KEY POINTS:
Mud certainly sticks when it comes to Welsh rugby. Their greatest World Cup moment came 20 years ago in a match at Rotorua, and they have stunk ever since.
Yes, Wales finished third in the inaugural tournament thanks to a wide-angled Paul Thorburn injury-time conversion against the Wallabies. Australia, moderate 1987 tournament favourites, have been making up for the embarrassment ever since. Wales have been an embarrassment ever since.
Their greatest contribution to the world tournament was losing to Western Samoa in 1991, a moment which rugby apologists drag out to claim - most inconclusively - that the World Cup is more than a closed shop for a group of five.
Fast forward to 1999, which is when Wales next scraped into the quarter-finals - although they did succumb to Samoa again along the way - this time at their hallowed national stadium in Cardiff.
The Welsh squad for this glorious 1999 home tilt at respectability were not only coached by New Zealander Graham Henry, but included two Kiwis - Shane Howarth and Brett Sinkinson - who were not even entitled to play for Wales at the time.
There have been a lot more players than the two Kiwi boyos who should not have played for Wales but did, simply because there was no one better. A lot of them were in the 2003 squad which only qualified for the quarter-finals because they weren't quite as bad as their fellow pool members Italy, Canada and Tonga.
To be fair to Wales, they did push New Zealand hard in their pool clash and celebrated even harder because they lost by only 16. England stomped over them in the quarter-finals.
In recent years, Wales have looked like a team that has watched some flowing Southern Hemisphere rugby on television, had a spot of lunch, zipped down to the local park in a mini van, had a crack at recreating what they had just seen, before packing up for a pub dinner.
Now all they have to do is point their players towards the tryline instead of the sideline.
Whereas England only pretend to embrace an expanded game, Wales actually believe they are doing it. They'll certainly run into trouble at this World Cup, and not only because their regional clubs are disrupting their build-up claiming compensation for the loss of "leading players".
Wales have been given another free pass, this time in a groupthat Australia will win but whichincludes Fiji, Canada and Japan.
The basic Welsh plan will involve hoping that the fabled wizard Shane Williams can conjure up magic before he gets zapped by blokes twice his size, which is just about everyone else in international rugby. The trouble for Williams is that an entire, desperate nation wants to pass him the ball, which means entire nations are waiting for him when he gets it. Thankfully for his health, the Welsh lineout should ensure he doesn't get too much ball and clobbered too much.
If Wales betray their rugby legacy, Scotland haven't got one to wreck. Their reputation has often been boosted simply through association with the other Home Country teams.
One of the enduring memories of the 2003 World Cup was the sight of their first five-eighths Gregor Townsend standing so far back from his pack that he was in danger of being asked to produce a match ticket.
Scotland almost had their World Cup quarter-final hopes dashed by the mercurial Fijian wing Rupeni Caucaunibuca before he ran out of puff.
So Scotland staggered into the playoffs, managed to score a try right on fulltime against Australia, then tramped off home. Scotland will have to be wary of Italy in their 2007 group, which will be won with ridiculous ease by the All Blacks. But even Scotland should have trouble losing to Romania or Portugal. Then again, Romania on a good day ...
Scottish coach Frank Hadden has picked a squad with 17 forwards, presumably because he could find only 13 backs. As for tactics, this is only a guess but Scotland won't fling the ball about - well not in the backs.
Let's finish with a few positives.
They do have a wonderful goalkicker in Chris Paterson, so it's not all bad. And wait, there's more.
After being belted by South Africa in a warm-up game, coach Hadden bellowed: "We are not unhappy about where we are."
Which is on another road to nowhere.
