Cops tipping likely victors

Police are trying to predict who will win games to work out what countries they are likely to get visitors and VIPs from during the Rugby World Cup.

Details concerning special guests are highly guarded, but the officer in charge of the police operation around the RWC, Superintendent Grant O'Fee, said officers would need to know who would be coming to New Zealand so they could work out the risk posed and the security levels needed for each person.

Knowing what countries guests were coming from also helped police dedicate resources.

Travellers from Britain, for example, were more likely to travel by campervan, which could have implications on the roads.

Police are studying the match line-ups to try to guess winners to figure out what travellers were likely to be in what area at different stages of the nine-week tournament. "It's such a guessing game, it's just one of the things we're looking at. We're not really taking it that seriously, to be perfectly honest ... if we knew the answer we'd make a hell of a lot of money," Mr O'Fee said.

"We're having a bit of an educated guess like everyone, but it's also a question of just simply working with the Visits and Ceremonials office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and they work with people overseas to figure out who's going to come and who's not going to come. But at the moment we just simply don't know."