KEY POINTS:
The side that limits their injuries and makes the least mistakes will win the World Cup but being a South African, James Dalton is picking the Springboks to come home with the cup.
The former Springbok hooker James Dalton said the Boks have the edge when it comes to line-out time.
"Victor Matfield's performance speaks for itself. You have a look at Ibanez', his line out work is poor at the best of times. You have a look at Anton Oliver who - God bless his soul - still remains a problematic line-out thrower.
"England are also very, very thin on hookers but line outs are important. Any platform in the modern game when you don't have ball, you don't see it for at least five minutes at a time," Dalton said.
He said there is a psychological advantage with winning lineouts because hookers and locks tend to judge how their game is going by how well the lineout is running.
He said scrums can also provide a psychological advantage.
"Nowadays, with them cleaning the game up so heavily, you can't even swipe or stamp on anybody so scrums are the only place where you can exercise your dominance over your opponents," Dalton said
He said the depth of teams will be important and the All Blacks have the edge.
"England are stretched to their limit and Australia seem not to be having any real players coming through up front but the biggest danger for Graham Henry is, is he going to be able to get his selections right at the right time?"
He said the Boks have a great draw and, despite having defending champions England in their pool, getting to the semi-finals shouldn't be a problem.
"And in the final, you look, we haven't beaten New Zealand this whole year. Normally we beat them at least once in the year so maybe if we face them in the final, it will be that one game we are looking for," Dalton said.
But he said rugby in South Africa has been "tarnished by a political cloud" and the best players should be on the field.
"You have a look at the negativity that surrounds rugby in South Africa, the overseas teams are tired of our self-pity and only want to be playing the best 15," Dalton said.
When asked if politics can be separated from sport, Dalton said when Greek politicians interfered with the country's football federation, they were suspended by FIFA and the same should apply to rugby in South Africa.
FIFA suspended Greece from world soccer after the Greek government raised concerns that the soccer federation did not have democratic voting systems and was not transparent.
But Dalton said he was confident with the team's selection and it included all the ethnicities in South Africa.
"It's time South Africa put up a good showing again and do well like people know we can. At the end of the day the Springbok comes with a hell of a tradition and it's time it did itself some justice," Dalton said.
He said the All Blacks are also due for a big win and have been the most consistent of the Tri-nations sides.
The Bullet dismissed claims made by former-Australian coaches and players that the All Blacks are chokers.
"Being a New Zealander playing in a game, you're not going to think: Oh, I'm in a final, I'm going to lose," Dalton said.
He said once he ran on to the field he only focused on the game.
"The posts looked the same, the grass was the same and I played between the four lines on either side of me and behind me," Dalton said.
Final prediction
New Zealand versus South Africa
South Africa to win 24 - 15.
James Dalton's Springbok career
Name: James Dalton
Born: August 16, 1972
Debut: 1994
Position: Hooker
Caps: 43
Points: 25, 5 tries
YOUR PREDICTIONS
It's only weeks away from the Rugby World Cup and we want to hear your predictions of who will win. Who do you think will be in the final and what do you think the score will be?
We'll run your predictions online and you could be the winner by picking the right score.
The winner gets to the right to call themselves the Rugby Brain of New Zealand... and our sports team at nzherald.co.nz will also rustle up a prize for the most accurate prediction.
