The Rugby League World Cup starts on October 25 in Townsville with the match between England and Papua New Guinea, followed by Australia and New Zealand the next day in Sydney. The final will be played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on November 22.

However, it will be of interest to see if the gap has closed in regards to second-tier nations such as the Pacific Island teams and France. The 13th RL World Cup, which debuted in 1954, has not featured since 2000 – which speaks volumes of the lack of international depth in the code.  There are 10 teams featuring in this year’s tournament, none of them debutants. It was only from the 1990s that more than five teams were featured in the League World Cup.

Again indicative of the lack of true global competition, the championship is split into three pools. It is headed by Pool A, which features the top three ranked nations, defending and nine-time champions Australia, England and New Zealand – as well as Papua New Guinea. The top three teams of this pool will automatically qualify for the semi-finals, irrespective of other pool results.

Pools B and C feature Fiji, France and Scotland – and Ireland, Samoa and Tonga respectively. The second and third best teams of these pools will clash in a seventh place and ninth place playoff, while the winners of these groups will play off in a qualifying final to decide the last semi-final position. The reward will be a match against the top qualifier of the Pool A giants.

The somewhat confusing schedule and the expected dominance of the Australian Kangaroos has led to numerous attacks on the viability and credibility of the tournament – most recently from league legend Wally Lewis, who claimed that Australia should be represented by Queensland and NSW Origin teams.

Likewise, the championship has been tainted by eligibility and allegiance issues, case in point outstanding Roosters (soon to be Sharks) forward Anthony Tupou who was selected to be in the Tonga team but was then brought into the Kangaroos side when Michael Crocker was ruled out through injury. With the immense depth that Australia already wields, firmer rules should be in place to allow players to turn out with priority for their country of birth.

Barring huge upsets, it will be two from Australia, New Zealand and England who will contest the Grand Final in Brisbane – so let’s look at the squads...

AUSTRALIA: Nine-time champions, two-time runners-up, captain Darren Lockyer, coach Ricky Stuart - If Australia do have a weakness, it may be that it will be difficult for Stuart to decide on his starting 13. But with NRL Grand Finalists Manly and Melbourne providing almost half of the 24-man squad, it is a selection of men that look pretty much unstoppable. They are overflowing with world-class talent - any team that can omit the likes of Premiership-winning captain and Dally M player of the year Matt Orford is in good touch.

Australia’s dominance internationally usually stems from their playmakers, and they will be led by Darren Lockyer, Cameron Smith, Scott Prince and Jonathan Thurston. With Justin Hodges and now Matt Cooper unavailable in the centres, compounded with the absence of Mark Gasnier, they may have question marks in their midfield, but have Brent Tate and Israel Folau as cover. They will not play any warm-up games leading into the tournament. PREDICTION: Champions.

ENGLAND: Two-time runners-up, captain Jamie Peacock, coach Tony Smith - Officially the Great Britain side no longer exists, meaning that teams from the Isles now are represented by their individual countries. Great Britain as an entity won the World Cup three times and were runners-up four times.

England arrives in Australia represented in bulk by eight of the Super League championship side Leeds Rhinos and a further seven players from cup champions St Helens. It's an uncompromising squad littered with hard men and veterans, with Jamie Peacock, Adrian Morley and Keith Senior all over 30 and the average age of the squad coming in at 27 years. When you add the power of Jamie Langley, Ben Westwood and Gareth Ellis, Smith has a verifiable battalion of brutal forwards for their tilt at the championship.

Some question marks exist over the class of their backline, but many believe that England’s best chance will not come from finesse but the ability to physically intimidate the opposition. Rob Burrow will call the play from the base but, like Australia, England may have some problems when it comes to depth at centre. Senior and Martin Gleeson are likely to be their starters. PREDICTION: Semi-finals.

NEW ZEALAND: Two-time runners-up, captain Nathan Cayless, coach Stephen Kearney - Even with named captain Roy Asotasi out injured and Sonny Bill Williams's publicised departure, this is still a formidable-looking Kiwi team. They are well represented with five players from the NRL Grand Final and a further six from the NZ Warriors, who exceeded all expectation with the end to their season. Their forwards will be at least the equal of Australia and England but doubts, as always, will be based on the pack’s ability to last the full 80 minutes, especially defensively.

The backs will be controlled by livewire Benji Marshall who will have ample playmaking support from Issac Luke, Thomas Leuluai and Nathan Fien. Try-scoring power is ample, spearheaded by Premiership-winning centre Steve Matai and the formidable Manu Vatuvei. They must improve on recent results against Australia after being beaten 28-12 earlier this year. PREDICTION: Beaten finalists.

It's between Samoa and Tonga for the fourth semi-final berth but, overall, Australia should have too much class at home to be denied their seventh consecutive World Cup title.