KEY POINTS:
Whoever shuffles the World Cup playing cards is doing a rough job.
There is an over-familiarity to the draw, and one of those deja vu moments is in pool D when Argentina play Ireland in Paris.
This should decide the second team from the group to join hosts
France in the quarter-finals.
Argentina versus Ireland is a repeat of a 2003 pool showdown, when the try-less Pumas were pipped by a point in Adelaide.
Argentina are heading to this tournament as the fifth-ranked side according to the IRB ratings, but they might as well be the 55th-ranked side because absolutely no one is picking them as title prospects.
It says much for the state of world rugby, or maybe the state of the ranking system, that the fifth-best team are at odds of about 80-1 to claim the Webb Ellis Cup.
Argentina are rugby's carthorses. They faithfully turn up and generally acquit themselves quite well, but top speed is generally a canter.
Bulky forwards and scrum expertise ensure they tread all over stragglers, but their cumbersome ways also invite failure against the strongest nations.
The ways of Argentinian rugby were amply summed up in their warm-up match against the shaky Welsh in Cardiff, when they repeatedly trampled towards the tryline in search of a draw only to spill the ball in what should have been the final glorious act.
Argentina's greatest contribution to World Cup history came as losers against the 1991 and 1995 World Cup darlings Samoa.
The Alex Wyllie-coached Pumas were able to exact revenge on the Samoans in 1999, the only time they have made it past the group stage.
Argentina's forwards should be able to lay a platform. But while their backs look as if they might be off the catwalk, they turn out to be a cakewalk for the best opponents.
Hugo Porta aside, and he was something special, name a top-class Puma back. Agustin Pichot, of course. The classy little halfback returns for his fourth World Cup. In one of his greatest games, Pichot drove the Pumas to a quarter-final playoff win over Ireland in 1999. The fate of Argentina's attacking hopes still lie in the captain's hands - which says it all.
Strangely, though, you might fancy Argentina this time by employing what could turn out to be horrendously faulty logic.
First, they have a record of recent success against France, whom they meet in the opening match in Paris.
This is not to say that Argentina will win - predictions like that aren't worth making unless you have a masochistic streak - yet who knows how France will react to the hometown pressure?
And the Irish, the best of the Home Country prospects, won't necessarily thrive on high expectations and are showing signs of pre-tournament wear and tear.
If history repeats itself, though, these encouraging portents willcount for naught. Argentina arelike the main pack in a cycle race, heroically indispensable yetforever undistinguished.
Dropping off the back of the World Cup pack will be near neighbours Canada and the United States.
The Rugby World Cup is one of those rare events where America gets to find out what it's like to be a nobody, not that most of America would care.
Coached by New Zealander Peter Thorburn, the Eagles are mainly amateur college types with a couple of professionals thrown in. The Americans have had just two wins from four previous World Cup appearances. They did beat Japanand ran Fiji very close in Australia four years ago, however.
This time, they will have their spirit shaken by massive defeats against England and South Africa, while their bones will get a good rattling from Tonga and Samoa.
Canada's greatest claim to fame is that they are a little bit better than the United States. They also made the 1991 quarter-finals, where they performed very creditably against what became an infamous New Zealand side.
Remember, too, that Canada dealt to Tonga at the last World Cup. They will fall to Australia but Japan, Fiji and Wales don't make up the most daunting of groups.
