fancy an Ireland-South Africa final, with Ireland to edge it.

However, should England reach the final it would be a whole different ball game.