Coach Steve Hansen is imploring Kiwis not to panic about the All Blacks' chances at the World Cup but it's doing little to convince punters, with only 23 per cent of all bets this week on the tournament winner going on New Zealand.
The TAB have been charting who punters think will win the World Cup based on the number of bets for the overall winner.
Confidence in the All Blacks has been falling, with 37 per cent of all bets on Hansen's side. This has dropped from the peak of 56 per cent soon after the World Cup markets opened in July, 2014, and even the 43 per cent on the eve of the tournament.
In contrast, support for Australia has firmed and 34 per cent of all bets this week on the tournament winner were on the Wallabies. That has seen Australia climb to outright second favourites, with 17 per cent of the overall number of bets (up from 13 per cent last week).
England are the first team to drop off the TAB's graph, given they are out of contention to make the quarter-finals. They still attracted three per cent of the week's bets from optimistic punters before Sunday morning's 33-13 defeat to Australia.
