As the World Cup moves towards its biggest collisions, the team that travelled furthest to be here stands alone in trying to prevent a separation of the Hemispheres.

If local commentators are to be believed, we are poised for a straight split in the draw: the four countries that will contest the Southern Hemisphere’s new elite international competition next year will have a practice run at it in one half, while the four countries that have won grand slams in Europe over the past eight years, contest the other.

On form there is justification for taking that view. Certainly, Ireland and Wales are on course to meet in one quarter-final with the winners to meet the winners of what is expected to be an England v France clash, while South Africa and Australia will meet to decide who faces the All Blacks, who would surely overcome Argentina’s Pumas in their quarter-final.

Unrated Scotland could, though, change all of that with two matches inside a week that will decide first who goes through in Pool B, then who wins it.

A combination of Argentina’s performances at the last World Cup and relative performance here in New Zealand have resulted in most of those not in and around the Scotland camp having decided to overlook the current world rankings and make the Pumas favourites for Sunday’s match, while it is all but assumed that England will win the pool.

Admittedly, Scotland have slipped down those rankings in the course of this tournament, but that is not a result of their failure; it is simply a result of that astonishing Irish performance in beating the Tri-Nations champions Australia which made up for all the harm they did themselves with their abysmal run of results in World Cup warm-up matches.

The rankings have their critics and an imbalance in the number of playing opportunities, even among some of the top countries, leads to anomalies in the years in between, but World Cups, with the extra weighting matches receive, tend to sort things out.

Right now, few would argue that the Springboks, having looked hugely impressive in their demolition of Fiji last weekend, prior to that surprise defeat for the Wallabies, are entitled to return to second place in the rankings behind the All Blacks.

None of the European nations have been consistently impressive, but again the listing of Six Nations champions England as the best of them in fourth place, with France next and now Ireland, then Wales, would also be accepted by most as correctly reflecting current status.

Yet the general consensus seems to be that the rankings are wrong in having Scotland still in the top eight and Argentina, third at the end of the last World Cup, one place behind them.

We shall see on Sunday, but Andy Robinson’s understanding of tournament play has to be a factor and, while there has been nothing stylish about it, Scotland’s performances seem to have been building steadily towards this match. If they win it, then a European team is certain to be heading into the “Southern Hemisphere” half of the draw. In that case, every New Zealander would be on tenterhooks as much as the Scots and English ahead of the Pool B decider.

The reality is that the Kiwis would dread facing England in the quarter-finals, and would see Scotland as the easiest possible route through, a constant refrain in these parts having been that Scotland have never beaten New Zealand and no-one here thinks they ever will.

That is as maybe, but it is moot whether the hosts’ route to glory has already been made easier or has been toughened by what happened when Ireland beat the Wallabies last week.

There is no question that the Australians remain the opponents they fear most and there was initially some surprise at the idea of having to take them on ahead of the final.

Realisation quickly dawned, though, that this means the two countries they see as their biggest rivals -- such is the Southern Hemisphere view of the rugby world -- will knock lumps out of one another immediately ahead of a probable meeting with the All Blacks in the semi-final.

If all goes according to plan, the All Blacks will have what they expect to be a relatively straightforward task of cruising through against one of two sides that have never beaten them, Argentina or Scotland.

There is genuine belief in the Scottish camp that not only will they qualify but that they can still finish top of the pool and face a probable quarter-final with France which, on neutral territory, they would also believe they could win.

That is not what New Zealanders want to see but, on the other hand, records such as those of the Scots and the Pumas against the All Blacks have to be broken some time.

Perhaps these Kiwis should be just a little bit careful about what they wish for.